THINKING ABOUT THOUGHT POLICE

Thank you for your article “Beware the new thought police” (March/April feature) and your emphasis on exposing David Horowitz. I was in Borders bookstore the other day, saw The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics and read some sections. I was horrified. I’ve been a professional teacher for 16 years, first in secondary schools and now at the university level. Horowitz’s thinking is probably nothing new, but the fact that Borders is selling a hardcover of libelous material about scholars needs to be met with a strong, quick response.

I have followed the links you suggest in your article. Please continue to follow up on this important issue.
Michael Hopkins
Burlington, Vt.

Can you handle diversity only when the diverse views match your own? Come now. There is little evidence to suggest a right-wing conspiracy is seeking to subvert academia, but postmodernism and its attendant left-wing worldview are clearly ascendant in higher education. Just look at the list of organizations lauded on page 12. I’m no fan of rightists or the Bush administration, but your alarmist piece was the opposite of the open-mindedness that our organization champions. If there are thought police on campus, they are the postmodern sophists who stereotype conservatives as anti-justice, revile people of faith as intolerant or irrational, and redefine the family to suit the culture’s concupiscence.
John Desjarlais
Malta, Ill.

“Thought police” can exist on the liberal side, too. I could give numerous examples from my lengthy career in the classroom of false charges leveled against even liberal faculty members by students who had a grudge over a grade, who didn’t like a teacher because of nothing more than a personality clash, and so on. Many students know that the best way to see a professor squirm is to level a charge of racism or sexism against him/her. So, the thought police officer looking over a teacher’s shoulder may be a liberal.
Charles Wukasch
Austin, Texas

Regarding the article, “Beware the new thought police,” is it possible you are exactly what you are accusing the conservatives to be? I see that subscriptions to AFT On Campus represent $3.50 of annual dues. What would you think if 10 cents of your dues went to publishing a newsletter bashing liberalism, Ted Kennedy, CNN, and, during elections, promoting 99 percent Republican candidates? If you bristle at this ... you better call the ‘police’!
Gary Mittelberg
Glendale, Calif.

TURN OFF ALL GADGETS

I totally agree with Dennis Adams (“Should wireless laptops be banned from class?” Speak Out, March/April). Professors should not have to compete for mind share with gadgets. You can add cell phones to that equation, too. It’s been proven that plagiarism occurs with students messaging each other on exams. I have banned all gadgets from my classroom because they are an unnecessary distraction. All students really need is pen, paper, textbook and their minds focused. I’m giving them my mind and I require their complete attention in return.
Michael Ferniany
Santa Monica, Calif.

DEBATING INTELLIGENT DESIGN

Regarding the article “Intelligent Design: A Trojan Horse?” (News & Trends, February), did the writers ever consider material written by intelligent design scientists? Are they even aware that bona fide scientists, many with Ph.D.s (in everything from biology to physics) from prestigious universities, are convinced that evolution is not scientifically possible, with a mountain of evidence to support their stance? I find it almost humorous, if it were not so tragically ironic, that the strongest opponents to the presentation of alternatives to evolution use language like “[we] see it as an extension of the movement to restrict and monitor higher education curricula.” Who is actually doing the restricting? Let’s at least see a public debate between matched scientists on the subject. Let observers make up their own minds. That’s intellectual freedom.
Sheila Foerth
Setauket, N.Y.

PRACTICE AS VALUABLE AS RESEARCH

Regarding the Ehrenberg report (Campus Clips, February), the article states, “As [adjuncts] are typically focused on teaching rather than research, their students may miss out on the proximity to newly developed ideas and theories in their field. ...” As an adjunct of literacy education and a member of UUP, I question the implication that adjuncts may compromise research to focus on teaching. Adjunct instructors who are practitioners in public schools can see research in action daily and impart the wisdom of such to prospective teachers. Proximity to the classroom should stand on equal footing with proximity to research. Linking the two can only strengthen teacher education programs.
Norman Zierler
North Bay, N.Y.

THE EASY WAY OUT

As an African-American who earned a New York City public education from kindergarten to the master’s level during the ’40s and ’50s, I must say that Gunnar Fox is way off base. (“Is it okay to avoid tough classes to protect your GPA?” Speak Out, February).

I was schooled in a predominantly blue-collar, Italian-American neighborhood in Northeast Bronx. Teachers taught their working-class charges with high standards in all subjects. College prep courses in middle school prepared college-bound students for academic diplomas that required 16-18 Regents credits. There was no “open enrollment” at the city colleges; students were prepared. Required courses in the liberal arts included a year of college algebra, which geared students for the mathematics of advanced disciplines.

As a now-retired academic skills lecturer at Lehman College, I frowned on pass/fail courses for my inner-city minority and Anglo working-class students; such grades promote and motivate mediocrity. Mr. Fox has forgotten that we now live in a highly technological society. Shortcuts to and avoidance of math-oriented, difficult courses are not acceptable.
John Pyatt Jr.
New York, N.Y.

What is Gunnar Fox implying by suggesting that students take a summer session or community college class in place of a “regularly scheduled class in the regular semester at a baccalaureate institution”? That it’s easier? His assumptions are a little worrisome.
Shannon Marting
Inver Grove Heights, Minn.

What an incredible disappointment I felt as I read John View’s argument: “I would rather see a solid student who took AP Calculus and perhaps scored low on the AP test, than one who chose an extra year of keyboarding or a foreign language in which the student has had ample classroom time.”

If one follows this train of thought, then students should stop taking any core courses because they have had at least 12 years of math, science, physical education or English by the time they reach their senior year!
Rosine Leloir
Burnt Hills, N.Y.

We have come a long way from the rote memorization of verb conjugations and the idea of “seat time” to fulfill graduation requirements. Not only is foreign languge study considered a core subject by New York state standards, it is a course of study that prepares students for an increasingly global culture. Studying a foreign language gives students a competitive edge as they apply for jobs, enhances their vocabulary, is linked to higher SAT scores and teaches tolerance and understanding of cultures outside our own.
Liz Lorentzsen
Lowville, N.Y.