So...there's a controversial story kyle covered on his show today about this psychology student who was given an assignment about gender roles and basically wrote a biblically cited essay advocating for traditional gender roles. This has led to a bit of controversy, because, well, the left is going to say that academia is no place for the bible and for "hateful speech", and the right is going to claim persecution for their beliefs. Being an ex christian who went through college, and who has discussed the experience before, I kind of want to get into this my own way and actually try to objectively evaluate the essay in line with the assignment. Both the essay, and its grading criteria can be found here.
The assignment
Before we begin, let's focus on the assignment.
So...basically, the point of the assignment: read the article, write a paper on it. Criteria involved things like showing that you read the article, and a "thought reaction to the material presented in the article." 650 words, -10 points if less than 650 but more than 620, and less is a zero.
And it emphasized thoughtful discussion. It offered a wide variety of possible approaches for how to do this. Basically, they just wanted you to engage with the article in a thoughtful way. It did mention some approaches involving other scientific research, BUT, and I think this is important, there's also an option to take the approach of applying it to your personal experiences, or asking whether you think the topic is worth researching or not. Basically, the point of the essay was to show that you read the article and you thoughtfully engaged in it in some way.
As for grading, it was 25 points:
10 points- "Does the paper show a clear tie-in to the assigned article?"
10 points- "Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction or response to the article, rather than a summary?"
5 points- "Is the paper clearly written?"
So...with all of that being said, let's focus on the essay in question, which is found here.
The essay
So, the essay that the student turned in addressed the topic and summarized the article. It was about "peers using teasing as a way to enforce gender norms." Then the student cited that this wasn't a problem, and basically went on a 2 page essay citing the Bible arguing for conventional gender norms. The essay wasn't great, and I fundamentally disagree with it, but it does, by my estimation, fit within the criteria of the assignment. The student was asked to engage with the material and she did...from the Christian worldview.
Does it show a clear tie in to the assigned article? Yes it does.
Does the paper present a thoughtful reaction ot response to the article? Yes it did.
Is the paper clearly written? I would say so.
All in all, it fits the criteria given, and I do not believe the student should have gotten a zero.
I also believe that this is fairly discriminatory against Christians.
Explaining the Christian worldview, and how it interacts with science and psychology
So, as a former Christian, who was indoctrinated with all of that understanding the times stuff, I want to point out that this is a response from the fundamentalist christian worldview. While the fundamentalist christian worldview is not always anti science, I mean, if the science does not contradict scripture, Christians will accept science, it's only when it contradicts the science that they have issues.
And this is one of those areas. Regardless of what the field of psychology says about gender norms (and to be fair academia does have a bit of a "woke" biased on these questions, and some professors like to emphasize subjects like this in course material to challenge a student's worldview), the Christian worldview also emphasizes these norms and argues them from its own perspective. We can argue that the perspective is nonsense, that it's pseudoscience, and I would agree with you. Hell, I've pretty much pointed out in my analyses of the christian worldview that these guys don't even acknowledge social sciences as legitimate because they undermine the doctrine of free will. Basically, noebel's book approached the topic from a perspective of psychology is basically secular humanist ideology, they're trying to find solutions to what ails people, but what they really need is Jesus. Like....the Christian worldview is just fundamentally at odds with psychology, and idk why a fundamentalist christian would study psychology as a major. Doesn't seem like a good fit for them. And I wouldnt want a fundie christian who believes in crap like demon possession being my therapist. It is pseudoscience.
Discussing college from a fundie Christian experience
And this is where the left, including kyle is coming at this one. Basically, they can't properly engage with the material due to their worldview, they deserve to fail. But...again...I'm also an ex-Christian, I know what it's like being a fundie christian on a college campus, and I believe this topic was mishandled. The last thing you wanna do is make a christian student feel persecuted for their beliefs. And guess what? By failing this person, and calling the essay "offensive", congrats, you just activated their persecution complex. Now they're not gonna learn anything and they're gonna stand their ground and accept the F (or fight it) because let's face it, those poor christians fed to the lions in the roman days experienced worse.
Look, when I was a Christian in college, I was told it didn't matter what I believed, as long as I defended it. By the criteria put forth in this assignment, they did that. It's not the student's fault the grad student instructor didn't specific they had to use scientific sources. It basically left it open ended, with some approaches being scientific and others being personal. The student responded with a thoughtful essay defending their conservative worldview. You can say that the bible isn't authoritative, but the essay didn't ask for a specific number of sources, or ask for sources that are scientific in nature. Personal reflection essays CAN be more informal. The whole point is to get the student to engage with the material, and they did. The professor might not like the reaction they got, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. You get enough students and you push subjects that ARE controversial in society like gender norms, and eventually a conservative student is gonna have the balls to do something like this. And you know what? Unpopular opinion, but it's fine that they do! At least they engaged with the material. You aren't gonna win them all.
Here's the problem here. Apparently this teacher was trans according to some sources, and it is clear that given the emphasis on this subject matter, that they were trying to promote a narrative. Sometimes profs do this in college. I know a lot of my professors were liberal AF. And it's fine. And most of them know that roughly half their students are probably conservatives, and to some extent do this to challenge students' worldview. The real question is how you approach this. The teacher asked the students to engage with the material and defend their opinions. And this student did that. You might not like their opinion, but I do feel like, given the laxness of this assignment, it was a justifiable response to it.
And....honestly, a better professor would've taken that in stride, understanding that they can't just fail a conservative student for given a reasonably defended conservative opinion. And before people say it's not a reasonably defended opinion because it used the bible...well...again. The essay was informal, the requirements were lax, nothing the student did was outside of the criteria given, it was just, read this and react to it. The goal of such an assignment isn't necessarily to guide people to a certain opinion, but to make them engage with the material and show they understand it. And they did.
And as someone who went through college as a conservative christian itself, THAT'S HOW YOU CHANGE MINDS! It's fine if these classes challenge worldviews by making you grapple with controversial topics like racism, or sexism, or gender norms, etc. Even if you dont change minds, AT LEAST YOU MADE THEM GRAPPLE WITH THE TOPIC. Again, the point of college isn't to make you reach a certain conclusion, but to make you grapple with the material so that you learn something.
I mean, once in freshman year we had this freshman forum thing and I got in an argument with an upper class student leading the class about whether the world stopped rotating in Joshua allowing them to have a battle that lasted more than 24 hours. And that student knew better than to try to engage with it further and they werent going to change my mind.
And you know what? Imagine if i was insulted, said my view was unscientific, and failed the class as a result. What learning experience would that have been? It would have reinforced my Christian worldview, and I probably would've flunked out of college, and you know what? I'd go on about how it was a liberal indoctrination center that fails you for not accepting their worldview. Basically, a lot of fundie christians think college is a lot like the movie "god's not dead" and this example just reinforces that among them.
But no. Instead, I was simply asked to grapple with the material and to defend my view. And even though I experienced a lot of classes trying to challenge my views on topics like racism, sexism, homosexuality (and hatred toward it), etc., and sometimes I DID roll my eyes at the time, im not gonna lie. A couple times some classes laid that stuff on super thick, that doesnt mean I didn't engage with the material. I did.
And over time, I moderated, I realized that that christian worldview was nonsense as all of that engaging with material from different perspectives did persuade me, and now I'm an ex Christian and a progressive.
And I admit, I have resisted some conclusions some classes try to push. Like I never was huge on overemphasizing racism and sexism and "woke ideology" in my own politics. But do I recognize that the studies into those topics social sciences do is legitimate? Yeah. Do I think they have a point? yeah. I mean, again, you dont have to agree with any one perspective, and you know what? Some social science classes do make you engage with multiple, conflicting perspectives in analyzing various topics. You're not even GOING to agree with ALL of the perspectives you're presented. Especially with stuff like political theory or ethics, where multiple perspectives are presented and sometimes they're mutually exclusive from each other.
Again, professors should focus on making sure that the person in question read the material and engaged in it in some ways. That's the entire point. It's not to push students to adopt certain perspectives, it's to make them engage with the material. Again, college isn't about telling people what to think, but to get them to defend their opinions. Like it or not, this person did that.
If they didn't want an essay full of biblical nonsense, they should have specified that they are to use only authoritative sources and to not rely on things like personal experience. But...this essay literally did leave open the possibility of approaching it from a personal perspective rather than an academic one. The teacher in question just didn't like that perspective.
Again, try not to be the "god's not dead" guy. No one likes the god's not dead guy. That's a professor from hell.
I'm willing to be that guy on this blog at times because hey, this is just my personal opinions and given my own religious past I have nothing but scorn toward the christian worldview. But I also acknowledge it takes a lot of effort to properly approach and respond to that view. And the key to breaking people out of that mindset is to break the assumptions that underlie it. And academia CAN do that, but you cant FORCE it. Again, you give people the material, encourage them to engage with it, and then whatever happens happens. Professors aren't there to impose a certain ideology on students or punish students for having a crappy one. They're there to facilitate learning and growth, and because this professor couldn't handle an actual opposing opinion herself, well, the process breaks down and the student is just gonna double down in her existing beliefs.
Obviously I don't agree with the student
Before I end, I do wanna make one thing clear. I do not, in any way, really agree with the student. I am an ideological opponent of the fundamentalist Christian worldview, and do believe that it is a cringey and pseudoscientific perspective that does great harm to society. I just know, as a former christian myself, that the approach this professor took was a bad one, and that trying to punish a student for expressing christian beliefs is just going to make them more likely to double down on their existing mindset, making learning anything impossible. Because now their persecution complex is up.
Again, I approach this as someone who understands both sides, and who was once a very christian bible student. If I was in this class, I could see myself potentially responding to this assignment similarly. And if I got failed, I'd be pissed off, it wouldnt change my view, it would make me double down. Again, the point of college is to make people learn and spur intellectual development, this professor would've been more helpful if they engaged with the student in a more constructive way, if they wanted to challenge their views, and if they didn't, well, because the criteria of the assignment was met, just give them an A and move on. You cant win them all after all. At least you made them hear you out and engage with you using their brains in some capacity.
No comments:
Post a Comment