Monday, February 07, 2005

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

Another attempt to intimidate conservatives

A UNLV professor under fire for comments he made about homosexuals during a class lecture last year demanded Friday that the university stop threatening to punish him. "I have done absolutely nothing wrong," said the professor, Hans Hoppe, a conservative libertarian economist with almost 20 years teaching experience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, on Hoppe's behalf, sent a letter to UNLV officials alleging that the university violated Hoppe's free speech rights and his right to academic freedom. "The charge against professor Hoppe is totally specious and without merit," reads the letter from ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein. He said they would sue the university if necessary, though they hope to avoid it.

UNLV officials would not comment on the case, saying they cannot talk publicly about personnel matters.

Hoppe, 55, a world-renowned economist, author and speaker, said he was giving a lecture to his money and banking class in March when the incident occurred. The subject of the lecture was economic planning for the future. Hoppe said he gave several examples to the class of about 30 upper-level undergraduate students on groups who tend to plan for the future and groups who do not. Very young and very old people, for example, tend not to plan for the future, he said. Couples with children tend to plan more than couples without. As in all social sciences, he said, he was speaking in generalities. Another example he gave the class was that homosexuals tend to plan less for the future than heterosexuals. Reasons for the phenomenon include the fact that homosexuals tend not to have children, he said. They also tend to live riskier lifestyles than heterosexuals, Hoppe said. He said there is a belief among some economists that one of the 20th century's most influential economists, John Maynard Keynes, was influenced in his beliefs by his homosexuality. Keynes espoused a "spend it now" philosophy to keep an economy strong, much as President Bush did after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks....

But within days of the lecture, he was notified by school officials that a student had lodged an informal complaint. The student said Hoppe's comments offended him. A series of formal hearings ensued.

He said university officials first said they would issue him a letter of reprimand and dock him a week's pay. That option was rejected by Hoppe's dean and by the university provost, Hoppe said. More hearings ensued, he said. In the end, the university gave him until Friday to accept its latest offer of punishment: It would issue him a letter of reprimand and he would give up his next pay increase. Hoppe, a tenured full professor, contacted the ACLU on the recommendation of an attorney friend of his. Hoppe is now their client. "I felt like I was the victim," he said, "not the student."

ACLU officials said the validity of Hoppe's economic theories does not matter. It is his right to espouse them in class. "We don't subscribe to Hans' theories and certainly understand why some students find them offensive," said Gary Peck, the ACLU of Nevada's executive director. "But academic freedom means nothing if it doesn't protect the right of professors to present scholarly ideas that are relevant to their curricula, even if they are controversial and rub people the wrong way."

Hoppe said he is dumbfounded by the university's response to the student's complaint. It is not his job, he said, to consider how a student might feel about economic theories. "Our task is to teach what we consider to be right," he said. The offended student, he said, should have been told to "grow up."

More here





PHONICS: NOBODY SAYS IT BETTER THAN PROF. PLUM

Post lifted whole from the good Professor's site. More here

There's a ton of solid data showing that systematic (planned, logically progressive), explicit (clear models, definitions, and rules), focused instruction is highly effective.  In fact, Professor Plum has clogged this blog (note the clever approximation to a rhyme) with sprightly verbiage on that very subj, here.

In addish, as you may know, there are many field-tested commerical programs in reading, math, writing, spelling, science, logic, and history based on principles of systematic, explicit, focused instruction.  These go by the name Direct Instruction, as discussed here and here.  Programs very close to DI are by Saxon Math (at least it used to be the case), Singapore Math, and many programs sold by Sopris West and Curriculum Associates.

Natcherly, "little" di (systematic, explicit, focused instruction in general) and commercial DI programs are despised by the majority of pedagogues and decision-making eduhacks--possibly because these nitwits know that effective, efficient programs will put them out of business. Witness the evil nonsense going on in Rockford, IL.  The idiocy in the remarks of Ms. Hayes as she defends her decision to get rid of DI and replace it with whole language (which edufrauds call  "balanced literacy") is so blatant you'd think she'd have noticed--or perhaps not.

As principal, Parker used teacher-led direct reading instruction with a heavy dose of phonics. Chief Instructional Officer Martha Hayes, who arrived with Superintendent Dennis Thompson in May, wants more student-centered reading called "balanced literacy."

Hayes said Lewis Lemon's success did not translate to higher fifth-grade reading scores. Parker said direct reading instruction was new to the upper elementary grades and was not given time to show results.


You can read the latest here

Whole languagists and other intellectually impaired inhabitants of Edland are clever reptiles.  OF COURSE DI is not going to raise fifth grade reading scores YET; the school started using it in the LOWER grades.  This is akin to arguing that a medicine does not work even though no patients have taken it yet.  How people this stupid are able to put on their pants without strangling themselves or setting the house on fire is a great mystery.  I wonder if they THINK of these lines ahead of time, or if their madness just leaks out.

Having watched whole languagists, pseudo-child-centrists, and progressives since 1967, we know them to be unrepentant liars, cowards, and mentally negiligible hysterical harpies.

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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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