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John Warner

16 Jul, 8 tweets, 3 min read

Perhaps the most vexing part of the Coddling the American Mind era to me has been seeing people argue that it's necessary to delegitimize the speech of students in order to protect the truth-seeking purpose of the university. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…

Students yelling at faculty, students exercising their rights on Title IX, students advocating for inclusive spaces were painted a byproducts of a psychological pathology, and therefore, illegitimate. This was a very bad path.

Around the time the original Coddling article came out, I was cheering student protests because I thought they signaled a desire and need for shared engagement over the fate of the institution. Rather than engage, tho, many wanted to just shut it down. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…

We could have taken another path, which meant taking student protests seriously and engaging deeply. This doesn't mean capitulation or treating students like customers. It means taking them seriously as stakeholders.

Those student protests of 2015 were canaries in the coal mine for the anti-anti-racist forces that have gained so much traction today and which animate so much of Trumpism and the authoritarian impulse.

If there were any institutions well positioned to hash these things out, it should've been our elite universities, but huge swaths of faculty looked at the potential to upset the status quo and just said, "nah." Crafting elaborate arguments that just don't hold up to scrutiny.

@AaronRHanlon

It's important to see that I'm not engaging in hindsight. I linked to my own pieces from that time. Here's @AaronRHanlon from the same period pointing out the illogic of the anti-trigger warning, et al. arguments. newrepublic.com/article/122543…

We should always err on the side of listening to students, the side of engagement. They're stakeholders in our institutions as much as anyone else, and it's them who are going to be most harmed by the present assaults on our institutions. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…

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More from @biblioracle

John Warner

@biblioracle

16 Jul

I've been awfully critical of Kevin Carey when he wades into issues of teaching and learning because I don't think he understands how that works, but he's very good in looking at the systems of higher ed institutions. slate.com/business/2021/…

It's why The End of College and the University of Everywhere is two books, one good, one (IMO) deeply misguided. First half diagnosis problems of current system very well. Second half that posits a replacement betrays lack of consideration of how learning works.

In terms of general commentary about higher ed, I think far the attention among important policy shapers stops at the level of "credential" and quantifiable outcomes. Those of us focused on learning just see more dimensions to the problem than that.

Read 9 tweets

John Warner

@biblioracle

16 Jul

There is a dire threat to the "telos of the university" and it isn't social justice. My best effort to convince those who both sides anti-racism and anti-anti-racism that there is a clear choice on who to stand with if they believe their own rhetoric insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…

There's 15,000 words on the drafting/cutting room floor for this blog post because every time I would try to write it I would roll through anger on my way to despair and not only did I feel awful at the end, it would have the same effect on the reader.

After this post, I've made a pledge to myself to stop spending my time calling out on here or in the blog what I see as obvious hypocrisy among the heterodox academy crowd. This post covers everything I think I have to say. I hope they decide to truly live their values.

Read 8 tweets

John Warner

@biblioracle

15 Jul

Yes!

I think it was reminding him that the man who claims to care about children gleefully cashes check from the folks who are killing the planet for future generations. How someone can live with that cognitive dissonance is beyond me.

I want all children to grow up to have an equal chance at evading the marauding cannibals that rule our climate ravaged hellscape before dying of cancer from our poisoned water and depleted atmosphere - Robert Pondisco, Senior Fellow, AEI (possibly).

Read 5 tweets

John Warner

@biblioracle

12 Jul

I believe faculty who have labored in private colleges and universities do not fully appreciate how difficult it is for those who work in public institutions in states where those institutions are convenient punching bags for politicians looking for political gain.

Elevating the importance of "viewpoint diversity" as a kind of affirmative action for conservatives in private institutions may make sense as an intramural debate, but in states like South Carolina, they become a cudgel with which to clobber public higher ed.

The coddling/wokeness debate may feel like a battle for who gets listened to at private institutions, but in public ones it is an excuse for hostile legislatures to punish institutions, faculty, and students.

Read 8 tweets

John Warner

@biblioracle

8 Jul

The "don't poke the bear" approach described here is a dynamic in many states and many state systems and I agree, it hasn't worked. At some point, the community needs to come together and have it out. This is leadership. dailytarheel.com/article/2021/0…

College of Charleston's board hired one of the bears (one of the most powerful state politicians), Glenn McConnell, over the recommendations of a search firm and wishes of faculty and students. It didn't help. He was a non-existent leader and the budget didn't budge.

U. South Carolina had Robert Caslen, former superintendent of West Point, installed as President by the Republican governor/legislature. He was an utter failure because he was put in a position which made it impossible for him to bring the community together.

Read 8 tweets

John Warner

@biblioracle

8 Jul

In grade school in the 1970's I was exposed to anti-smoking education to prevent me from harming myself and others. I then went home and agitated until my parents quit smoking. Didn't realize I was a little totalitarianist.

The attitude that parents have literal ownership of (as opposed to responsibility for) their children is interesting to me and perhaps telling when it comes to these current school-related culture war debates. Related to this push to video teachers.

I'm sympathetic to the fear parents have for their children's well-being, but I'm also a big believer in education as a process and school as a place for students to develop agency and self-concept, which may diverge from their parents' belief.

Read 4 tweets

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