Don’t ask questions at US Universities (you might learn something!)

The land of the free - but free speech is a rare commodity

August 14th, 2006 in General

This is what passes for education in America Incorporated? Let’s hope their graduates only want to work in the US because their education level will be a bad joke everywhere else in the world. They’ll be able to use their degree certifcates as wrapping in their branch of Maccas. Of course what this policy really says is that they know they cannot defend their argument.

The Observer - “It used to be said that academic rows were vicious because the stakes were so small. That’s no longer true in America, where a battle is underway on campuses over what can be said about the Middle East and US foreign policy.

Douglas Giles is a recent casualty. He used to teach a class on world religions at Roosevelt University, Chicago, founded in memory of FDR and his liberal-inclined wife, Eleanor. Last year, Giles was ordered by his head of department, art historian Susan Weininger, not to allow students to ask questions about Palestine and Israel; in fact, nothing was to be mentioned in class, textbooks and examinations that could possibly open Judaism to criticism.

Students, being what they are, did not go along with the ban. A young woman, originally from Pakistan, asked a question about Palestinian rights. Someone complained and Professor Giles was promptly fired.”