Freshman Writing Seminars: Breeding ground for PC thinking?

I knew Cornell would most likely have, at very least, a politically correct, left-leaning faculty and student body. However, I thought that I would be able to tunnel under all of that by being in the College of Engineering. I had the image of myself working side by side with a politically inert genius physics professor, cranking away integrals and solving real life situations via complex mathematics. So far this image has, for the most part, come to life (other than the word ‘solving’ at times).

What I overlooked, however, are the Freshman Writing Seminars (FWS). At Cornell, freshman students who did not receive a 5 in AP English (this being a small minority of students) are required to take a FWS each semester of their first year.

The FWS list is a very diverse one, with subjects ranging from ‘Dante’s Divine Comedy’ to ‘the Role of Technology in Live Performance.’  Peppered throughout this list, however, is an array of subjects that, at least on the surface, seem conducive to liberal thinking and political correctness.  (Why am I bringing up this issue of PC-ness? Because I believe that political correctness is a thought process which discourages opposing the conditional views and instills fear of speaking one’s mind due to fear of rejection.  But that is another article for another day.)

Anyway, these classes I speak of often cover subjects regarding women’s rights, African American studies, American Indians, white superiority and manifest destiny, as well as a class on the war in Iraq.  Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with studying these subjects; they are all very fascinating, informative, and important for developing a class of people with a wide knowledge spectrum.  However, being familiar with the political ideologies of most Cornell professors and students, it is reasonably safe to say that many of these classes will be taught from a slanted viewpoint.

I will be honest: my first semester I was weak – I decided to once again bypass the potential liberal influence and took a class about Beowulf and medieval studies. It was great.  But this semester, I have embraced a new mindset.  I have decided to take the debate head-on and enroll in a potentially controversial class: “Reconquest and Conquest: Narratives of Conflict in Old and New Spain.”  Being of Spanish heritage, I am ready to defend (to some extent) my ancestors and ensure that two-sided debate takes place in the CU classroom.

After my first class of the semester, I am confident that the instructor will present the material in an unbiased, open-forum way.  On the other hand, the words ‘hate,’ ‘annihilation,’ and even ‘genocide’ have already been tossed around by members of the class.  Now, I am not one here to deny the existence of sometimes brutal treatment from the Spanish, but I am also not one for revisionist history, whether that be stretching the frequency or level of violence exhibited by European explorers, or denial of pre-existening primitive tribal brutality and violence common among native Indian tribes.

So, get ready for a lot of posts about gold, conquistadors, disease, violence, and the discovery of the new world!