http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3122
By Mary Hiles
In 2006, nearly 60 percent of Wisconsin voters passed a referendum banning same-sex marriage and civil unions. UW-Oshkosh political science instructor Bill McConkey challenged the new amendment in court, asserting he was denied the right to vote on the question of marriage and civil unions separately. A Dane County judge recently concurred, allowing McConkey’s suit to move forward.
McConkey, a self-described “Christian, straight, married father of seven,” one of whom is a lesbian, recently stated, “People have asked me, ‘Would you have filed this suit if it wasn’t for your daughter?’ To be real honest, maybe not. Maybe I would have just ranted and raved in my classrooms… but I feel like I’m fighting for my kid.”
McConkey has the right to try to legally overturn the law, but does he have the right to “rant and rave” about the issue in his classes? Is that what academic freedom means? Apparently many entrusted with educating today’s college students think so. Here is a sampling of political pedagogy by professors, who, like McConkey, teach in public institutions of higher education:
University of Northern Colorado criminology professor Robert Dunkley gives essay exams requiring students to “make the argument that the military action of the U.S. attacking Iraq was criminal,” and “make the case for gay marriage” and “explain how this additional type of family could help prevent crime.”
Despite rap music’s crude, violent, sexual lyrics, Brooklyn College professor of education Priya Parmar teaches that teachers should use rap to teach English to children as young as eight, that standard English is a form of white oppression of blacks, and that those who disagree with her views should not become teachers.
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080118/OSH06/801180515/1189