Bennish (newly neatly coiffed to look less like the pot-smoking uber-liberal communist anti-American Bush-basher that he is) appeared on the Today Show today with a whole new angle to his story, and Matt Lauer (in his typical idiotic uncritical group-think peddling way) went right along with it.
Bennish's new argument is that he was trying to get students to think critically--that he was trying to create "cognitive dissonance."
Well I happen to know what cognitive dissonance is--I have a Masters in Education myself--and the key to using it successfully is actually ALLOWING your students a chance to challenge what you're doing or saying when you create the dissonance. If all you do is rant and rave (as Bennish obviously did, it's all there on tape for all of us to hear), you're just preaching, not teaching. Bennish knows this and is working hard to convince the rest of us otherwise, probably in an attempt to try his case in the media and start a "Save Bennish's Academic freedom" letter writing campaign.
I have to wonder what Matt Lauer would say or do if--instead of bashing Bush and espousing communist views--Bennish was a Biology teacher attacking the pro-choice movement for pushing the mutilation of women and the murder of innocents? Or what if he were pushing intelligent design and ranting about the evolutionists? I wonder if the "cognitive dissonance and critical thinking" angle would work then?
I'm guessing NOT.
Posted by insomnomaniac at March 7, 2006 7:04 PM | TrackBack