The New York Sun says a grad student was deemed unfit to teach and kicked out of his program after he expressed skepticism about multicultural education and support for corporal punishment in the classroom.
With the backing of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Scott McConnell is now suing Le Moyne College (search) of Syracuse, N.Y., for violation of his First Amendment rights.
As part of a class devoted to promoting "inclusive classrooms," McConnell wrote a paper saying: "I do not feel that multicultural education has a philosophical place or standing in an American classroom, especially one that I will teach. I also feel that corporal punishment has a place in the classroom and should be implemented when needed."
He got an A on the paper, but it was forwarded to the director of the graduate education program, Cathy Leogrande (search), who subsequently expelled him from the Master's program.
"I have grave concerns regarding the mismatch between your personal beliefs regarding teaching and learning and the Le Moyne College program goals," Leogrande said.
Erase That Hate
Activists at Ithaca College in New York were upset about the student paper's lack of coverage of an anti-racism rally so they did the only sensible thing — they stole hundreds of copies of the paper and threw them away.
The Ithacan says it covered the Erase the Hate rally in its online edition, publishing some 30 photographs, but the organizers wanted similar levels of coverage in the print edition.
One professor on campus was described as "ranting and raving" and calling the paper racist for its decision to save a few trees and opt for pandering of the electronic kind instead of the hard-copy variety.
Sanity Prevails
An appeals court in Tennessee has ruled that PC busybodies can't renege on a 70-year-old agreement with the United Daughters of the Confederacy (search) and rename a residence hall at Vanderbilt University because its name now offends some people, according to the Tennessean.
Vanderbilt tried to change the name of the 70-year-old "Confederate Memorial Hall" to ''Memorial Hall'' because the former has overtones of slavery and was offensive to some folks.
The UDC, which contributed $50,000 to its construction, argued that the dormitory was simply a memorial to fallen soldiers with no racist implications.
'Negative Thoughts'
A Virginia parent is irate that her local school district is allowing elementary school students to attend a "Dixie Days" historical event because it's put on by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Some 400 local students are expected to attend the Mechanicsville event, which is intended to promote factual Civil War history and heritage and "to promote the life of the Confederate soldier" through re-enactments and the like.
"I am appalled that the school is sponsoring this trip," said Karla Stevenson, whose fourth-grade son attends one of the schools. "This is something that brings up a lot of negative thoughts."
She said the sponsoring organization holds racist views and uses the Confederate flag and uniform to intimidate minorities.
The G-Word
A high school football coach in Florida is catching flak for sending out an e-mail on the school network that included Bible quotes and use of the G-word, according to the Naples News.
The offending e-mail, slugged FCA Pep Talk: "Never Forget," featured a Bible quote and then said: "God has a way of bring(ing) people to their knees. Remember, pride always comes before the fall."
Lely High School football coach Chris Metzger, head of the school chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, said the e-mails were intended to be uplifting pep talks for members of the group.
School officials, however, said such religious messages are not allowed to circulate on school networks.
Didya Know?
Last Wednesday was International Respect for Chickens Day. Proud poultry lovers (not in that way, of course) were encouraged to hand out leaflets at schools, put up tables at malls and throw We-Don't-Eat-Our-Feathered-Friends parties. Everyone, everywhere joined United Poultry Concerns in its belief that chickens are people, too.
For more doses of politically correct nuttiness, head on over to the TongueTied daily edition.
Mailbag:
Chuck D. writes:
If the Center for Gender Equity at the University of California-San Francisco wants young men to experience gender discrimination in their "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day," maybe they should have simply asked the boys to complete a college application form. The boys could see how women with lower SAT scores are admitted while they are not. They could witness the subjective processes and scoring systems that don't necessarily relate to success at the institutions. Maybe the boys could examine the institutions' mission statement which probably calls for "diversity" while the school disregards men as being important for diversity.
What programs like this really demonstrate is that its time to put an end to public funded male bashing propaganda. This should begin with terminating over one-half billion per year spent by the feds on "Women victim, men bad", a.k.a., the Violence Against Women Act. Women can be just as nasty as any other human and the Center for Gender Equity proves it.
Richard B. writes:
How can a "female" director know what is best for boys 9-10 years of age? Here she is stereotyping a whole gender using such thoughts as, "It's about dealing with effects of sexism on both boys and girls and how it can damage them." She doesn't even have a clue to the damage done to these boys by forcing them to attend this so-called gender sensitivity. These boys will probably not want to return to this type of so-called university in the future. I know I wouldn't. It is so typical of the PC-driven drivel coming out of San Francisco and the universities there. This director lives in her own fantasy world.
Mark S. writes:
Am I understanding correctly that the event was at a Center for Gender Equity? Hardly equity when girls got to do fun activities and boys had their still-developing manhood thrown unexpectedly into Hillary-esque ... lockboxes. While I appreciate the need for children to be raised to appreciate and respect one another—including, mind you, the real differences that exist as a matter of creation and biology, between boys and girls—even though I'm single without children, I'm outraged.
That's no way to treat them, especially on a day when they went to work with their parents. I would like to know if the parents who took their children to work were aware of the planned activities, and if so, why would they have taken their sons that day without demanding the same activities? Besides, I thought "take your child to work day" was about them learning what you and others you work with do at your jobs
Bob S. writes:
With respect to nearly every entry in your May 1 column, tolerance is only a concept that applied to the majority. Apparently, oppressed minorities are entitled to discriminate, dissemble, mislead, and be intolerant toward persons who are members of the perceived majority — you know, someone who would be labeled "victim" were they part of the minority. The best case in point — the young man in Michigan, and the boys and parents (some of whom must have been women) who participated in the UCSF Center for Gender Equity's "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day." Of course, I am probably a racist misogynist for even suggesting this.
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