Monday, April 1, 2013

Think THIS WAY, or ELSE

"Students are expected to write all papers and examination essay questions from a feminist worldview or critical perspective.  In Spanish class you speak and think in Spanish.  In Women's Studies you speak and think in feminist paradigms.  Examination essay questions written from critical perspectives outside of feminism will receive an automatic grade of F.  Papers written from critical perspectives outside of feminism will be allowed one revision.  Any student who is unable to write and think from a feminist critical perspective or worldview with a clear conscience should drop the class now."

From a Women's Studies syllabus at University of Syracuse circa 2000 or so.

"critical perspectives"....CRITICAL, when they must regurgitate only feminist perspectives?

The author of that syllabus introduction is Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, once a tenured head of Women's studies and English prof at University of Syracuse.  Feminist, Lesbian activist, etc............turned Christian, now married to a pastor.    Here is how she writes about the above paragraph:

"How did I get away with this?  the secular academic world is bold in its protection of worldview.  And I and all my feminist colleagues put this statement on our syllabi.  We worked as a bloc.  We comprised an interpretive community.  An interpretive community consciously and intentionally protects its way of thinking.  This is how important worldview is to education - of all stripes and colors.  And this is how important interpretive community is to worldview."

She bemoans the narrow mindedness now.  I wanted to show you the kinds of things threatened of our college kids.  They HAD to respond with the same feminist worldview or ELSE.   Is that critical thinking? 

Have you heard of things like this or experienced it yourself?   Is this TEACHING or is this UNTHINKING DICTATORIAL RUBBISH? 
It's April Fool's Day.............talk about fools.

Z

34 comments:

Always On Watch said...

Examination essay questions written from critical perspectives outside of feminism will receive an automatic grade of F.

YE, GODS!

I teach homeschool classes from the Christian perspective. We do not require that students be Christians to enroll in our classes.

In fact, we have at least one very liberal family. Often, that student's essays are outside the Christian perspective. I grade the essay on its own merits.

A few weeks ago, this student, an atheist, submitted an essay that was espoused far Left ideas. But this student made the arguments well for a student only 15 years old (450-600 words). Yes, I gave this essay an A+ -- and the administrative committee agreed that the student's essay deserved that high mark.

I think that America has lost sight of what education is supposed to be, particularly at universities.

Darth Bacon said...

Malia Obama, the president’s daughter, is reportedly spending her spring break in Oaxaca, Mexico? Allegedly, she’s jetting off with some of her classmates and 25 Secret Service agents to a country that the State Department has said all Americans should avoid.
Note!! the entourage includes 25 Secret Service agents as well as other “employees and families”.
But Barry would never allow that to happen! So Moochelle and the Leech In Chief sent their 13 year old daughter to Mexico, with a Secret Service detail that is NOT required to stop her from doing things that 13 year olds have done in the past and have gotten in deep “Doo Doo” for like the Bush Girls have done.
And how much is all this costing taxpayers? Seems to be the Leech In Chief thinks as long as he throws the Tax Payers money around on hus Daughters, no one will care how much of the taxpayer’s dollars he, and his over indulgent Moochelle spend.! Or would we?

Rita said...

I simply don't understand a class even labeled, " Women's Studies". In my entire life I have never had a class or a job thinking that I must approach it "as a woman". I simply did the work in the best manner I could.

All this labeling of things, thoughts, perspectives, ideology, etc is exactly what divides us and in fact makes us less than what we can fully become.

To put it more succinctly, what a bunch of phooey! Glad at least one of those crazy professors finally saw the light.

Always On Watch said...

Darth,
Malia Obama is in Oaxaca? I guess that she's going to party -- big time.

Always On Watch said...

Rita,
Have you recently seen college catalogs listing the available courses and majors? Talk about some useless material!

sue hanes said...


Z - I'd say it's unthinking dictatorial rubbish.

JonBerg said...

"THE FEMINAZATION OF AMERICA"

http://nstarzone.com/F.html


While this article may be pooh-poohed by some, my observations say otherwise. Accordingly, one would have to look far and wide to find a coures in "Mens Studies" or, at least, one that shed a positive light on such gender.

Silverfiddle said...

When people graduate after lapping up four years of this crap and then whine because they can't get a good paying job, I just laugh.

Anonymous said...

" Any student who is unable to write and think from a feminist critical perspective or worldview with a clear conscience should drop the class now."

I think the choice is clear.

Z said...

Darth, I think it was 2012 that Malia spent the vacation in Oaxaca....did you read she's there now?

AOW, isn't that amazing? Of course you should grade on the merits of the piece! That's how our teachers at my school are, too; they may agree or not, but they welcome good thinking with supportive arguments.
Socratic seminars really teach the kids to think and we excel at that in the classroom.

Rita, isn't it awful? It's conservatives who believe in true equality; that EVERYONE can succeed regardless of gender, color, creed, etc. As long as one's got the chops.
I had dinner last night with the Dean of one of the schools at USC and I mentioned classes like this which prepare a student for NOTHING, and, as a liberal, he paused for a second, then shrugged his shoulders and said about what I'd said "You know, she does have a point..." By the way, he was one of the hosts of General Petraeus last week when Petraeus gave his first speech since the scandal, and he said he was really, really sharp and charming. He also said that Petraeus' speech was about what he's dedicated himself to now and that is helping veterans but the press only picked up what he said about his scandal and never mentioned the important cause he gave the other 98% of his speech on. typical media.

Sue...this stuff's not at all uncommon, sadly.

ConsonFire, well said!

Silverfiddle...why can't people see that THAT is the point? And they'll be whining about why they can't get a job, too.

JB, will open your link a little later, thanks, I'm eager to see what it says but have to run.

Z said...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/25/Exclusive-Sasha-Malia-Obama-vacation-in-Bahamas-Atlantis

The Obama daughters are in the Bahamas with a motorcade this year.

The vacation in Oaxaca last year was erased from all internet sources, but never denied.

Z said...

JonBerg, I think there is a lot to be said for the points in your linked article.
Watch any TV show and see who the idiot is; the father.
In Commercials who's the weak jerk?: the father.
Mothers are shown to be lying in commercials, too.
Babies talk and adults ask kids questions in TV commercials as if the kids are smarter.

This is all a big BIG problem.

Pris said...

At this rate, college is a negative and not worth the tuition. They're not learning what they need for a career if students don't stick to an academic agenda.

This nonsense is because the far left runs the show, not responsible teachers, professors, who expect students to learn to think for themselves. What a waste!

SF, you're absolutely right. My grandson majored in computer science, and minored in math. Within two months after he graduated, he did get a very good job!

JB, thank God they don't have Men's studies. If they did, it would be more nonsense which would be useless. It's already bad enough given that political correctness seems to underlie almost everything.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

In Spanish class you speak and think in Spanish. In Women's Studies you speak and think in feminist paradigms.

Really? Beginning Spanish students THINK in Spanish?

The point is to make you "Speak" in Spanish... and then "perhaps" eventually you will become fluid enough to actually "Think" in Spanish... which is ONLY likely to happen IF you completely STOP speaking your "native" language altogether.

...of course, "thinking" in Spanish is not "limited" to a CRITICAL feminist "worldview", either.

...and so actually "thinking" in a critical feminist "worldview" could only be "possible" if your pre-existing "native worldview" ceased to exist...

...and THAT is never going to happen, if I have any say in the matter!

Sam Huntington said...

College is no more than a welfare program for communist professors who otherwise would be pandering for money at the bottom of exit ramps. I agree with Pris ... college is a waste of a parent's hard earned money.

Speedy G said...

Can I take a class in Advanced Patriarchy 101 with equivalent syllabus limitations?

Can I make it a graduation requirement?

;)

Speedy G said...

This reminds me... I'm currently reading the book "Flatland" by Edwin Abbott. To think from a "critical feminist perspective" is like a person from three dimensional "Spaceland" entering Two-Dimensional Space and being forced to speak with Polygons and Isosceles Triangles.

Of course, anyone who did so would immediately get "locked-up" and terminated in Flatland. "Colourists" and irregular shapes are most DEFINITELY unWELCOME!

Speedy G said...

...did I mention the fact that "all" shapes in Flatland that are NOT line segments were MALE and that ALL females were merely un-thinking "line segments"?

Oooops. Sorry. I should have said "speak to line segments vice Polygons and Isosceles Triangles."

To "think" as an "unthinking and PURELY emotive" FEMALE line segment is a bit of an "oxymoron."

Speedy G said...

...maybe THAT is why all the males in Flatland had their own language that they NEVER shared with the females.... for fear they would go BERSERK and stab everyone!

JonBerg said...

Pris,

"JB, thank God they don't have Men's studies."

I agree but perhaps, given Z's observant comment regarding TV, it's really here after all and so ubiquitous it's not even recognized as such (LOL)!

Pris said...

JB, yes Z is right and so are you.
I have to say, the way men are portrayed on TV makes me sick!!

Stanley Kowalski said...

How sweet!

Thersites said...

There's nothing like exchanging one set of prejudices for another!

Of course, there is a certain "irony" in labelling such exchanges as "Progressive" changes.

Darth Bacon said...

You are right, my mistake. The First Daughters are in the Bahamas in Paradise Island with a motorcade this year. along with 25 Secret Service Man.

cube said...

Fools do abound. They always have, but they've never had as powerful a mouthpiece as they have nowadays with all the social media available to anyone with two neurons to rub together. It's never been easier to fall for foolish thought.



Rational Nation USA said...

The Obozo family clearly has no regard for the American taxpayer.
Mooch and Bozo are teaching their daughters at an early age how to spend other people’s money, a favorite addiction of Commie/ Progressive, Liberals.
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn't Obozo just blame the cancellation of White House tours on the Secret Service ? Then, after making schoolchildren cry, he managed to rustle up a detail to stand around in Atlantis in swim trunks and then play house to Sasha and Malia on the taxpayers dime in the Bahamas.. Outrageous!!

Z said...

Thersites, that PROGRESSIVE term was another very clever leftist twist; don't forget they also renamed the Red States and Blue States a few years back because Libs didn't like the RED moniker.

Darth...they were at church yesterday in D.C. (which I might blog right now, come to think of it..why wait until tomorrow when I'd scheduled the post?) but they have definitely been in the Bahamas with a ton of secret service.
Of course, we understand why the First Family needs protection, but I do think this luxurious vacation stuff is really a kick in the face to Americans without work and I'd have hoped ANY president might realize that.
Man, I was from an upper middle-class family and we didn't take trips to the Bahamas, I assure you! That's pretty luxurious. And it didn't cost anybody ELSE anything when Dad did take us on road trips ...by car.

Z said...

By the way....I'm hearing about how bad it is STILL on the Jersey Shore after the hurricane..is Gov Christie ever going to say "I thanked Obama but where IS HE?"

And the EPA's got a new law that people can't build unless they build higher or something (which is understandable but driving the repair prices WAAAY up)

My biggest point is that non profit charitable groups ARE actually helping (unlike FEMA) and that is a perfect example of how Republicans differ from Libs...government's dropping the ball. People are not.

Sam Huntington said...

Women's Studies is part of the Sustainability Project. Don't worry, it is only one brick among thousands of others in the overall plan to destroy America.

Thersites said...

they also renamed the Red States and Blue States a few years back because Libs didn't like the RED moniker.

Apparently SOME symbolism just strikes, "a little too close to home."

;)

Divine Theatre said...

Ugh! I had an English professor in college who was a flaming leftwit. Many of her assignments were politically oriented and I had difficulty with her "logic". Oftentimes, she would give me low grades because she disagreed with my opinion! Big red circles around sentences she disagreed with and scarlet scribbles in the margins as to why my opinion was flawed! Never once did she grade me based on writing style or punctuation!
I had to go to the head of the department to have my grade changed. Thank goodness he was a fellow conservative!
As an aside, she was a blonde with blue eyes who always wore moccasins and dreamcatcher earrings to honor her "Indigenous American" heritage! Damned hippie!

xo

Andie

Anonymous said...

@Prisc

"My grandson majored in computer science, and minored in math..."


Math??? Science??? Computers science??? Good grief....are you serial??? LMAO. Imagine that...a young man who actually got an education and a JOB...THATS..J O B for all you gender studies, minority studies...LBGT...and all the rest of the silly humanities bullshit that wouldn't get you a gig as a greeter in Walmart...the largest employer in the US.

Oh...and no FILM FLAM STUDIES or 18th Century Poetry....right..DICK????

Anonymous said...

@Z

" we didn't take trips to the Bahamas.."


Getting in touch with their...errr...people maybe?

JonBerg said...

DT,

Yes, we have some real $#!t passing for Education; don't we!

Imp & Pris,

Wow, pursuing disciplines of: relevant, real life stuff,useable, in demand; who would have thought?