There’s A Fascist In The Classroom All Right, But It Sure As Heck Isn’t The Student!!!
There’s A Fascist In The Classroom All Right, But It Sure As Heck Isn’t The Student!!!
By
Ken Eliasberg
Apropos our ongoing look at the deteriorating state of Academia, a recent local incident provides a clear indication of just how far along the deterioration process has gone. It involves Los Angeles City College, and a truly abusive professor. In fact, it hurts me to call a man like this a professor, so far removed is he from the Academy I have experienced in my many years of being associated with Academia. Indeed, if the facts are as alleged in a student’s complaint,even by today’s diminished standards, John Matteson, the “professor” in question, has lowered the bar so far as to suggest the complete absence of standards. He proceeded to not just berate and humiliate a student in connection with a classroom project, but seemed to take delight in degrading this student, Jonathan Lopez. But I get ahead of myself — let me walk you through the facts, as spelled out in a column by Mike Adams at Townhall.com on February 16th entitled Ask God What Your Grade Is (which, until proven otherwise, I shall assume accurately states the facts):
“In speech 101 [at LACC] there are several different speaking assignments, including a delivery speech, a culture speech, an informative speech, and a persuasive speech. For the informative speech, Professor Matteson allowed students to cover any topic and to speak between six and eight minutes with or without visual aids
In November, Jonathan Lopez attempted to give his informative speech on God and ways he has seen God act miraculously in his life and in the lives of others. In the middle of that speech, Lopez spoke of God and morality and read the dictionary definition of marriage. He also read two verses from the Bible.
But before Lopez was finished with his speech, Professor Matteson interrupted him. After calling Lopez a ‘fascist bastard’ in front of other students, Matteson invited students to leave the class if they have been offended. When no one left, the professor dismissed the class.
As Jonathan Lopez prepared to leave class that day he found an evaluation form left in his backpack by Professor Matteson. There was no grade for the informative speech. Instead there was this instruction: ‘Ask God what your grade is: It was followed by a statement saying ‘prostyelizing [sic] is inappropriate in a public school.’”
Stopping right here for a moment, let me ask you, have you ever seen an instructor of any sort, behave in this manner? Is this the way to inform a student that his presentation did not meet with the relavent academic standard and/or the instructor’s approval? I have never seen anything like this, and, if these facts are correct, this type of conduct on the part of any instructor at any facility purporting to educate students would seem to be grounds for dismissal.
Mr. Lopez appeared to be making the case against Gay marriage — a case that had been satisfactorily made to the majority of voters in California, as witnessed by their response to Proposition 8 in our recent election. And this was the apparent reason for Matteson’s displeasure since “Several weeks before the aforementioned incident, he informed his students as follows: ‘If you voted yes on Proposition 8, you are a fascist bastard’”(talk about proselytizing — or is this the good professor’s idea of “educating?”).
Apparently, “fascist bastard” is a term Matteson finds to be the appropriate manner in which to address people with whom he disagrees, particularly if they oppose Gay Marriage.
I recommend Mr. Adam’s column for a couple of other slights that Matteson visited upon Mr. Lopez, one of which was to censure him for unintentionally interrupting a class room presentation by snidely informing Lopez that such behavior was “Not very Christian of you.”
Mr. Lopez then decided to take matters to the Administration, advising a Dean Allison Jones of the incident. When Matteson saw Lopez informing Jones of the situation, he confronted him and informed him that “he would make sure that Lopez was expelled from school.” For what, one wonders, asserting his First Amendment right of free speech?
These are the facts that are alleged — not only in Mr. Adam’s column but also over Fox News (as well as in a formal legal complaint filed by Lopez against LACC et al).
Lopez, as noted, went to the Administration — i.e. Dean Jones — and apparently failed to receive a satisfactory response. He then retained the services of legal counsel (The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)) to represent him in this matter. The ADF’s attorney wrote LACC to inquire what action was being taken with respect to this disturbing matter; the Dean assured Lopez’s attorney that the matter was being given the serious attention by the school that it deserved, but, due to privacy considerations, she was not at liberty to reveal what if any action that such consideration had produced or might produce at some time in the future .
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By now, if the facts are as Lopez and his attorney allege, it should be obvious to the reader as to who the real fascist in the classroom was (and, unfortunately, apparently still is), and it sure isn’t the student. It seems clear, that this man, Matteson, has neither the talent nor the temperament to be a teacher; indeed, how this man got to be a “professor” is beyond me. I shall try to follow up on this situation to see what action, if any, LACC decides to take and keep you apprised of my findings.