Iowa Prof fired for saying Adam Eve was Fairy Tale

[RedGlitter]

(from Des Moines Register)



Teacher: I was fired, said Bible isn't literal

The community college instructor says the school sided with students offended by his explanation of Adam and Eve.



By MEGAN HAWKINS

REGISTER STAFF WRITER



September 22, 2007

A community college instructor in Red Oak claims he was fired after he told his students that the biblical story of Adam and Eve should not be literally interpreted.

Steve Bitterman, 60, said officials at Southwestern Community College sided with a handful of students who threatened legal action over his remarks in a western civilization class Tuesday. He said he was fired Thursday.

"I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job," Bitterman said.

Sarah Smith, director of the school's Red Oak campus, declined to comment Friday on Bitterman's employment status. The school's president, Barbara Crittenden, said Bitterman taught one course at Southwest. She would not comment, however, on his claim that he was fired over the Bible reference, saying it was a personnel issue.

"I can assure you that the college understands our employees' free-speech rights," she said. "There was no action taken that violated the First Amendment."

Bitterman, who taught part time at Southwestern and Omaha's Metropolitan Community College, said he uses the Old Testament in his western civilization course and always teaches it from an academic standpoint.

Bitterman's Tuesday course was telecast to students in Osceola over the Iowa Communications Network. A few students in the Osceola classroom, he said, thought the lesson was "denigrating their religion."

"I put the Hebrew religion on the same plane as any other religion. Their god wasn't given any more credibility than any other god," Bitterman said. "I told them it was an extremely meaningful story, but you had to see it in a poetic, metaphoric or symbolic sense, that if you took it literally, that you were going to miss a whole lot of meaning there."

Bitterman said he called the story of Adam and Eve a "fairy tale" in a conversation with a student after the class and was told the students had threatened to see an attorney. He declined to identify any of the students in the class.

"I just thought there was such a thing as academic freedom here," he said. "From my point of view, what they're doing is essentially teaching their students very well to function in the eighth century."

Hector Avalos, an atheist religion professor at Iowa State University, said Bitterman's free-speech rights were violated if he was fired simply because he took an academic approach to a Bible story.

"I don't know the circumstances, but if he's teaching something about the Bible and says it is a myth, he shouldn't be fired for that because most academic scholars do believe this is a myth, the story of Adam and Eve," Avalos said.

"So it'd be no different than saying the world was not created in six days in science class.

"You don't fire professors for giving you a scientific answer."

Bitterman said Linda Wild, vice president of academic affairs at Southwest, fired him over the telephone.

Wild did not return telephone or e-mail messages Friday. Bitterman said that he can think of no other reason college officials would fire him and that Smith, the director of the campus, has previously sat in on his classes and complimented his work.

"As a taxpayer, I'd like to know if a tax-supported public institution of higher learning has given veto power over what can and cannot be said in its classrooms to a fundamentalist religious group," he said. "If it has ... then the taxpaying public of Iowa has a right to know. What's next? Whales talk French at the bottom of the sea?"

[BTS]

I say......HMMMMMM



I ask only one (and a half) question(s)............

If the ten commandments and prayer have been ruled out of public schools, then should his opinion, (IE....Adam-Eve) not be allowed either?

Tell me how this works? A professor can put down the bible as a farce, but a student can not talk about religion or pray in school... SOOO He can run it down, but Christians must suppress it..........



I say again............HMMMM



PS: I have NOT been in a church since about 2001 so don't try to paint me as a right winged christian........ Thank you

[gmc]

How can you just get fired like that? Do you not have employment protection laws in the states? Surely you need to be given a reason for the sacking at the very least.

[spot]

gmc;699626 wrote: How can you just get fired like that? Do you not have employment protection laws in the states? Surely you need to be given a reason for the sacking at the very least.


Adjunct teaching at Southwestern Community College would appear to be a McJob.

Students of a fired Iowa community college instructor say they were offended more by his brash teaching style than the remarks about the Bible that he claims led to his dismissal last week. Adjunct professor Steve Bitterman said administrators at Southwestern Community College in Red Oak sided with students who became upset when he called parts of the Old Testament a fairy tale that should not be interpreted literally. He made the comment in a class last Tuesday and was fired two days later.

But students in the class, which was transmitted to a classroom in Osceola over the state fiber-optic network, say Bitterman also told them to question their religious beliefs and at one point in the heated debate told one of the Osceola students, Kristen Fry, to "pop a Prozac." Fry said she left class in tears. "I talked to a lawyer and was told that what he was doing was illegal," she said. "He was not allowed to be derogatory toward me for being a Christian. I told my adviser I would sue if I had to."

Both sides say the conflict arose from remarks Bitterman made in a Western Civilization class about the biblical story of Adam and Eve. He said he approached the topic from an academic and symbolic standpoint, rather than a factual one. Bitterman maintains he wanted to spark debate. But he instead sparked a controversy over academic freedom and the perceived lack of support from administrators for part-time teachers. Bitterman said the Prozac comment was a joke meant to disarm a student who "was screeching at me." "Sometimes you say something outrageous just to see if you can provoke some discussion. ... I can be a little acerbic at times, I don't deny that," he said. "I certainly take students' viewpoints seriously in the sense that I encourage them to express it, and then I will challenge that viewpoint, regardless of what it is, to see how well they can back it up with reason and critical thought. Often, these students are essentially right out of high school and they take things so personally," Bitterman said. "They really can't distinguish between a critical assessment of their argument and an attack upon them personally."

Casey Overton, 19, who also was in the Osceola classroom, said Bitterman spoke "very crudely and made us feel like crap." "I think he was trying to start a debate, but it came across as insulting and offended everybody," Overton said. "After some of the comments he made, I didn't expect him to be fired, but I'm kind of glad he's gone. There's no way I could have finished the class."

Bitterman said that when he was fired over the phone, he was told it was for teaching religion instead of history, and no mention was made of how he treated students. Southwestern President Barb Crittenden declined to comment on many aspects of the situation, but did verify that this section of the class has been canceled for the rest of the semester. "Generally, we see it as our mission to provide educational services to students," she said. "Both faculty and students must be treated with respect. We do believe in academic freedom and the exchange of ideas. There are going to be differences in opinion, and in order to have free exchange, there has to be respect shown for opinions on all sides of issues." She declined to comment on what procedures are in place for student complaints or for professors to explain themselves, but said that in this case, the employee is part-time.

Some part-time community college professors in other parts of the state said the Southwestern situation does not surprise them. One referred to their lives as "adjunct hell." James Ralston, a math instructor at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, said he has been fired twice for political reasons or false accusations from students. "All adjunct teachers are under the same pressure that they cannot teach, because if they offend, no matter how crazy the students are, they are going to be fired," he said. "It's a huge problem."

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs. ... 1/SPORTS13

[Galbally]

There are always two sides to any story so I would collect all the facts before condemming anyone.

What I would say is that if you get into a situation where 3rd level tutorial staff are afraid to state what are, to be honest, pretty normal non-mad opinions about the bible because the more religiously minded pupils don't like it (and can have them fired) then you are getting onto pretty shaky ground. It all depends on whether this college's mission is as a School of christian learning (which is fair enough if thats what people want) or a secular school.

I suppose this all relates to this issue in the states where it seems that some or even many people over there want their country, [which I have to remind people was founded as a christian nation that is governed as a secular, democractic republic not the other way around] to become the only theocracy west of Tehran. Well we had one in Ireland and trust me, it sucked, and thats why we got rid of it. :-6