Community Perspective: Keep off-topic rants out of class
November 05, 2003
What's with letter writer Tobin Jones's grudge against Ka Leo columnist Pablo Wegesend? Since December 2000, almost every four editorials Wegesend has written about national controversies has elicited a vitriolic response from Jones. It would be one thing if Jones had only two or three acidic responses, but he's written at least five of them obsessing about Wegesend and one that just made a quick potshot at him. Most of Jones's rhetoric has amounted to baseless accusations of racism against anyone who disagrees with him about finance and economics. Non-sequitur, man.
"Mr. Wegesend," Jones once whined, "has the energy to constantly bitch about the Left ..." I don't know about that, but it appears Jones has a lot of time and energy to "constantly bitch" about Wegesend, especially since Jones is now an "alumnus." Given that, Jones appears to actually be a devoted reader of Wegesend's. If that were not the case, couldn't Jones just ignore Wegesend, whom he so misguidedly berates as some enemy? It's embarrassing for all parties when a graduate parades his own petty, personal vendetta against someone in public.
Jones's latest wailing comes over Wegesend's observation that many professors (not just at UH) smother their students with unneeded political indoctrination. Wegesend presented the example of a Poetry and Drama professor wasting students' time by making wisecracks about politicians that don't actually pertain to Poetry (other than that a few leftist rants might actually follow an iambic pentameter?).
"Do you," Wegesend asked us, "want a well-paid professor who spends class time venting out his/her opinions while thumbing his/her nose at those who disagree?"
Jones states that Wegesend's example wasn't a hypothetical one, because they were both in such a poetry class. "Only in the first five to ten minutes," said Jones, "was there any conversation about current events, and the professor made it clear that he was tired of students not knowing what was going on in the world and this was his attempt to remedy the problem. ... He spoke against Bush because he does not like him. Plenty of educators don't like Bush. ... These are current events and discussion of them supplements the curriculum. ..." Supplements? It is a transitive verb ... that means to complete or make an addition.
To put it frankly: If your class is about poetry, then the poetry professor taking "five to ten minutes" to denounce a politician is five to ten minutes too much. It's one thing if it's a class on liberal studies or political science. If the class is on a topic other than politics, then the professor's political views are IRRELEVANT to the discussion. Many poetry students DON'T CARE if their professor loves or hates Bush; they're paying him or her money and their valuable time to teach them about POETRY. The students don't even have an ethical obligation to care — it's THEIR money, THEIR minds and, most importantly, THEIR LIVES.
One or two stray remarks is understandable, but a professor's REGULAR carping about his or her hatred of a politician or businessperson is also a waste of class time if the subject is juvenile delinquency, geology, English literature, etc. If the poetry professor is so concerned about telling his students what he thinks about foreign or fiscal policy, he can arrange a get-together with WILLING pupils and they can all talk about it on their OWN TIME.
And since Jones so dramatically declares he was in the same class with Wegesend, then did Jones actually speak to Wegesend directly and tell him that he disagreed with his columns? If he did, then such a confrontation should've settled his issues already (get on with life!). If he didn't, then it's quite cowardly to only spring an attack like this when Wegesend cannot look him in the eye.
Stuart Hayashi resides in Mililani
Thank you Mr. Hayashi!
Now comments:
Stuart wrote:
To put it frankly: If your class is about poetry, then the poetry professor taking "five to ten minutes" to denounce a politician is five to ten minutes too much
My response : AMEN to that, though to people like, Jones and his allies, that statement is considered blasphemy! To them, all classes (including Tropical Agriculture, Fashion Design, ICS, and Engineering) should come with 5-10 minutes of indoctorination in the latest leftist spin on current events not related to the topic of the class! If the class is Poetry and Drama, concentrate on Poetry And Drama, let the students be ignorant about other things if they want to be that way! If the prof wanted to cure the students ignorance of current events, why didn't he go and teach a social science course?
Professors like Katherine Irwin, David Swift and David Mayeda do have liberal tendencies but they also had A LOT MORE HUMILITY and THEY CAN HANDLE A CIVIL DISAGREEMENT on ANYTHING! They never belittled anyone who disagreed with the latest leftist spin of the day!
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Stuart said : One or two stray remarks is understandable, but a professor's REGULAR carping about his or her hatred of a politician or businessperson is also a waste of class time if the subject is juvenile delinquency, geology, English literature, etc. If the poetry professor is so concerned about telling his students what he thinks about foreign or fiscal policy, he can arrange a get-together with WILLING pupils and they can all talk about it on their OWN TIME.
My comment : AMEN to that! We only got a limited amount of time in class to get educated on the topic we signed up for. Any propaganda is a waste of time. Profs and students can talk all they want about their ideologies if they were eating dinner at Paradise Palms or Manoa Gardens!
Last comment on Stuart's letter
Stuart wrote:
And since Jones so dramatically declares he was in the same class with Wegesend, then did Jones actually speak to Wegesend directly and tell him that he disagreed with his columns? If he did, then such a confrontation should've settled his issues already (get on with life!). If he didn't, then it's quite cowardly to only spring an attack like this when Wegesend cannot look him in the eye.
My response: Tobin said nothing to me in class, he didn't even look me in the eye the whole 6 weeks of class! But then again, it's hard to look someone in the eye, if their eyes are the type of eyes you'll find in a Hotel Street junkie!
I was waiting the whole 6 weeks for Tobin to make a wise-ass remark to me, it didn't happen. His reasons for that- I really don't know!
