Hugs and Kisses
Le Moyne College is an institution that claims to be promoting a more just society.
Le Moyne College is a diverse learning community that strives for academic excellence in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition through its comprehensive programs rooted in the liberal arts and sciences. Its emphasis is on education of the whole person and on the search for meaning and value as integral parts of the intellectual life. Le Moyne College seeks to prepare its members for leadership and service in their personal and professional lives to promote a more just society.
Obviously their idea of a more just society is one where the members of such society are censored, disrespected, and treated with the “do as we say, not as we do” mentality.
While students are guaranteed the freedom of speech, LeMoyne College’s recent actions against a student have raised questions of whether or not academic papers are the place to exercise this right.
LeMoyne College expelled Scott McConnell, a student from its Masters of Education program, for writing a paper in which he advocated the use of corporal punishment in schools, he said.
The paper, written for a class on classroom management, originally earned McConnell an A-. However, when he attempted to enroll in classes for the spring semester, he found he couldn’t.
“LeMoyne doesn’t believe students should be able to express their own views,” McConnell said. “If you differ from our philosophical ideal you will be expelled from our college.”
If Le Moyne has such a problem with corporal punishment, I would like to know why so many of my friends who attended Catholic schools never cease to tell me about the smacks they got from the nuns? So much for their argument of “excellence in the Catholic tradition”. But maybe that tradition has changed. Maybe they are kissing kids now instead of spanking them. How should I know?
Why should he be punished for writing a paper about a topic for “classroom management” that he actually got an excellent grade for? It is obvious that others think he did an excellent job in writing his paper. Is it a difference of philosophical ideal? Is it the pot calling the kettle black?
The issues that this case raises are very complicated, said Joseph Shedd, chair of the teaching and leadership programs in Syracuse University’s School of Education.
It is about more than just a student’s right to express their own opinions, he said.
“There is no clean dividing line between a person’s opinions and his or her ability to make responsible professional judgments,” Shedd said in an e-mail.
He’s right. There isn’t. There is no clean dividing line. In fact, most responsible professional people I know base their judgments on their education, past experiences, and their opinion of what is best at the time for the situation at hand. It would be hard to tell which was used when one attempted to evaluate another’s ability to make such judgments. Even if Mr. McConnell turned in a less than satisfactory paper which was based solely on his own opinions, I would not understand why the school would deny his enrollment this semester. They themselves are showing their lack of ability to make responsible professional judgments.
Hell, the Le Moyne College mission statement clearly states that they concentrate on the education of the whole person and their “search for the meaning and value as integral parts of the intellectual life”. It’s painfully obvious that the term “intellectual life” does not apply to the administrators of this college.
Good Luck Mr. McConnell. Take this experience with you, and use it wisely, when you venture down the road of professional life.
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