The biggest reason why tenure is going away is because of the appalling things tenured professors are saying and doing under its protection. It's not 'academic freedom' to subject to students of your English literature course to rants about Palestine, it's just academic malpractice. Academe is not some magically protected little kingdom and the people who pay tuition and taxes have grown extremely tired hearing complaints about former professors who ran porn sites while they were supposed to be teaching.
Although FIRE does a great job on freedom of speech outside the Ivory Tower, its decision to champion academic tenure is a mistake because tenure in higher education stifles the advancement of learning.
The history of science has shown that the biggest steps forward in the advancement of learning (i.e., new theories) tend to be hit upon by someone who is young or otherwise new to a discipline and often languish until the then-dominant cohort of scholars loses power over the field. Yet the tenure system concentrates power and authority in established scholars, who happen to be the members of the academic community least likely to hit upon -- or even recognize the value of -- a novel academic theory. It also stifles the academic freedom of graduate students and junior faculty members, who happen to be the members of the academic community most likely to hit upon -- and recognize the value of -- a novel academic theory.
In short, states have every right to invoke their police powers to eradicate the tenure system in higher education as a blight on the advancement of learning.
There exists a right and correct concern for our higher institutions of learning that have be captured by the Frankfurt school of social Marxism. Do you propose that the right way to deal with this cancer is to continue their tenure? That seems like idealism suicide.
There are a lot of comments on this post that amount to: I only believe in free speech protections for the right people. Ah the siren call of horseshoe theory.
Teachers have free speech as citizens, and they aren’t going to jail or given hemlock, but they have no constitutional right to be paid by the state or university to transmit drivel and claptrap for the next generation to repeat.
The left destroys all cultural and moral bonds and replaces them with power politics. Whatever purpose and value tenure once provided has been largely usurped. The only solution is to remove or severely restrict its use.
The biggest reason why tenure is going away is because of the appalling things tenured professors are saying and doing under its protection. It's not 'academic freedom' to subject to students of your English literature course to rants about Palestine, it's just academic malpractice. Academe is not some magically protected little kingdom and the people who pay tuition and taxes have grown extremely tired hearing complaints about former professors who ran porn sites while they were supposed to be teaching.
Although FIRE does a great job on freedom of speech outside the Ivory Tower, its decision to champion academic tenure is a mistake because tenure in higher education stifles the advancement of learning.
The history of science has shown that the biggest steps forward in the advancement of learning (i.e., new theories) tend to be hit upon by someone who is young or otherwise new to a discipline and often languish until the then-dominant cohort of scholars loses power over the field. Yet the tenure system concentrates power and authority in established scholars, who happen to be the members of the academic community least likely to hit upon -- or even recognize the value of -- a novel academic theory. It also stifles the academic freedom of graduate students and junior faculty members, who happen to be the members of the academic community most likely to hit upon -- and recognize the value of -- a novel academic theory.
In short, states have every right to invoke their police powers to eradicate the tenure system in higher education as a blight on the advancement of learning.
There exists a right and correct concern for our higher institutions of learning that have be captured by the Frankfurt school of social Marxism. Do you propose that the right way to deal with this cancer is to continue their tenure? That seems like idealism suicide.
There are a lot of comments on this post that amount to: I only believe in free speech protections for the right people. Ah the siren call of horseshoe theory.
Teachers have free speech as citizens, and they aren’t going to jail or given hemlock, but they have no constitutional right to be paid by the state or university to transmit drivel and claptrap for the next generation to repeat.
Helen Lovejoy over here.
The left destroys all cultural and moral bonds and replaces them with power politics. Whatever purpose and value tenure once provided has been largely usurped. The only solution is to remove or severely restrict its use.