Monday, June 25, 2012

The bully professor's definition of higher education

In my editorial, "bully professor", I talked about the 5 minute presentation on the program Character Counts. The bully professor had the presenter of Character Counts signaled at 4 minutes to indicate that she had only one minute left to finish her presentation. In contrast, the presenter for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network rambled on, uninterrupted, for 20 minutes. I guess we can safely assume the definition of higher education is whatever the bully professor dictates it to be.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Totalitarianism

Dr. Heather Oesterreich, Director of Secondary Education at New Mexico State University, is a white female. She hired a white female for the position of Assistant Director of Secondary Education. Where's the diversity? Not only is diversity lacking on the exterior, but it is also lacking on the interior; she hired someone with the same personal ideologies as herself. These personal ideologies have been established as course curriculum and the foundation for acceptance of students into the secondary teacher education program. My first class at NMSU was Multicultural Education where I have been taught to be a critical thinker. Come to find out that is not really what the secondary teacher education program wants. Instead, Dr. Oesterreich tells you what you are allowed to be critical of. Why in the realm of higher education is totalitarianism accepted?

Friday, June 15, 2012

Diversity

The Department of Curriculum & Instruction takes great delight in the word diversity. Can we agree the concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect? And it means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. In reality, the world of academia, more specifically Dr. Heather Oesterreich, promotes diversity as acceptance and respect for her own personal ideologies. She uses the classroom as her podium and her position as Director of Secondary Education to bully the students into concession. She does knows best...after all, she has a doctorate degree which means she is really, really smart.