Barak's stand is sanctimony couched as principle. Well, congratulations Mr. Computer Science professor for not talking about political topics in your class! Huzzah!
Now do History. Especially when there are people with the power to impact higher education claiming that the very fact of teaching civil rights is "CRT" and that CRT, or their dystopian interpretation of it where all discussions about race are CRT, is political. Or that we have to teach both sides about Jim Crow. Or the Holocaust. Or apartheid. Yeah, you probably shouldn't be talking about due process, which inevitably has implications for the current political dialogue, in a programming class. You had better damned well be doing so in a good number of American history classes. If people draw inferences, well ...
I teach film studies classes in an English department and I make it a point to not bring in politics or talk about my opinions on politics. Why should my opinions or students' politician opinions matter to film or literature?
I don't think politics belongs in physics or computer science, unless perhaps there are topical issues directly relevant, which might include contentious changes in research funding, or even relevant changes in copyright law.
OTOH, I can't imagine a history class that didn't have at least tangential relevance to present day politics. And then there's political science, or the major my alma mater called "government" (possibly one and the same).
I also recall, with pleasure, a section of the mandatory freshman writing classed that focussed on impeachment - the year that Nixon was potentially heading that way.
But that gets me to another relevant consideration. The people in the impeachment section chose to be there. (I picked it to avoid other sections focussed on e.g. literature, which was not my thing.) And to this day I couldn't tell you the instructor's opinion on Nixon; I'm not even sure of his personal opinion on relevant aspects of constitutional law.
That's the way to handle politics when one has a position of influence, not to mention power over the other participants. Students should never wonder whether their grades might be dependent on agreeing with the instructor's political opinions.
Also, when feelings are especially heated, it's better to ban all discussion of it. An example of that would be the current situation in Palestine, where students on all sides were reporting feeling threatened for their opinions and/or ethnicity, even before the US government decided to start prosecuting and deporting students for "anti-Semitism".
So - maybe go ahead and discuss the small stuff. The local counsellor caught with his hand in the till, or up someone's skirt. The local squabble about bike lanes vs parking. If it's relevant to your class, or an elephant in the room (students are late because of the demonstration in their way?). But if it's majorly polarizing, better not to facilitate students breaking up into us vs them.
The trouble with teaching basic science and trying to stay in your lane is that if that basic science is vaccines or the effect of carbon dioxide on surface temperature or the age of the Earth according to uranium isotopic decay, then all of a sudden you're being political and your lane doesn't exist any more.
Your are preaching to the choir with the first footnote. It drives me bananas when people criticize something without linking to it, whether they do it in the way you describe, or by posting just a screenshot. I guess it's my upbringing in the blogosphere, but I always felt that it is only fair play to link to the piece under consideration.
It drives me particularly batty when people try to make the "I don't want to give that site any traffic." Please. The few extra clicks are going to be the epitome of lost in the noise at least 99% of the time. And that rare case? Well, good! Let the person on the other end know that a lot of people are noticing what a horrible thing has been posted! (Not saying the piece you are discussing is horrible.)
[ETA] Good essay overall. Nothing really to add, since I pretty much agree with all of it.
Barak's stand is sanctimony couched as principle. Well, congratulations Mr. Computer Science professor for not talking about political topics in your class! Huzzah!
Now do History. Especially when there are people with the power to impact higher education claiming that the very fact of teaching civil rights is "CRT" and that CRT, or their dystopian interpretation of it where all discussions about race are CRT, is political. Or that we have to teach both sides about Jim Crow. Or the Holocaust. Or apartheid. Yeah, you probably shouldn't be talking about due process, which inevitably has implications for the current political dialogue, in a programming class. You had better damned well be doing so in a good number of American history classes. If people draw inferences, well ...
I teach film studies classes in an English department and I make it a point to not bring in politics or talk about my opinions on politics. Why should my opinions or students' politician opinions matter to film or literature?
I don't think politics belongs in physics or computer science, unless perhaps there are topical issues directly relevant, which might include contentious changes in research funding, or even relevant changes in copyright law.
OTOH, I can't imagine a history class that didn't have at least tangential relevance to present day politics. And then there's political science, or the major my alma mater called "government" (possibly one and the same).
I also recall, with pleasure, a section of the mandatory freshman writing classed that focussed on impeachment - the year that Nixon was potentially heading that way.
But that gets me to another relevant consideration. The people in the impeachment section chose to be there. (I picked it to avoid other sections focussed on e.g. literature, which was not my thing.) And to this day I couldn't tell you the instructor's opinion on Nixon; I'm not even sure of his personal opinion on relevant aspects of constitutional law.
That's the way to handle politics when one has a position of influence, not to mention power over the other participants. Students should never wonder whether their grades might be dependent on agreeing with the instructor's political opinions.
Also, when feelings are especially heated, it's better to ban all discussion of it. An example of that would be the current situation in Palestine, where students on all sides were reporting feeling threatened for their opinions and/or ethnicity, even before the US government decided to start prosecuting and deporting students for "anti-Semitism".
So - maybe go ahead and discuss the small stuff. The local counsellor caught with his hand in the till, or up someone's skirt. The local squabble about bike lanes vs parking. If it's relevant to your class, or an elephant in the room (students are late because of the demonstration in their way?). But if it's majorly polarizing, better not to facilitate students breaking up into us vs them.
The trouble with teaching basic science and trying to stay in your lane is that if that basic science is vaccines or the effect of carbon dioxide on surface temperature or the age of the Earth according to uranium isotopic decay, then all of a sudden you're being political and your lane doesn't exist any more.
How does one teach when Harvard bends the knee and says you have to not teach DEI/WOKE/Palestinian Computer Science?
We are not there yet but moving in that direction.
Your are preaching to the choir with the first footnote. It drives me bananas when people criticize something without linking to it, whether they do it in the way you describe, or by posting just a screenshot. I guess it's my upbringing in the blogosphere, but I always felt that it is only fair play to link to the piece under consideration.
It drives me particularly batty when people try to make the "I don't want to give that site any traffic." Please. The few extra clicks are going to be the epitome of lost in the noise at least 99% of the time. And that rare case? Well, good! Let the person on the other end know that a lot of people are noticing what a horrible thing has been posted! (Not saying the piece you are discussing is horrible.)
[ETA] Good essay overall. Nothing really to add, since I pretty much agree with all of it.