Apodaca: Education falters when teachers are afraid to speak

Have our schools become rigid fortresses of political correctness?

Many people are arguing quite vociferously that such is the case, and they have a lot of anecdotal evidence to draw on. Just in the past few weeks the case of an acclaimed teacher who was put on leave after he made a comment to students about nudity has blown up into Los Angeles Unified’s latest public relations fiasco.

Hobart Elementary School teacher Rafe Esquith, whose books and teaching techniques have earned him a large, devoted following, has been relegated to what’s known as “teacher jail” while he awaits the outcome of an LAUSD investigation.

He contends the district is reacting to a quip he made to students that if they couldn’t raise enough money to stage a Shakespearean play they would have to perform naked like a character in Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The district is also allegedly investigating a nonprofit organization run by Esquith.

There’s been a huge outpouring of support for Esquith, and questions about whether LAUSD is overreacting in this instance because of its past failure to act on complaints of sexual misconduct. Late last week, district officials revealed that their inquiry had expanded to include an accusation that Esquith had abused a child 40 years ago, an allegation that the teacher’s attorney branded as a smear attempt after the initial investigation stalled.

This story might seem unrelated to other events touching on themes of political correctness, and the results of the investigation into Esquith’s past behavior aren’t yet known. Yet a case could be made that it is just one of many incidents revealing a pattern in academia of panicky responses to certain trigger words, ideas, opinions, and jokes.

This too-sensitive approach, critics contend, is threatening schools’ ability to foster critical thinking, discussion and inquiry into various beliefs and stifling educators who fear that free expression or even a momentary slip of the tongue could land them in hot water.

The entire UC system has become ground zero over what critics believe is a culture of extreme political correctness and oversensitivity to any hint of controversy. In one reaction that almost begs to be mocked, for instance, a UC Santa Cruz administrator apologized in April for the decision to serve Mexican food at a space-themed event, saying it was a poor move for a program that included spaceships and “aliens.”

Debates about political correctness also regularly ensue when protests arise over controversial campus speakers. Last year, for example, 6,000 UC Berkeley students signed a petition to stop a commencement address by Bill Maher because of the comedian’s scathing comments about Islam.

Maher still gave the speech, but he and other comics, including Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, have recently complained publicly about what they perceive as extreme political correctness that has made them reluctant to perform on college campuses any longer.

It’s true that educational institutions best serve students when they act as forums for diverse viewpoints, and that it can hinder the pursuit of profound and complex scholarship when academicians must filter their thoughts through a bewildering minefield of potentially sensitive subjects, words and phrases. Students benefit from an open exchange of opinions and beliefs, and through the exploration of controversial themes in literature and the arts. Censorship should always be employed with the lightest of touches.

Yet we should also recognize that there’s often just as much inclination to ove-react to the over-reaction.

Such was the case in March at UC Irvine when six members of a student government council voted to ban flags of any country from their office lobby. The action was vetoed by the student body’s executive cabinet and denounced by campus administrators; nonetheless an ugly backlash erupted with charges that UCI is unpatriotic and the student who proposed the ban receiving death threats.

Now a new flap has emerged over a series of voluntary seminars on classroom diversity held for senior UC faculty during the past school year. Among the topics presented was how to recognize “microaggressions,” which are everyday negative messages that target marginalized groups.

Although the seminars were promoted as a means to educate faculty about the small ways that discrimination can infect the teaching process, critics have launched caustic, satirical rebukes of what they see as thought-policing by university administrators.

What’s particularly noteworthy about the political correctness on campus debate is that some sound points are being made on all sides. The attempt to be more inclusive and sensitive to different groups shouldn’t be a pretext for avoiding anything and everything people might find uncomfortable. By the same token, knee-jerk accusations of political correctness run amok also run the risk of stifling protest and dismissing potentially helpful attempts to enlighten others about legitimate concerns.

It would be a pleasant change of pace if we could stop the shrill, over-the-top reactions, tone down the drama, and see the discussion over political correctness segue into a more productive exchange on the common ground that undoubtedly exists among various constituencies.

Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. When it comes to political correctness, we tend to see what we want to see. And for the foreseeable future, our schools will continue to be the biggest battlefields in the PC wars.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.