We truly live in Clown World when an academic is forced to resign from his job because he pointed out that a stone-age people who didn’t even have cooking pots let alone the wheel or a written language did not have any form of science.
Did he tell the truth? Yes, he did. Did he hurt people’s feelings? Yes, he did. By valuing people’s feelings more than the facts Auckland University has put on a Clown face.
A University of Auckland professor has stepped down as acting dean of science after backlash to a letter he co-authored claiming Maori knowledge “is not science”.
[…] Elliffe was one of seven professors to sign the letter published in the Listener magazine last week in response to proposed changes to the Maori school curriculum.
Those changes are meant to put matauranga Maori (Maori knowledge) on a par with other types of knowledge, particularly Western knowledge.
[…] University of Auckland vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater told staff the letter did not represent the university’s views.
It had caused “considerable hurt and dismay” among staff and students, she wrote in an email on Monday.
“While the academics are free to express their views, I want to make it clear that they do not represent the views of the University of Auckland,” Freshwater said.
NZ Herald
Free to express their views huh? So free that they are forced to resign for having an unpopular fact-based opinion? Pull the other one! Honk! Honk!
Read the article in full here. Comment on it on The BFD.