Alright. What did you mean by “ignorance should not have a safe space there”?
Last week, a student at Texas A&M objected to the professor teaching about “transgenderism” in the classroom. The teacher was doing their job, teaching the scientific consensus. Instead of challenging the teacher’s ideas, the student challenged the legality of teaching science. The student was ignorant. Instead of admitting ignorance, or even assuming their own competence and trying to argue their ideas, the student took the third route: threats of political violence. The student warned the teacher that police could come and force the teacher from teaching the truth.
Campuses should be very intolerant to ignorance like this student displayed. But instead the teacher, department head, and dean were all penalized for standing up against an enemy of free thought. That is the goal of this administration - to force indoctrination on American children, and shut down all the spaces where having discussions like this one we’re having right now might open their eyes up to the lies they’ve been taught.
I had to hold off until actually watching the video, which, ugh. I’m confident that was a setup by the student and their handlers (for example, whoever was filming) to get that teacher fired and make the school look bad. There was no “ignorance” involved there, one way or another. The student was not ignorant. The student was carrying out a very deliberate step in the Trump administration’s campaign of political repression against universities.
And if the student had been asking an ignorant question in good faith, the teacher handled it more or less correctly. It would have been nice to have a learning opportunity there, for example, the difference between executive orders and laws, or the difference between laws and science. But that would require a student who is willing to learn, and that wasn’t in the cards.
As for the rest, I am a deep believer in free speech on campuses, which has to include the right to ask ignorant questions, and express ignorant beliefs, including offensive and hateful beliefs, and have those beliefs debated and corrected, without being judged or punished for your ignorance.
I think a safe space for ignorance is a place where you can ask questions and express beliefs without being afraid people will judge or punish you if what you say is ignorant or offensive due to your ignorance. And I think those are these sorts of spaces you need to have in schools and on campuses if you want space for ignorant people to learn. If that’s not what you meant by the term, I apologize for misunderstanding you.
Last week, a student at Texas A&M objected to the professor teaching about “transgenderism” in the classroom. The teacher was doing their job, teaching the scientific consensus. Instead of challenging the teacher’s ideas, the student challenged the legality of teaching science. The student was ignorant. Instead of admitting ignorance, or even assuming their own competence and trying to argue their ideas, the student took the third route: threats of political violence. The student warned the teacher that police could come and force the teacher from teaching the truth.
Campuses should be very intolerant to ignorance like this student displayed. But instead the teacher, department head, and dean were all penalized for standing up against an enemy of free thought. That is the goal of this administration - to force indoctrination on American children, and shut down all the spaces where having discussions like this one we’re having right now might open their eyes up to the lies they’ve been taught.
I had to hold off until actually watching the video, which, ugh. I’m confident that was a setup by the student and their handlers (for example, whoever was filming) to get that teacher fired and make the school look bad. There was no “ignorance” involved there, one way or another. The student was not ignorant. The student was carrying out a very deliberate step in the Trump administration’s campaign of political repression against universities.
And if the student had been asking an ignorant question in good faith, the teacher handled it more or less correctly. It would have been nice to have a learning opportunity there, for example, the difference between executive orders and laws, or the difference between laws and science. But that would require a student who is willing to learn, and that wasn’t in the cards.
As for the rest, I am a deep believer in free speech on campuses, which has to include the right to ask ignorant questions, and express ignorant beliefs, including offensive and hateful beliefs, and have those beliefs debated and corrected, without being judged or punished for your ignorance.
I think a safe space for ignorance is a place where you can ask questions and express beliefs without being afraid people will judge or punish you if what you say is ignorant or offensive due to your ignorance. And I think those are these sorts of spaces you need to have in schools and on campuses if you want space for ignorant people to learn. If that’s not what you meant by the term, I apologize for misunderstanding you.