Professors United for a Cause: Ayers

More Than 3000 Academics Sign Pro-Ayers Petition is an interesting little article. Why would so many profs rally behind this guy? One possible answer: they feel that his "character assassination" is a threat to free speech on college campii:

the attacks on and the character assassination of Ayers threaten the university as a space of open inquiry and debate, and threaten schools as places of compassion, imagination, curiosity, and free thought. They serve as warnings that anyone who voices perspectives and advances questions that challenge orthodoxy and political power may become a target, and this, then, casts a chill over free speech and inquiry and the spirit of democracy.

Doesn't this sound just a tad anarchist to you? "Challenge orthodoxy?"

But aside from that, they can be anarchists--it's a free country. No one is trying to take that away from them. (Although I am still laughing at the melodramatic phrase "casts a chill"--let me go get my sweater....)

The problem is the double standard. "We have the right to challenge your orthodoxy, but don't challenge our orthodoxy." Or "We have the right to free speech, except those who disagree with us."

Plus the sad irony here is that those who lean more to the left do have control of academia. How many professors are safe to openly teach at a public university a Pro-Life viewpoint or Intellegent Design as part of a Biology course? Do they have free speech rights?

Just wondering....well, back to my laundry. Sorry to get so distracted.

Back to School Nights

Well, I've been busy these past few months. One thing I put on my proverbial plate is a language class at a local community college.

"Why" at the age of 40-something am I taking a language class you may wonder? Maybe I'll answer that in more in another post, but what I put down on my school application that I was doing it to enhance my job skills. I am enhancing my job skills.

Anyhow, it's been fodder for at least a few blog posts.

Now, while I have been in college ministry for the past 20 years, being on a college campus with 20-somethings is not completely strange. In fact, there is something very familiar and comfortable about it.

For one thing, I am about the same age as the professor. Why I bet she has even had a little hot-flash or two, or at least memory lapses due to low estradiol levels that impair brain function. (I'm dying to ask her, but I promise to refrain.)

Another advantage is that I know how to study. It isn't hard. You just do all the homework, and all the extra-credit. If the teacher puts a practice test online, there's a good chance that will be the actual test. When the teacher says, "memorize this by Thursday" or know this vocabulary list by this day--take it seriously. Don't gamble and think, "maybe she'll forget." That is what I used to do when I was younger.

I also don't have the distraction of the boyfriend thing. I already have my husband and children. I am living the dream. The young men in my class could be my own sons. (hint: future blog post subject).

As an older person, I also have the advantage of perspective. Frankly, most of the people sitting around me are still trying to figure out their lives or perhaps put them back together. I don't think they realize that this class is important and that if they were to actually study, it would pay off. If they applied themselves at community college, got straight A's, and were involved in an student group or government on campus, they could get a scholarship to a 4-year college.

On the other hand, at a deeper level, I don't think they know how short their lives really are and that this class really doesn't matter in terms of eternity.