30 Oct 96 Yehouda Harpaz Harlequin Ltd. Barrington Hall Barrington Cambs. CB2 5RG UK Yeh_harlequin.co.uk
Dear Prof. Philip E. Austin,
I have came across the material used to teach linguistics in the university of connecticut, and I was appalled. This is clearly a soft brain-washing program, rather than promotion of open- minded and critical thinking. I attached as an example the practice test of Linguistics 101, which I found in the web page http://yoda.ucc.uconn.edu/users/snyderw/PR01.html. You can easily see that the students are expected to follow the dogma in a parrot-like fashion, rather than develop their own understanding of the problems involved. The rest of the material of this course is at the same level of dogmatism.
Of course, nothing of this is my business (I am not even a citizen or resident of the US), but I couldn't just pass this without a comment. I think you will have to agree that this kind of narrow-mindness should not have a place in a respectable scientific institution.
Thanks
Yehouda Harpaz