Tenure Ending Blog Post

[Kyriakos]

I'm not sure I agree with the trail of links conclusions.
Reading the entire blog post word for word makes some good points.

Isn't constantly expanding the list of things that can't be debated poisonous for Philosophy as a subject?
It would hardly call the blog post an "attack".
I'd call it criticism.

It's not Professor McAdams fault about the death threats. He didn't make them.
When Liberal Professors speak out against Ann Coulter's views, and she has to withdraw from a college speaking event due to death threats, do they get terminated?

The Professor didn't include the name of a student in his blog post.
He included the name of a person teaching Philosophy at his college. (Whom also happened to be a student at the college)
If the Professor took a course for fun at his college, could he stop all criticism against himself by claiming that he was also a student?

She is/was a 20something -year old MA student. Do you honestly think it is logical to attack her for dealing wrongly with teaching in her first year of preparation for teaching? (it would officially begin after she had the MA, at best).
She is by all means a student.

I mean what sort of undergrad would be as inane or insane so as to try to report an MA student for such an issue? It sounds very fishy.

 

[Flying Pig]

I might suggest that the sort of student who will speak against gay people being allowed to adopt might be the sort of student who will try to get rid of a young woman in a position of authority.

 

[Kaitzilla]

She is/was a 20something -year old MA student. Do you honestly think it is logical to attack her for dealing wrongly with teaching in her first year of preparation for teaching? (it would officially begin after she had the MA, at best).
She is by all means a student.

I mean what sort of undergrad would be as inane or insane so as to try to report an MA student for such an issue? It sounds very fishy.

When did criticizing someone for teaching wrongly become a bad thing?
He only included her as an addition to his long list of incidents of his college shutting down unpopular speech.

Does standing up for students that have no power against grade students that have some power being a bully?


As a student if you had to drop a required course because the teacher is 100% hostile to your views, and it set back your graduation date, wouldn't you report it?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I might suggest that the sort of student who will speak against gay people being allowed to adopt might be the sort of student who will try to get rid of a young woman in a position of authority.

Note that the student actually spoke against single people being allowed to adopt. If the young woman was highly skilled she probably could have gotten the punk to admit that only barefoot women who can't gift their righteous breadwinner with a child any other way should be eligible to adopt. Of course he would have turned off his phone at that point and deleted the recording.

Key to defeating the bait and tape...switch the conversation onto tracks the originator will be more embarrassed by than you will yourself.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

When did criticizing someone for teaching wrongly become a bad thing?
He only included her as an addition to his long list of incidents of his college shutting down unpopular speech.

Does standing up for students that have no power against grade students that have some power being a bully?


As a student if you had to drop a required course because the teacher is 100% hostile to your views, and it set back your graduation date, wouldn't you report it?

99% of all teachers are hostile to my views. That never made me drop a class, required or otherwise.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Wholeheartedly agreed. Especially since my suspicious nature leads me to believe that the 'conservative' professor and the 'outspoken conservative' student probably shared responsibility for cooking up the bait and tape scheme in the first place.

1. Cook up bait and tape scheme
2. Create national hellstorm on inane issue served with soundbytes
3. Increase partisan militarism
4. Lead to civil war (?)
5. Profit.

^^

(that professor indeed sounds crappy, sad about the MA student now).

I might suggest that the sort of student who will speak against gay people being allowed to adopt might be the sort of student who will try to get rid of a young woman in a position of authority.

I love conspiracy theories.
We need to find out if they were working with James O'keefe.

 

[Kaitzilla]

99% of all teachers are hostile to my views. That never made me drop a class, required or otherwise.

Were any of those classes a Philosophy class?
It tends to involve viewpoints a lot I've heard.

http://www.northpark.edu/Academics/...ors/Philosophy/Meet-the-Faculty/Gregory-Clark

Spoiler :

In addition to the school’s intimate size, city location, and emphasis on good teaching, Dr. Gregory Clark feels North Park’s diversity benefits his philosophy classes. “North Park embraces diversity while maintaining its own distinct identity,” he says. “That diversity affects the classroom; it is important that not everyone thinks alike in a philosophy course.”

Dr. Clark makes an effort to bring different viewpoints together by fostering interesting experiences and lively discussions. “Philosophy grounds students in important, fundamental, and long-lasting conversations,” he says. “It also provides models and strategies for thinking about things that are so novel or so profound that we might naturally not know where to begin.”

He is committed to experiential education and connecting students with different neighborhoods in Chicago, making intentional use of the city through field trips to some of it’s unlikeliest places—an archery range for his zen and archery class, a bicycle repair shop for a course in the Core Curriculum program, a nature center for the philosophy of nature course, and an intentional Christian community for the class with the same name.

Classroom discussions range from topics of faith to the ideas of ancient and modern-day philosophers, but he is ultimately teaching his students how to think about and ask questions.

“Philosophy teaches you to question the answers everyone gives; it teaches you to question the questions everyone asks,” he says. “Philosophy will teach you how those questions have been pursued before, and, when you come upon new questions, it will give you the habit to not be intimidated and the strategies to pursue those new questions too.”

I'd love to be in this guy's philosophy class.
Always question everything!

 

[Kyriakos]

Were any of those classes a Philosophy class?
It tends to involve viewpoints a lot I've heard.

Not including the ability to direct the course where the undergrad wants. It is still a course, and the MA assistant teacher has no option but to help with it, but still within the meter he/she is comfortable with.

Again: she is 20 something, with virtually zero teaching experience. I don't recall undergrads in my own uni trying to pick up fights with MA students. It is utterly a jackass thing to do in this setting and this supposed reason.

Besides: what kind of phil undergrad is as dumb so as to honestly think (as that taper did) that the MA student was influencing other students with wrong views?

 

[Archbob]

Not including the ability to direct the course where the undergrad wants. It is still a course, and the MA assistant teacher has no option but to help with it, but still within the meter he/she is comfortable with.

Again: she is 20 something, with virtually zero teaching experience. I don't recall undergrads in my own uni trying to pick up fights with MA students. It is utterly a jackass thing to do in this setting and this supposed reason.

Besides: what kind of phil undergrad is as dumb so as to honestly think (as that taper did) that the MA student was influencing other students with wrong views?

The far right wing tends to believe that anything that doesn't go along with their views is influencing people in the wrong way.

That being said, I don't agree with the termination.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I love conspiracy theories.
We need to find out if they were working with James O'keefe.

Well, there's no conspiracy required to say the student was clearly involved in a bait and tape. That's what started the whole thing.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Not including the ability to direct the course where the undergrad wants. It is still a course, and the MA assistant teacher has no option but to help with it, but still within the meter he/she is comfortable with.

Again: she is 20 something, with virtually zero teaching experience. I don't recall undergrads in my own uni trying to pick up fights with MA students. It is utterly a jackass thing to do in this setting and this supposed reason.

Besides: what kind of phil undergrad is as dumb so as to honestly think (as that taper did) that the MA student was influencing other students with wrong views?

The incident that McAdams blogged about happened on October 28, 2014. Cheryl Abbate, a graduate student in philosophy who was leading a class called Theory of Ethics, was teaching undergraduates about John Rawls. She asked for examples of current events to which Rawlsian philosophy could be applied.

"One student offered the example of gay marriage as something that Rawls' Equal Liberty Principle would allow because it would not restrict the liberty of others and therefore should not be illegal," according to Holtz's version of events. "Ms. Abbate noted that this was a correct way to apply Rawls' Principle and is said to have asked 'does anyone not agree with this?' Ms. Abbate later added that if anyone did not agree that gay marriage was an example of something that fits the Rawls' Equal Liberty Principle, they should see her after class."

Gay marriage wasn't off topic, it was very much on topic.

That last sentence shows her intimidating her students.
Why would someone who disagreed have to voice their opinion in private?

 

[Flying Pig]

That could have been phrased as 'I don't have time to go into this now, but anyone who doesn't see how gay marriage falls under Rawls' equal liberty principle should come and see me after class and I'll explain it in full'

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Gay marriage wasn't off topic, it was very much on topic.

That last sentence shows her intimidating her students.
Why would someone who disagreed have to voice their opinion in private?

For the same reason that someone wanting to debate against women's suffrage would be encouraged to voice their opinion in private...to avoid a controversy which would derail the class, since some students would find it offensive.

It's the same reason you don't use "If I start with five people and I murder three of them how many do I have left" as an illustration of basic subtraction. The purpose of the illustration would be lost in the impact left by the subject chosen for the illustration. This is basic teaching 101.

 

[Kyriakos]

Gay marriage wasn't off topic, it was very much on topic.

That last sentence shows her intimidating her students.
Why would someone who disagreed have to voice their opinion in private?

We can't know from that. Another way it may have played out would be:

1) inexperienced MA teacher/helper quickly asks if any student there disagrees.
2) she then gathers that some might have other views, but could not voice them among their peers there (BA students are not the most mature of people )
3) so she adds that people can talk to her privately if they would want to. (again this is sloppy, but, again, she is just a 20-something year old MA student herself).

It sounds more plausible even that she did not expect such a reply, and she might have not felt confident in helping with this particular course either. It can happen. An experienced/confident teacher would not ask the undergrads to help with her presentation in the first place!
If i was in an MA at that time, and was only given the option to teach/help with some subject/nuphilosophy i found very boring...well...you get the point. ^^

 

[Kaitzilla]

That could have been phrased as 'I don't have time to go into this now, but anyone who doesn't see how gay marriage falls under Rawls' equal liberty principle should come and see me after class and I'll explain it in full'

She was winning her Rawl's equal liberty principle argument against the student in private.

Then she said this:

Abbate: And don't you think that that would be offensive to them if you were to raise your hand and challenge this?

Are you still going to say she wasn't intimidating her students?

Then she laid down the law to ensure he never would raise his hand in class.

Abbate: You can have whatever opinions you want but I can tell you right now, in this class homophobic comments, racist comments, and sexist comments will not be tolerated. If you don't like that you are more than free to drop this class.

Student: So, are you saying that not agreeing with gay marriage is homophobic?

Abbate: To argue that individuals should not have rights is going to be
offensive to someone in this class.

 

[Flying Pig]

I'm not sure that's really intimidating, necessarily - and all that I'm doing is cautioning against the inherent problems of translating spoken words to written quotations read out of context in a different setting.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

She was winning her Rawl's equal liberty principle argument against the student in private.

Then she said this:



Are you still going to say she wasn't intimidating her students?

She needed to be intimidating a student...specifically the one who was only interested in derailing the class for the purpose of making his bait and tape mission a success. It probably wasn't really difficult to recognize the punk had some sort of agenda, though it apparently took her a while to figure out what it was.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Gawd. So hold on.... the instructor (Abatte) in the initial quoted article ISN'T the professor who has been suspended? That opening article is in fact the blog post in question? Written by the professor who has been suspended? So he's actually been suspended for SUPPORTING the student, not opposing the student? This is so confusing...

 

[Kyriakos]

Gawd. So hold on.... the instructor (Abatte) in the initial quoted article ISN'T the professor who has been suspended? That opening article is in fact the blog post in question? Written by the professor who has been suspended? So he's actually been suspended for SUPPORTING the student, not opposing the student? This is so confusing...

' If you don't like that you are more than free to drop this thread.'


Wait, you are not logging this, are you?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Gawd. So hold on.... the instructor (Abatte) in the initial quoted article ISN'T the professor who has been suspended? That opening article is in fact the blog post in question? Written by the professor who has been suspended? So he's actually been suspended for SUPPORTING the student, not opposing the student? This is so confusing...

Student who intentionally disrupted a class, using a bait and tape tactic to produce a clip that would embarrass the institution probably for no particular reason other than to boost his social media 'scores'. Yeah, I can see why supporting that student might not sit well with the administration. Especially since the language in the 'supportive' blog post is also hostile to the institution, and is apparently something the professor had been warned about previously.

Repetitive biting of the hand that signs your paycheck is a sure way to stop getting payed. As it should be.