Musicmystery
Posts: 30259
Joined: 3/14/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Thadius quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery Hi Thadius, Yeah, and if we can use work for political purposes, I should teach classes this year about whom they should elect, grading them on their knowledge of the proper candidates' achievements and goals, right? And since teachers can buy stuff for class w/o sales tax, backers can funnel their money through me and we'll get them all the campaign stuff they need. [Before someone jumps on the liberal bias thing, incidentally, not a one of my students could tell you a thing about my political/social views--that's neither my job nor my place.] I'd love to see libel laws and truth in advertising restrictions apply to campaign ads. That would never pass muster with the Supreme Court, and it's probably effectively unenforceable anyway, but it sure would speak to one main root of the problem. Tim Tim, Many tenured professors already do use their classes to advocate for particular issues, parties and candidates. Besides that, the unions do a pretty good job of getting particular messages out for the teachers. Hell I am not even saying that those are bad things, I am just saying there has to be a better way of balancing the voice of the people with those of other entities, and I just don't know where that balancing point falls. Oh, just as an example about teachers pushing particular candidates or policies just look at some of the videos that came out of classes singing praises to our current president. As always, Thadius Hi Thadius, There's a world of difference between anecdotal stories and common practice. People's reliance on the former fosters myth. I'm in this environment consistently these days. It's not there. It's just not there. Faculty are far more concerned with course discipline content and their area of research. We can certainly point to a number of instances of clergy preaching politics to the faithful. Does that mean churches are using tax-exempt status to foster political activities? No. It means a few have done that. Most churches are focused on the reason they formed in the first place, to worship the God of their choice. I actually went to a driver safety course taught by an ex-conservative candidate. The entire six hours was filled with conservative politics. Never again--I'll just go elsewhere, to the sessions where this is not the case. Live well, Tim
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