Wednesday, November 24, 2004

COLUMBIA: THE UNIVERSITY OF HATE

Update. I blogged on these fine folk previously -- on October 23rd. Quick summary of what has changed: Nothing.

In the world of Hamid Dabashi, supporters of Israel are "warmongers" and "Gestapo apparatchiks." The Jewish homeland is "nothing more than a military base for the rising predatory empire of the United States." It's a capital of "thuggery" - a "ghastly state of racism and apartheid" - and it "must be dismantled." A voice from America's crackpot fringe? Actually, Dabashi is a tenured professor and department chairman at Columbia University. And his views have resonated and been echoed in other areas of the university.

Columbia is at risk of becoming a poison Ivy, some critics claim, and tensions are high. In classrooms, teach-ins, interviews and published works, dozens of academics are said to be promoting an I-hate-Israel agenda, embracing the ugliest of Arab propaganda, and teaching that Zionism is the root of all evil in the Mideast. In three weeks of interviews, numerous students told the Daily News they face harassment, threats and ridicule merely for defending the right of Israel to survive. And the university itself is holding investigations into the alleged intimidation.

Dabashi has achieved academic stardom: professor of Iranian studies; chairman of the Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department; past head of a panel that administers Columbia's core curriculum. The 53-year-old, Iranian-born scholar has said CNN should be held accountable for "war crimes" for one-sided coverage of Sept. 11, 2001. He doubts the existence of Al Qaeda and questions the role of Osama Bin Laden in the attacks.... In September in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, he wrote, "What they call Israel is no mere military state. A subsumed militarism, a systemic mendacity with an ingrained violence constitutional to the very fusion of its fabric, has penetrated the deepest corners of what these people have to call their soul."

After the showing of a student-made documentary about faculty bias and bullying that targets Jewish students, six or seven swastikas were found carved in a Butler Library bathroom last month. Then after a screening of the film, "Columbia Unbecoming," produced by the David Project, a pro-Israel group in Boston, one student denounced another as a "Zionist fascist scum," witnesses said.

On Oct. 27, Columbia announced it would probe alleged intimidation and improve procedures for students to file grievances. "Is the climate hostile to free expression?" asked Alan Brinkley, the university provost. "I don't believe it is, but we're investigating to find out."

But one student on College Walk described the campus as a "republic of fear." Another branded the Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department the "department of dishonesty."

"Professorial power is being abused," said Ariel Beery, a senior who is student president in the School of General Studies, but stresses he's speaking only for himself. "Students are being bullied because of their identities, ideologies, religions and national origins," Beery said. Added Noah Liben, another senior, "Debate is being stifled. Students are being silenced in their own classrooms." ...

Said Brinkley: If a professor taught the "Earth was flat or there was no Holocaust," Columbia might intervene in the classroom. "But we don't tell faculty they can't express strong, or even offensive opinions."

Yet even some faculty members say they fear social ostracism and career consequences if they're viewed as too pro-Israel, and that many have been cowed or shamed into silence. One apparently unafraid is Dan Miron, a professor of Hebrew literature and holder of a prestigious endowed chair. He said scores of Jewish students - about one a week - have trooped into his office to complain about bias in the classroom. "Students tell me they've been browbeaten, humiliated and treated disrespectfully for daring to challenge the idea that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish nation," he said. "They say they've been told Israeli soldiers routinely rape Palestinian women and commit other atrocities, and that Zionism is racism and the root of all evil." ....

As usual in American universities, everything can be tolerated except conservatives, Christians and Jews.






INCOMPETENT EDUCATION IS A GRAVE SOCIAL INJUSTICE

But teacher organizations and Leftist State governments don't seem to care

You would think that teaching every young person to read and write (and spell) would be top priority in primary schools. It isn't. But it should be. The vast majority of parents with school-age children will be enthusiastic supporters of federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson's plan for a national inquiry to find out why. Hopefully, the inquiry will have the full co-operation of state governments because its findings should give state education ministers the ammunition they need to take some tough decisions and put literacy at the top of the agenda. Parents are entitled to know why such an inquiry is necessary in 2004.

In 1997, the Howard Government obtained the agreement of state education ministers on a national literacy plan, with the goal of teaching every young person the literacy and numeracy skills they'd need by the time they left primary school. The plan was intended to put an end to years of rhetoric about how hard everyone was trying and for the first time to focus on the real outcomes - how many students were really learning these crucial skills in the years that mattered and what techniques were working.

For the first time, national benchmarks were established that would tell parents whether their child could read, write and spell (at Year 3), and whether their skills were adequate to enable them to do their school work in later years. Every child was to be tested against these benchmarks at grades 3, 5 and 7. Numeracy benchmarks were also established.

Ministers at the time said their goal was that every child starting school in 1998 would be literate and numerate within four years. This recognised that children who were not literate after the first three years would find it increasingly difficult thereafter. The plan was followed by a burst of activity, evidence of where the problems were and of improving results. The tests, for example, revealed there were some remote Aboriginal schools where no child was literate in English and led to the identification of teaching techniques that actually worked. Yet state governments have failed to maintain the momentum.

Was the goal of 1998 achieved? Or even approximately achieved? Who knows? The latest results the states have released against national standards are for 2001. The results of the 2002 tests have not yet been made public. Nor have the results for the 2003 tests or the 2004 tests (most recently held in August). It was only when the federal Government promised to pay for extra tuition for students below the benchmark that some state governments finally decided last year to reveal the results for their children to parents - five years after the benchmarks were set. These inexcusable delays in reporting the true picture to parents and the wider community reflect the fact some state bureaucrats and teacher unions have lost the plot.

Those who claim to be concerned with social justice should be forcing the pace on literacy because literacy is the most important social justice policy in education. It is remarkable how often self-styled defenders of social justice have seemed uninterested in finding out whether disadvantaged children can read and write, and opposed testing. Instead, they will tell you that most students are succeeding (which is not the point), or that more money or smaller classes are essential (that is, put the focus back on to inputs rather than outcomes), or that pointing out the problems is to attack teachers (not true) - anything but finding out what is really happening, rigorously assessing initiatives, telling parents the truth and tailoring solutions to the students who are missing out.

More here

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

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