A Different Dr. Helen

I was skimming through my new copy of emMonitor on Psychology/em, a publication of the American Psychological Association and noticed that their division 48, The Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence was soliciting new members. I decided to take look at their website a href=”http://www.webster.edu/peacepsychology/”peacepsych.org /ato see what kind of ideas they had and wasn’t surprised to see that leftist idealism was not only being peddled to members but professors in universities a href=”http://www.webster.edu/peacepsychology/ppresourceproject.html#syllabi”around the country were also turning in samples of syllabi/a as examples of how to teach students of psychology and other disciplines. br /br /Most notable was one a href=”http://www.h-net.org/~peace/hpsyll-fox.pdf”syllabus by Dr. Helen Fox /afrom the University of Michigan who is teaching a course on “Nonviolence in Action,” a course that is described as “Fulfils the Advanced Writing in the Disciplines (AWD) Requirement.” It is not clear that this is a required course, I assume there are others to choose from, however, after reading over the syllabus, it seems to me that students are being indoctrinated into a left-leaning mode of thought as well as being asked to support the professor’s pet anti-war organizations. Here are the course goals:br /br /blockquoteCourse Goalsbr /• to understand some of the philosophies that motivate nonviolent action,br /including tenets of five major religionsbr /• to learn how nonviolent social movements have worked in countries aroundbr /the worldbr /• to learn and practice some of the methods and strategies of nonviolent actionbr /• to learn to respond to arguments that justify war and aggressionbr /• to practice nonviolent action in the community, teach peace, and/or contributebr /to a nonviolent social movement/blockquotebr /br /Apparently, students are also being asked to become some type of “activist” in the professor’s pet political organizations:br /br /blockquoteCommunity Actionbr /In small groups, you will decide on nonviolent action projects you want to pursue in the community. This might involve a specific project with the UM student organization Anti-War Action, internships with the Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace or other peace groups, peace education of children or teens in schools or religious institutions, training and practice in nonviolent dialogue or conflict resolution, or other appropriate ways of learning and practicing nonviolent action./blockquotebr /br /Here is the grading system:br /br /blockquoteYour grade or RC evaluation will be based on the quality and depth of your writing, your attendance and involvement in class, and your contributions to your community project./blockquotebr /br /So, if one decides to join a community project promoting peace by joining the local Ann Arbor pro-life group, does that count? What if a student doesn’t believe that the ideals promoted by the professor are accurate and believes that sometimes military action is warranted, can they still take the class? If a student writes a paper supporting military action as opposed to non-action, is that acceptable? Should the American Psychological Assocation be supporting professors at public universities who are soliciting student volunteers for their pet political projects? Is this fair to students who are dependent on the professor for a grade? br /br /A a href=”http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1334″recent Zogby poll /ashowed that a majority of Americans think political bias among college professors is a serious problem–and after a href=”http://www.h-net.org/~peace/syllabi.html”taking a look at some of the syllabi /apromoted by the American Psychological Association’s division 48, I can see why.