Go Bucks
I live just twenty miles from “The Shoe”, the horseshoe shaped stadium where THE Ohio State University football team annually competes for National recognition. Ohio State has a tremendous influence on the culture of our area. Go to any American location: on a beach, in an airport, to a bar, up a mountain, and call out the letters “O-H”. Someone nearby will always respond “I-O”. That’s National impact. With that kind of effect; imagine the athletic, cultural, and academic influence of Ohio State here locally. It is immense.
Teachers went to Ohio State, Administrators got their advanced degrees from Ohio State, doctors (all) went to Ohio State, the guy selling you a car went to Ohio State. So whether you like the “Buckeyes” on the football field or not, “Scarlet and Gray” permeates our communities here in Central Ohio.
It’s so powerful that Ohio State can recruit athletes just with the name. In my track and field career I coached athletes good enough to compete at the NCAA Division I level. Several earned scholarships to Big Ten schools. A couple turned down better offers from other schools, just to run for Ohio State. Being a “Buckeye” was that important to them.
The Secret
But here’s a “dirty little secret”. US News and World Report issues an annual academic ranking of schools in the same conference with Ohio State, the Big Ten. And the Buckeyes are not on top. They aren’t even in the top five. Here’s the top ten list:
- 1 – Northwestern
- 2 – UCLA
- 3 – Michigan
- 4 – USC
- 5 – Illinois
- 6 – Wisconsin
- 7 – Rutgers and OHIO STATE (tied)
- 9 – Maryland
- 10 – Purdue and Washington (tied)
Then there’s the other seven members of the “Big Ten”(US News).
When the football team is losing on the field, the Harvard University band is known to chant: “That’s OK, you’ll work for us!!” I guess Northwestern can use that same refrain.
I’m taking a risk writing this essay. I live in the heart of “Buckeye Country”. But I’m really not trying to be so critical of Ohio State. What I am doing is making a point: sometimes the facts don’t fit with local biases or loyalties. Any good educator will lay out the facts, and then use it as a jumping off point for discussion. Is the US News survey really accurate? Are there areas, Veterinary Medicine for example, where Ohio State is the best, perhaps in the Nation? And, of course, what about those Buckeyes on the football field.
Controversial Issues
But we are in a “new era” of education, both in the K-12 public schools, and state sponsored universities. In this “MAGA age”, educators are required to make sure that their students are “comfortable” with the teaching materials. Any lesson that challenges the students assumptions, political or otherwise, risks becoming “controversial”. And controversial lessons, are now considered “against the law”.
In Ohio it’s embodied in the newly passed Senate Bill 1. “For classroom discussion, the bill will set rules around topics involving “controversial beliefs” such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion. (Ohio Capital Journal)”. If a professor “teaches” a view which makes a student “uncomfortable”, the student is empowered to demand that administrators discipline or remove the professor.
The Chart
Indiana has a similar law. This week, a lecturer at Indiana University (somehow rated 15th in the Big Ten for academics) used a pyramid chart to describe racism in America. The chart uses terms to describe both implicit and explicit racism in our society. Here it is:
If you haven’t found it yet, the chart lists on the left, an unconscious sign of White Supremacy, the term “Make America Great Again”.
Now that’s a loaded term, certainly one designed to stimulate thought and discussion. Like any classroom in America today, there are likely to be students who believe in the political tenets of “Make America Great Again”. Any good teacher would use that as a jumping off point for the discussion of implicit bias. That’s exactly what the Indiana University lecturer was doing.
Students should engage in that discussion, defending their “MAGA” view, and stand up for what they believe in. But the new “controversial issues” laws gives them a whole different path. They don’t have to examine their own views, they simply have to say, “That chart makes me uncomfortable”.
Making America Great
The Lecturer was suspended from teaching the course. Indiana University administrators are “investigating” whether further employment action is required. But even if the University ultimately stands up for “academic freedom”, it really doesn’t matter. The point is made. And teachers, lecturers and professors are all learning.
I took a risk pointing out Ohio State’s academic standing in the Big Ten. So far, that’s not against the law. But in Indiana, and here in Ohio, making students critically think about their own political views, is. I did that as a high school government teacher. Critical thinking was a basic tenet of my class. It’s what our teachers and professors should do. But they’re not likely to take that risk anymore. It can cost them their jobs.
Is that Making America Great Again?
