Looking at all sides

Re: WLU censures grad student for lesson that used TVO clip — Nov. 15

Universities have always been intended to be places of higher learning, a space where the free exchange of ideas can occur. Evidently, this is no longer the case as displayed by the recent incident at Wilfrid Laurier University. Apparently, showing students a clip from a TVO show in which the civilized debate over gender pronouns took place is in fact equal to showing them clips of Hitler’s speeches, at least according to some faculty at the university.

The intention of the graduate student conducting the tutorial appears to be merely to have the students consider all sides of the argument and to debate the issue in a free and transparent manner. The university as an institution is meant to be a cathedral of modern learning, an environment for students to learn to think outside the box and question the established narrative.

So why then are faculty members punishing this poor graduate student and stifling free speech? How misguided do you have to be to invoke Hitler’s name as a comparison for what occurred recently at the school? It truly is a sad state of affairs when students cannot simply look at an argument from all sides and openly debate their peers in an effort to develop their critical thinking skills and to increase their base of knowledge. Eric Lannan Kitchener