I have a brother who’s retired now, but he spent his career teaching recreation technology, whatever that is, at a community college in the next province over. Sometime mid-career, there was a faculty strike. A couple days into the strike… Read More ›
Why My Colleagues Are Idiots
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
If you ask me what’s beauty, or ugliness, or maybe even the distinction between right from wrong, I likely wouldn’t be able to tell you, except to say I know it when I see it. That’s why, as I’ve already… Read More ›
ROADS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Save for recent immigrants, there are no African Americans. Percentages have nothing to do with it. You’re black in American just in case the rest of us think you are. You’re white in America just in case you can pass… Read More ›
DECOLONIZING THE CLASSROOM
Earlier this morning, Thursday, November 19, 2020, the faculty here at the University of Lethbridge received a rather puzzling missive. We’re being told that the University would like us to cooperate in “the decolonization of the classroom.” Not having the… Read More ›
ASKABLES AND UNASKABLES
It’s not a taboo unless it’s also a taboo to question the taboo. I get that. But it’s not a violation of a law or a rule or a policy to question that law or rule or policy. If you… Read More ›
OF TREAT AND REGARD
Most of my students are white, middle class, and sexually vanilla. So this hasn’t happened to me yet, but I’m sure it’s just around the corner. Something I say is going to make a student ‘uncomfortable’, because it challenges some… Read More ›
THE RHETORICIAN AND THE PHILOSOPHER
A Janus word is one that means one thing but also its opposite. Example: sanction. There are word-pairs that sound like they mean the opposite but don’t, like flammable and inflammable. And then there are word-pairs that sound like they… Read More ›
HOW TAKING THE GENDER-NEUTRAL PRONOUN SERIOUSLY PROVES POLYTHEISM
“For God so loved the world that they gave their only begotten son that whosoever believeth in them should not perish but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16
WOMEN AND GENDER STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
Not unlike the Indigenous Studies Department, Women and Gender Studies at the University of Lethbridge makes no bones about its commitment to social justice. But on its website it also promises that its students “will develop critical thinking skills”. By… Read More ›
INDIGENOUS STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has argued that a university can task itself to seeking the truth, or to promoting social justice, but not both. Why? Because the truth is sometimes incompatible with the promotion of social justice. A university… Read More ›
