Student education restrictions illogical

by Sudha Rajan

(U-WIRE) MADISON, Wis. — Will preventing people from learning how to do something stop them from doing it? The government seems to think so.

Increased concern about national security since the Sept. 11 attacks has led President Bush to consider preventing international students from taking courses that could help them create weapons of mass destruction. Many people disagree with the proposed policy because it assumes that international students are dangerous just because they happen to be from a certain country. It also may have a negative effect on the quality of education in many universities around the country. When I heard about this policy, these problems bothered me. But what bothers me more is the logic behind it.

Denying international students the right to learn about certain subjects implies that the United States has exclusive control over these technologies. This is not only untrue but also arrogant. Our behavior would imply that our word is the end-all in these students' college destiny. If we say no, then that is final. It is as though we're the parents and they're the children. It's exactly this kind of attitude that gives the United States a bad reputation to begin with —the reputation of being a disdainful hegemon. The ban also implies that we are the only people who have a right to this kind of technology. Since when is knowledge for Americans only? If these ideas are so dangerous and destructive, should Americans be pursuing them?

Withholding information from people rarely stops them from acting. There are many examples of the failure of this kind of logic, such as abstinence-only programs in high schools. It is assumed that telling students that abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases will magically make teenagers forget that sex exists. If educators promote ignorance about contraceptives and shroud sex in secrecy, students will decide not to have it. This policy is absurd. Eighty percent of the decline in teen births is due to an increased use of contraception, while only 20 percent is due to an increase in abstinence. It doesn't address what educators would need to understand if they want to persuade students to refrain from sex: Why do they want to do it in the first place?

We have avoided asking this same question about the motivations of terrorists. Terrorists pursue their goals in an insane and brutal way, but something about the behavior of the United States must inspire their hatred in the first place. Figuring out what it is would give us greater insight into our policies and the cause of terrorism. Preventing international students from taking certain classes does not address this question. If it works at all, it will only be for a short amount of time. Any students who are potential terrorists will learn the same information somewhere else or attack without the information, and we still won't know why they are doing it.

International students who want this information, for whatever reason, will most likely go to schools in other parts of the world. The ban will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on whether or not "potential terrorists" are educated. Worst of all, people will go away knowing that they were denied opportunity, and those who hate America will have a legitimate reason to do so.