By Professor Doom
I’ve mentioned
before that political leanings are now part of the hiring process on some of
our campuses: if you don’t follow the Social Justice ideology and all,
everything, it entails, you can’t be hired. Yes, even
in mathematics, you must be a social justice warrior to teach math, on some
campuses.
Now, not…everything…is wrong about SJW beliefs,
but one part of it is very annoying. The SJW must insert politics into
everything. This is why the Star Wars movies are now more about ideology than
light sabers, why football is obsessed with the “kneeling” issue, why our
homosexuality/transgenderism seems to be discussed everywhere even if, in reality,
neither are factors for 95% of human sexual activity (and 99.999999% of human
activity in general), among many other examples.
So what happens
when the social justice warrior tries to teach math? There are no politics in
mathematics, so obviously the course must be discarded:
Um…what? The
gentle reader should understand why our college courses are so off the rails now,
to the point that a math class addresses imperialism,
of all things. Accreditation, which supposedly legitimizes the education at
schools, does no such thing. The schools actually legitimize themselves, while
paying fees to the accreditor—the latter never sets foot inside the classes to
see with their own eyes what’s going on. So what, exactly, kind of math is
this, anyway?
The course, “Finite Mathematics,” is designed
for non-science majors and fulfills a general education requirement.
“Finite Math” is
one of many fake courses on our campuses. It’s basically “math for people who
can’t pass math.” I’ve taught it a few times. Generally the course is “chapter
1” from four different courses—lightly covering a wide range of topics so if a
student takes a month off during the semester or can’t remember anything he
ever learns, it’s no big deal. Since it’s all very introductory material,
there’s nothing here that can’t be picked up in a few weeks, and students don’t
have to learn much at all.
Even with such
minimal requirements, much of it must be tossed to make way for ideology:
The professor begins with a positive review
of Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in section two of the
midterm, entitled “Red Party Politics Shifts and Cracks,” before asking
students to analyze voting statistics between male and female voters during the
2008 presidential election.
“The emergence of the Tea Party played a
central role in the 2008 U.S. presidential election,” the document reads. “The
victor was Barack Obama who, like Bill Clinton, served as U.S. president for 8
years - the two men guided always by the strength of character and force of
intellect of First Lady Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton.”
It’s really weird how the people
heaping endless praise on Hillary also pour infinite odium on Trump. If Trump
was so bad, what does that make Hillary, who objectively lost despite having a
vastly more powerful political machine? I digress.
Now, students
complain about having ideology poured down their throats even in math class,
and have plenty of documentation that something is awry. How does admin
respond?
…the university seeks to “encourage any
student who believes that an instructor has acted beyond the limits of academic
freedom to consult the policies and procedures in place for seeking a faculty
conference and mediation.”
I must point out: the university
hired this professor, and doubtless his SJW beliefs were key to that hiring
decision. I doubt they’ll do anything, citing “academic freedom.” Much as
there’s much hypocrisy regarding enforcement of these types of rules in social
media, we see it here. After all, if you dare to even question
about the 23 genders, or claim
heterosexual marriage isn’t so bad, you’ll be punished with
suspension or being hauled into the Diversity palace for re-education…both
these things happen quickly.
But turn a math
course into an ideology course and…well, the university will look into it.
Sometime. Perhaps. The
professor has been doing this a while, you see:
A
RateMyProfessor review of Professor Fabbri seems to suggest that he has a
history of getting off topic in his math courses. “Hated his class,” one former
student wrote. “He
mumbled and went off on tangents to talk about things that were completely
irrelevant.”
I’ve tried so hard
to explain what’s going on in higher education, but it’s clear I have much work
to do as yet, as one unanswered comment illustrates:
Academic freedom does
not mean that professors can do anything they want in the classroom.
Universities generally insist that professors keep to the subject matter, and
not deviate excessively into irrelevant areas.
No.
I’ve taught in
higher ed nearly 30 years, and I’ve never had the university “insist” anything
beyond mandating a certain pass rate. Direction for classroom material comes
from the department, at least in legitimate schools.
In such cases,
I’ve had people tell me exactly what I need to cover in class, and I do.
Legitimate schools are run by scholars, you see, and I generally agree with
their recommendations. These scholars are hired based on their academic
abilities, instead of ideology, and so the coursework actually qualifies as
education.
The university
presenting this course, protecting a SJW as he warps the course into ideology
instead of mathematics, is Penn State. Yes, they have a bit of an evil
reputation regarding pedophilia in their athletics department, but I can see
how someone might overlook this if they’re not involved with the athletics.
But now that
they’re on the record that even their math classes are more about ideological
indoctrination than education, Penn State becomes one more school students
should avoid if they’re seeking an education.
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