Real education

Ever since the announcement of a moratorium on classes following the declaration of war on Iraq, the question of whether to discuss the war in the classroom has been on the minds of many members of the Tufts community. Now, with the end of the war drawing near, even former skeptics may agree that those professors who have discussed the war for a portion of class time are to be commended for their commitment to education.

Professors such as John Rogers, Jeffrey McConnell, Ronna Johnson, and Jeffrey Berry have proved that studying material within the context of global events is not only interesting, but is also intellectually fruitful. Paying specific attention to the war could only have enhanced the material in Berry's class on "Congress, Bureaucracy, and Public Policy," for example.

Likewise, if an English class is described as covering American fiction from 1950 to the present, as Johnson's class is, it is almost unthinkable to neglect the topic of literature in the context of the present war. And thankfully students have, for the most part, responded respectfully and enthusiastically to the attention paid to fusing course material with current events.

Similarly, professors in the sciences and mathematics departments who have found ways to connect their course material to current events should be commended for their ability as educators to add new dimension and analysis to the material at hand. Though it can hardly expected that every math, science, or engineering class will find an appropriate way to discuss the war, when the connection exists, it would be beneficial to draw parallels between the classroom and the news. It is a credit to Tufts that even professors in the more technical fields have looked for ways to make that connection happen.

Some students have argued that they paid for an education, in which class time is supposed to be used only in the most traditional way. Certainly, it would be irresponsible in most circumstances for professors to veer off track completely, just as it would be negligent for professors to use class time to espouse their own political beliefs with little attention paid to thoughtful discussion.

But, as much as students pay for classes they are also paying for the privilege of spending time with Tufts professors, some of the most talented minds in the country. So yes, maybe an hour or two will be "wasted" on discussion of the war, but there is no better place to develop a complete understanding of the global situation than in a university classroom.