LJWorld.com / Letter - Flow of ideas

Archive for Thursday, April 3, 2003

April 3, 2003

To the editor:

It was five short years ago when the "best and brightest" of the state of Kansas decided we shouldn't teach evolution in our classrooms. Obviously, we became the laughing stock of the nation, and with the latest installment of idiocy -- in regard to criticism of Dennis Dailey's sex education class -- we will again be the butt of jokes.

As a graduate teaching assistant at Kansas University, I can honestly say I am amazed that one student or a few students could cause such a stir when Dailey has taught the class for some 25 years and hundreds -- if not thousands -- of students have repeatedly said the class was "one of the most beneficial they attended while at KU."

Furthermore, if you are a student and are not mature enough to handle the class do something very simple -- drop it. The class is not required and, as with any class, students have the option of dropping the course and taking a class that is "less offensive."

Finally, the real danger, in regard to withholding funding from the social welfare program because of a "provocative" course, is the precedent that could be set in other departments at KU. I thought the purpose of the university was to promote a diversity of views and the presentation of all viewpoints. Talk about the squelching of the "free flow of ideas" -- if this embarrassment is accepted, I shudder to think about educational environment at KU in the future. It can effectively be argued that university classrooms are the last bastion of "free speech" that exists in America -- just not in backward Kansas.

Jason Capps

Lawrence