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Colorado Metro State College Professor Investigated for Assigning Anti-Palin Essay
By Julie | September 24, 2008
Yesterday I stumbled across an article about a college Professor in Colorado, Andrew Hallam, who assigned an Anti-Palin essay to his class. A couple students were not happy with the assignment and went to the press over it. The professor is being investigated. Here’s a snippet from the Denver Post:
Hallam assigned students to write about Palin, noting “her body language, facial expressions, the way she dressed, what she said and who she pointed out or talked about in her speech. How do these elements form a ‘fairy tale’ image about Sarah Palin as a person and as a politician that the Republican Party may wish its members and the American public to believe?”
Lucas said Hallam made the assignment last Thursday. After consideration, he broadened it at the next class on Tuesday to allow students to write about Barack Obama, Joe Biden and John McCain, she said.
The fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” is included in the class syllabus.
One of Hallam’s students, Jana Barber, took her concerns about the assignment to KCNC4, which broadcast a story Wednesday night.
Barber spoke with the TV station and on the Mike Rosen radio show this morning, before filing a complaint against Hallam with the school later in the day, said Cathy Lucas, a spokeswoman for Metro State.
Another article from cbs4denver.com stated:
One student said the instructor singled out Republican students in the class and allowed others to ridicule them.
“I said something to him like, ‘well, there may be five of us, but we’re ready to debate this and he cussed us out,” student Ben Faurer said Thursday. “He’s trying to avoid all this, go along like nothing is happening.”
“The F-you should definitely not be said to them,” fellow student Alyson Brooks said Thursday.
Brooks said Hallam is a great teacher and the controversy overblown.
“He definitely makes it known he’s a Democrat and prefers that and wishes everyone else would, but he knows there’s Republicans in class and lets them speak out and have their opinion and doesn’t put them down or discriminate against that,” she said.
Maybe Hallam is a great teacher, but that does not give him permission to ridicule his students. In this politically correct world, why did he think it was ok to encourage an entire class to bash one woman? I do not believe anyone has the right to tell another person how to think, especially in politics. Everyone comes up with their beliefs, even political beliefs for very different reasons, and very concrete reasons. We may not always agree with someone’s views, but we still have to accept them.
Some people have bashed the students for going to the press. I don’t know what to think about it. The press seems to be very biased most of the time, so I don’t always trust them. But what is the proper procedure for a problem like this? A group of Republican students should not be bashed in the classroom any more then a group of Democrats should. Students should have recourse to deal with teachers who crossed the line. If a teacher makes it his agenda to change or make fun of the political differences he has with his students, hasn’t he crossed a line? And if he wants to encourage critical thinking, shouldn’t he do it in an area a little less heated than politics? Most adults have already realized, when you go there you invite opposition and trouble. And that’s true no matter your political affiliation.
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