Republicans in Florida are trying to pass a bill which would allow college students to sue their professors if they try to teach something that they don't believe in:
- “Some professors say, ‘Evolution is a fact. I don’t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don’t like it, there’s the door,’” Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala said, citing one example when he thought a student should sue.
Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, warned of lawsuits from students enrolled in Holocaust history courses who believe the Holocaust never happened.
Similar suits could be filed by students who don’t believe astronauts landed on the moon, who believe teaching birth control is a sin or even by Shands medical students who refuse to perform blood transfusions and believe prayer is the only way to heal the body, Gelber added.
Teachers are already afraid that they'll be sued for trying to maintain any sense of decorum or for using any disciplinary procedures at all; but now we're also going to make teachers afraid that they'll be sued just for teaching the stuff that's in the textbooks? What kind of bullshit is that! One of the best things about college courses is that they teach you to think and debate by having your ideas challenged and being encouraged to defend them. When you bring in the fear that a controversial idea may result in a lawsuit, you're effectively killing this. If people want to only learn things which reinforce what they already believe, they have no business going to college in the first place.
Living in a theocracy fucking sucks :angry
Comments (1)
if your ideas aren't strong enough to stand up on their own in a debate, then you can just shut up the person discussing other ideas that happen to be supported by facts and solid science. all ideas should be debated, let them stand on their own merits. my $.02.
Posted by elvispanda | March 24, 2005 11:51 PM
Posted on March 24, 2005 23:51