Professor Goldschmidt is not a man I would want to teach my English courses.

It is sad to see the misinformation that pervades this campus. In his letter, Professor Arthur Goldschmidt makes some valid points but also some rather tenuous associations ("Remember community," The Daily Collegian, Jan. 30.)

While all reasonable people will wholeheartedly agree with the necessity of balancing academic freedom with a concern for the feelings of the community, Goldschmidt made several disturbing statements that I feel need to be commented on.

He states: "The Satanic Verses is a book that I would not assign in a course in Islamic or Middle East history."

That's all very well, and his concern for the feelings of the Muslim community are evident and, I am sure, are appreciated. However, the book was a part of a graduate level English class.

While inappropriate and possibly offensive in the context (he) mention(ed), in an English class the choice of such a book is, in my opinion, appropriate.

A close study of the book in a graduate course would, of necessity, include a discussion of the issues surrounding the book, especially the reasons it is so offensive to Muslims. Just because material is controversial does not exclude discussion on why it is controversial and why it offends whom it offends.

Goldschmidt goes on to mention how "most" Jews find Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice offensive and how Huckleberry Finn is objectionable to many Afro-Americans.

The point is well taken and has been fought by school boards and in court rooms in many sections of the country. In all cases, to my knowledge, the overall literary importance of the works outweighed any passing references they contained.

The shocking matter is that in the next paragraph he goes on to compare the teaching of Rushdie's book, and by implication Shakespeare and Twain, with showing the pornographic movie Deep Throat in a film course.

A very nice comparison, full of shock value and lacking any true meaning of comparison. I believe few, if any, of the members of the School of Communications would consider Deep Throat as an important classic of the cinema, while many in the English department surely would argue that Shakespeare, Twain and Rushdie are important to their literary eyes.

Many would also argue that the works mentioned are among their best and most important contributions to the field.

It is amazing to see a member of the Penn State University faculty make such bizarre connections between classic literature and pornography while discussing academic freedom.

I agree completely with Goldschmidt that we need to consider the concerns of the community when making decisions about potentially offensive material. But I assert that there will be more understanding, not less, when students study works like the Satanic Verses and discuss its offensiveness in an academic environment.

So many people dismiss books as offensive without even reading them. Ignorance does not promote understanding, education does.

Let academic freedom strive towards aiding community understanding, and not sidestep the tough issues the community must face.