Texas A&M just decided an ancient philosopher is too woke to teach | Opinion

A famous section of Plato’s “Symposium,” in which the Greek playwright Aristophanes describes how humans were split by the gods and spend part of their lives searching for their other halves, is apparently too focused on gender to be taught in a Texas A&M University classroom.

Despite their constant complaints that universities need to teach the classics, philosophy professor Martin Peterson was told on Jan. 6 that he needed to remove this reading from his syllabus or be assigned to a new class. The passage, which includes a reference to a gender that was a “union” of man and woman, was to be taught in Peterson’s “Contemporary Moral Issues” class during the spring semester.

While university leaders swear they aren’t going to stop teaching Plato altogether, it sure seems like not being able to teach one of the philosopher’s most famous works is detrimental to the learning experience of Aggie students.

“We cannot have just one perspective in the classroom,” Peterson told The New York Times. “Then there’s nothing to discuss. There’s nothing to learn. It’s indoctrination.”

For a group constantly whining about the rise of “cancel culture,” it sure seems like the desire to silence differing opinions is a uniquely Republican one. While I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who has truly been canceled by the left for harboring hateful views, the conservatives in our government are hellbent on preventing liberal and left-wing ideas from reaching young people.

Universities are guilty of censorship. It's just not against conservatives.

This isn’t the first instance of Texas A&M censoring professors. In fact, 200 courses within the university’s College of Arts and Sciences have been flagged or even canceled for including gender- or race-related content. All of this started over the summer, when a professor at the university went viral for teaching a children’s literature course that included discussions of gender.

“I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching because, according to our president, there’s only two genders,” a student told professor Melissa McCoul.

McCoul responded that the student had a “misconception,” according to The Texas Tribune, about the legality of what she was saying. The professor was fired soon after, and the university system began restricting the courses and content that could be taught at Texas A&M.

Combine this with the recent grift, er, complaint, that a University of Oklahoma student had after receiving a zero on a paper, and it sure seems like there’s a growing resistance to colleges actually challenging students.

Public universities will bow to conservative agendas at their peril

I hated reading Plato in college and found most classic philosophy readings boring. I also know that I’m better for having read them.

Plato’s writings challenged me to think in new ways – as did philosophers from Aristotle to Nietzsche. It’s troubling to think that some of the courses that changed my perspective in college, like a political feminist theory course I took junior year, would be censored in a modern university setting.

Public universities should be wary of allowing the conservative agenda to drive education. If they want to compete with private universities, they need to offer robust curricula that challenge students to think about the world beyond what they were taught in their hometowns. Schools can’t offer only courses that align with our conservative government’s view of the world.

Peterson has since switched the curriculum up to include a Times article about university censorship in place of the Plato reading. I’m sure his students will have a lot to talk about.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky:  @sarapequeno.bsky.social