Call me: Your Supreme And Most Exalted Royal Highness Who Makes a Thousand Flowers Bloom While Curing All Disease And Making The Stars To Shine

All hail His Majesty Grant Strobl! That is the title of an interesting post at Hotair about a student who is taking advantage of the University of Michigan's new policy regarding personal pronouns.

Key quote:

We’ve covered enough of these public school and college transgender pronoun stories for them to be fairly routine, but now there’s one with a twist which makes it noteworthy. When the University of Michigan not only told the students to choose their own pronoun of preference but threatened disciplinary action against professors and administrators who failed to comply, one young man saw an opportunity. Grant Strobl is apparently quite happy with the gender he was “assigned” at birth and didn’t care to be referred to as zie or hir, but he did opt for something a bit more royal sounding… His Majesty

It's a terrific idea, but I hope His Majesty is ready for the inevitable backlash. More than a few college administrators are bullies and cowards (which is how this nonsensical policy concerning personal pronouns got enacted in the first place), and they hate anyone who calls attention to that fact.

So I predict one of two things will happen:

1. The school will ignore His Majesty's request. Contrary to the university's policy no action whatsoever will be takes against any professor or administrator who fails to call His Majesty His Masjesty. The policy was enacted to give favored groups and individuals power, and not to protect all students.

2. The school will suddenly change the policy to prevent His Majesty from being called His Majesty. All that talk about students being able to identify as they want is just a hypocritical lie, but don't expect the media to stick up for His Majesty. In the totalitarian sewer that many colleges and universities are becoming one truth remains constant: all animals, er, students are equal but some are more equal than others.

Still...bravo to you, His Majesty Grant Strobl! If my community college loses its collective mind and decides to enact a policy similar to the University of Michigan's I have already picked out my title. Feast you eyes on this magnificent meandering moniker:

Your Supreme And Most Exalted Royal Highness Who Makes a Thousand Flowers Bloom While Curing All Disease And Making The Stars To Shine

Fitting, yes?

Everything old is new again

California State University Los Angeles announced that it will provide segregated housing for black students.

Key quote:

California State University Los Angeles recently rolled out segregated housing for black students.

The arrangement comes roughly nine months after the university’s Black Student Union issued a set of demands in response to what its members contend are frequent “racist attacks” on campus, such as “racially insensitive remarks” and “microaggressions” by professors and students. One demand was for a “CSLA housing space delegated for Black students.”

“[It] would provide a cheaper alternative housing solution for Black students. This space would also serve as a safe space for Black CSLA students to congregate, connect, and learn from each other,” the demand letter stated.

The newly debuted Halisi Scholars Black Living-Learning Community “focuses on academic excellence and learning experiences that are inclusive and non-discriminatory,” Cal State LA spokesman Robert Lopez told The College Fix via email.

Gee - I am old enough to remember when racial segregation was considered to be a bad thing!

Gettin' us a ejumakashen

Wayne State wants to drop its mathematics requirement. In its place will be a course on "diversity".

Key quote:

“We are proposing the creation of specific ‘Diversity’ courses, with students required to take one course in this designation,” said a document from the General Education Reform Committee, which is recalibrating what the university will expect from all students who earn a degree from the state university. It released the proposal in May.

The committee report said, “These courses will provide opportunities for students to explore diversity at the domestic level and consider the ways in which it intersects with real world challenges at the local, national and/or global level.”

We live in an era when Jim Crow has made an ugly comeback in the form of campus "safe spaces", so it is not surprising that mathematics is now on the chopping block. Math is hard - especially since it does not bend to the left-wing ideology that now controls many colleges and universities.

One wonders how much longer parents and taxpayers will put up with this educational malpractice.

Reading list

The New Science of Learning, by Terry Doyle and Todd Zakrajsek.

Do unto others...

...whatever you want, just don't do unto me. That is the opinion of this college professor, anyway.

Key quote #1:

I’ve been in academe for about a decade now, and the only professors I’ve known who have slept with or dated students were female.

I’m sure plenty more shenanigans were happening out of public view. Absolutely. But I don’t pry. I don’t care, really. I trust my colleagues not to be rapists, and barring severe warning signs I’d never take any interest in their sex lives, even if those sex lives involved relationships of a sort that I’d personally never partake in.

But lately I’ve noticed a marked, very loud silence from these professors and instructors, the ones who dated students. See, there’s a big kerfuffle going on about a female Northwestern professor, Laura Kipnis, who made the mistake of speaking honestly on the internet. She said that blanket bans on teacher-student relationships were dumb and infantilizing. In response, students and colleagues have called for her to be formally censured. And out of the several female professors I’ve known to have engaged in relationships with students, not a one has lent Kipnis a single word of support.

This isn’t an issue of hypocrisy. This is a matter of real, palpable fear. Saying anything that goes against liberal orthodoxy is now grounds for a firin’. Even if you make a reasonable and respectful case, if you so much as cause your liberal students a second of complication or doubt you face the risk of demonstrations, public call-outs, and severe professional consequences. My friends and colleagues might well agree that the student-teacher relationship ban is misguided, but they’re not allowed to say as much in public.

Do tell. But then there is this howler in the same post (key quote #2):

Personally, liberal students scare the shit out of me. I know how to get conservative students to question their beliefs and confront awful truths, and I know that, should one of these conservative students make a facebook page calling me a communist or else seek to formally protest my liberal lies, the university would have my back. I would not get fired for pissing off a Republican, so long as I did so respectfully, and so long as it happened in the course of legitimate classroom instruction.

This professor - whoever he is - refers to conservatives and Republicans as "assholes" elsewhere on his website, and some of his other posts I read are even more childish. I doubt this professor is as successful as he fancies himself to be in getting conservative students to question "awful truths": more likely, these conservative students know it is safer to back off when confronted with a rigid ideologue who has the power to fail you (or worse). It's not too hard to imagine what it is like to be a student in his class if you disagree with his far-left viewpoint.

Unfortunately, this professor's attitude is all too common in academia. He wants ideas and opinions he disagrees with driven from public debate, but is upset that the same tactics used on those whom he hates might one day be turned against him and his side (the irony of this seems to have escaped him). His not-me-get-that-conservative-behind-the-tree attitude is not exactly edifying, but I am sad to say he has a lot of company. This is modern academia in a nutshell: double standards leavened with cowardice. Do unto others what you wish, just please spare me because I am one of you - really.

The question is: what to do now? The professor may not realize it, but the leftist mobs whom he fears are at least partly his creation. After decades of using the college classroom to proselytize Marxism and punish dissent, liberal professors should not be shocked if their students now seek to purge them (all Marxist revolutions eventually turn inward as "enemies of the people" become scarce and the revolutionary rank-and-file suddenly decide that their old leaders are not pure enough). But to stuff this unruly genie back into its bottle would requite the good professor to stop working both sides of the street. He cannot have both academic freedom and continue to empower the victimization mentality that seeks to undermine it. Choose one side or the other, professor.

Form IV results

The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) says 240,903 out of 397,136 candidates scoring division zero.

Homeschooling in Sweden

Your child belongs to the state. Or so some government authorities in Sweden seem to believe.

Key quote:

Just a month ago [Sweden's] Social Welfare Committee, which kept Swedish homeschooler Domenic Johansson separated from his parents for more than three years, appealed a June decision that upheld the parental rights of his father and mother, Christer and Annie Johansson (left). In 2009, Swedish police seized seven-year-old Domenic after boarding a plane bound from Sweden as the family was minutes from departing to do missionary work in India. Initially, state authorities "permitted" the parents to see Dominic one hour every five weeks, but they haven't seen Dominic since December 2010.

I teach in a community college, and we do not homeschool or son (yet), so in a sense I don't have a dog in this fight. In my professional experience, homeschooling is either done very well (which is most of the time), or else it is done in a truly hideous fashion.

However, it is not the government's right to block homeschooling simply because they do not like the parents' reasons. Concern that a child may receive a poor education at home is not by itself a valid reason: if the government really believed that, it is safe to say there are many public schools which would have been shut down long ago. The burden of proof to deny a homeschool education must be set very high - or we cannot honestly call ourselves a free society.

One of the most disturbing lines to come out of last year's US elections was the one about the government being "the one thing we all belong to". Such a view assumes people are the property of the state, whether its advocates will admit it or not.

Christians belong to the one true God. Government is a God-ordained institution, but it is not a God-substitute.

On-line courses in Tanzania

Not sure how well this will work (or if it will work at all), but here is the key quote from the article:

In an effort to reach increase student enrollment, the Arusha-based Institute of Accountancy (IAA) is scheduled to introduce e-learning a move that omits the geographical limitations of tradition on campus system but is an also much more appealing financial option for many students in a country where income levels are still some of the world’s lowest.

More online education

The University of Texas plans to join edX.

Like it or not, online courses seem to be a growing component of education.

Teaching mathematics in Tanzania

An opinion piece by Beniel Seka concerning the problem of finding quality mathematics teachers in Tanzania.

Key quote:

One of the greatest problems facing our schools is lack of teachers, especially science and mathematics ones. The problem is rooted in other problems such as low salaries, unsuitable teaching environment and inability to admit enough suitable students in the teachers' colleges.

Mathematics is feared by many pupils especially in secondary schools and records the highest failure rate for the Secondary O-level National examinations. This makes it very difficult to select students to train as mathematics teachers.

New vocational colleges in Tanzania

Construction on three new vocational colleges in Ukerewe, Chunya and Namtumbo has begun.

Tanzania has a pretty severe shortage of post-secondary education. My brother-in-law studied at Moshi University College of Cooperative and Business Studies (MUCCoBS), and was able to get a pretty good job in Tanzania after graduation.

Growing enrollment at Liberty University

According to the US Department of Education, Liberty University is seventh in the nation in terms of total enrollment.

Key quote:

Liberty’s accelerating growth is largely fueled by its booming online education program, which has more than doubled since 2009. In April, Liberty University Online hit 75,000 students enrolled. That number climbed to 78,000 this month.

Yet - it is necessary

Christian evangelist Luis Palau believes praises Liberty University for keeping its Christian values.

Key quote:

"In the early years, I used to wonder whether a Christian education as such was necessary," Palau admits. "But now that the U.S. has changed so radically, it's absolutely necessary, and I've become convinced that its is essential."

Without such an education, the evangelist says young minds and communities get infiltrated with a secular worldview. So he finds it refreshing to see a university so clear about its mission.

Christians are not officially barred from teaching in the public education sector in the United States, although there are a growing number of cases where individual Christians and Christian student organizations are being discriminated against. In post-secondary education (my occupation) it is increasingly risky to express skepticism about a number of issues such as the homosexual lifestyle, evolution, and radical Islam. Granted: it is difficult to retaliate against Christian professors who are tenured, but the rest of us we do not always have the luxury of academic freedom. Given the growing hostility of American society (or at least a noisy but powerful segment of it) to the Christian worldview, it is not hard at all to foresee a time when many public universities and colleges and K-12 schools will impose a religious litmus test for employment - even it the test is not officially affirmed.

That is why I believe Christian schools and colleges are so important. Christian education can be an important force in protecting religious freedom and academic integrity of all schools, since it would be extremely difficult (though not impossible) to shut Christian schools down completely.

As to whether Christians should avoid public education altogether, I find that a tough call. Christians who attend public schools and colleges should be aware of the fact that their religious freedoms and rights will not always be respected by school officials. But not all school administrators subscribe to the anti-Christian prejudice that seem to be gaining in popularity, and it is only fair to point this out. Many - likely most - teachers and administrators still take their responsibilities seriously.

Cutting class

The title of this post is more than a bit crass, but I could not resist. How would you like it is you were a teacher, and some of your male students were missing class ... because of circumcision? That's what is happening for teachers in the Monduli area, as some of their male students from the Maasai tribe undergo a traditional rite.

Key quote from the article:

Circumcision in the Maasai world goes beyond the usual male-cut; the nearly three-month long passage involves series of informal education including military training, hunting and endurance as well as survival skills.The whole thing is later topped by the actual male cut or circumcision, performed by elders using sharp knives in early hours of the morning, after which the youths will stay in the camp for over a week as the wounds heal, then come out as "Morans."

What is alarming is the cutting is almost always done with unclean knives.

(The article in the link above has an interview with Mr. Mollel, a former colleague of mine.)

The deadly danger of ... a T-shirt?

William Swinimer will now be allowed to wear his Jesus T-shirt. In some parts the Western world, that is increasingly a major victory for religious freedom.

Key quote:

The T-shirt, which says Life is Wasted Without Jesus, is not the issue, said Nancy Pynch-Worthylake, superintendent of the South Shore regional school board. The issue is how to express one’s beliefs without offending others. “For us, it never really was about the one shirt,” Pynch-Worthylake said Friday.

Contrast that school board's near-hysterical reaction to a T-shirt with the name of Jesus on it to the bland acceptance of using school facilities to conduct Muslim prayers.

This is why I have a hard time taking the separation-of-church-and-state fundamentalists seriously. It is too easy to find examples where they ignore the use of schools for non-Christian activity (Muslim prayers), or actively promote religious beliefs (global warming cultism, evolution).

Form VI results

The National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) has released the results of this year's Form Six national examinations.

Education partnership

Harvard and MIT today announced a new partnership called edX. Initially edX will offer courses from MIT and Harvard, with other universities joining in the future.

MITx offers its first course

I am a bit late on this, but MITx is offering its first online course:

Taught by Anant Agarwal, with Gerald Sussman and Piotr Mitros, 6.002x (Circuits and Electronics) is an on-line adaption of 6.002, MIT’s first undergraduate analog design course. This prototype course will run, free of charge, for students worldwide from March 5, 2012 through June 8, 2012. Students will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of the material and earn a certificate from MITx.

Like it or not, online education seems to be a trend that is worth watching.

Academic thuggery

University of Rochester President Joel Seligman rebukes economics professor Steven Landsburg for daring to criticize Sandra Fluke. Worse still, seventeen students disrupted Professor Landsburg's lecture with no consequences from the university's administration. Is this America, or Nazi Germany?

So much for free speech.

So much for academic freedom.

This is why I rarely take complaints about the tone of political discourse in America seriously. Too many in the secular media and the universities who wail about "incivility" are like President Seligman: lying hypocrites willing to demand self-censorship from those whom they hate while reserving for their side the right to use intimidation, threats, and even violence if it furthers their political objectives.

And as for Miss Fluke herself and her bizarre demand that others subsidize her promiscuous behavior, Mark Steyn has said what I think far better than I ever could.

Wave of the future?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology will be offering free online courses starting in the spring of 2012. These courses will be offered to students both inside and outside the MIT community.

I am working towards a MS in mathematics through an online program, so this is of great interest to me. I would love to take coursework in such topics as abstract algebra, topology and complex variables. I would also be interested in any special education courses.

Like it or not, more and more college-level coursework is being offered online. In the fall of 2012 I will be teaching an online trigonometry course. Until now, this has been available only through traditional classroom instruction and "blended" courses (a mixture of classroom instruction and video conferencing).

The barriers to education are falling. So grab your computer and start learning!

(h/t: Instapundit)