Amen.
Professor’s contract with students: ‘Drop the class immediately if you are triggered by free speech | Blaze Media
A professor has taken a novel approach when it comes to dealing with the increasing number of students railing against and even shutting down academic ideas they don’t agree with: a contract. James “Duke” Pesta, an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, presents a two…
A professor has taken a novel approach when it comes to dealing with the increasing number of students railing against and even shutting down academic ideas they don’t agree with: a contract.
James “Duke” Pesta, an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, presents a two-page contract to his students on the first day of class that asks them to drop the course if they are “triggered” or offended by certain ideas or beliefs.
What does the contract say?
“In this course, we study literature from cultures that existed before you were born. Their world is not our world. Their beliefs may not be our beliefs. No one asks you to believe or endorse any premise, attitude, precept, theology, political system, or ideology contained in these books or expressed in class. Nor will you ever lose points or be docked grades because of your opinion (written, oral, or otherwise),” the contract’s Statement of Purpose reads, the College Fix said.
“We will not malign or trivialize these texts because they do not always parrot our values. We will not assume these books are racist, sexist, or homophobic because of the period in which they were written, or because of the race, class, gender, or religion of the authors,” the contract also says, the outlet reported. “People who approach alien cultures with such preconceived notions are bigots masquerading as critically sophisticated advocates, often in the name of ‘social justice.’ Persons who so diminish the past are neither social nor just, especially when they compel students to adopt their biases.”
The College Fix noted that the contract also offers the following instructions:
- Please drop the class immediately if you are triggered by free speech, the free exchange of ideas, or people who express and defend ideas or opinions that differ from your own.
- Please drop the class immediately if you are triggered by open, direct, and adult discussion of issues, including but not limited to issues of faith, war, violence, race, gender, and sexuality.
- Please drop the class immediately if you are triggered by recurring encounters with heterosexuality, traditional gender identities, sympathetic representations of Christianity (or religion in general), positive examples of free markets or capitalism, or unapologetic encounters with patriotism, hierarchies, or meritocracy-based institutions or attitudes.
- Please drop the class immediately if you feel entitled to censor the thoughts or words of others or insist they tailor their language or attitudes to your preferences.
Pesta — a conservative — told the outlet in an interview that he’s used his contract for three semesters and a less-specific version for about eight years.
“I have learned through personal experience that university administrators and equity officers are often not willing to defend classroom speech, even if that speech is taken directly from books or used to explain them,” he told the College Fix.