Did you hear the one about the Stanford lecturer who…

[Mick1]

…sequestered the Jewish students in his class? Not a joke. Here’s the Stanford Daily’s article, which seems in-depth.

Stanford suspended a lecturer to investigate identity-based targeting. Here’s what students say happened. (stanforddaily.com)

Incidentally, the lecturer is a Cal-Berkeley person. Quelle surprise…

Ameer Hasan Loggins – African American Studies (berkeley.edu)

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[Legend]

Gotta admit, the professor made a number of bad choices that probably mean he shouldn’t teach at Stanford again, but discussing the topic and provoking discussion isn’t necessarily one of them.

• He should not have singled out students for their identity
• He should have been more sensitive so as not to discuss an emerging war that has very little factual underpinning in the news. Timing was really bad.

But I actually am not bothered by the provoking of discussion via smart-aleck responses that might reflect the knee-jerk reactions of others.  Even the comment “only 6 million” can be said effectively and widely misconstrued as absolutely inappropriate.  I could easily hear a very provocative professor using that as a tool for challenging students to think as broadly as possible.

I completely disagree with the comparison of the Holocaust to the Belgian Congo, but can see it as a point of discussion and debate.

I guess I’d have to have heard the facilitation approach.  I often use a facilitation approach that is very adversarial in my professional life, and can assure you I don’t always hold the beliefs that I speak to in some sessions.

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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

[Mick1]

The problem I have with using 6 million Jewish deaths in the Holocaust in that fashion, is that there was a worldwide total of 12 million Jews at the time.

What if some professor projected/theorized the deaths of half the Muslims in the world, which would be 900 million deaths? Would the Muslims go batshit crazy? Of course they would. Or if 1.19 billion Christians perished? Would the Christians be a wee bit peeved? Yes, I suspect so.

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[Author]

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