The front page headline in Friday's Collegian, "Controversial Holocaust ad educates community," adds an Orwellian twist to the notion of education. What we learn from both the headline and the ensuing story is that the media should print controversial views because it is a good way of educating the public. Controversial views, be they irrational, racist, sexist, fascist or whatever, inspire debate and an open forum by which the public can be educated.

The implication here is that those creating controversy educate people since controversy magically stirs debate. The public doesn't have a hand in doing anything, but simply waits passively to be educated. Thus, it is the "Holocaust ad (which) educates (the) community," and not the public rising up in protest to the ad.

We might want to add that Southern lynch mobs have also done a great job in educating us. They caused quite a bit of controversy which in turn created national debate on human rights that subsequently led to a more educated public and a couple of Constitutional Amendments. Never mind the Civil Rights Movement, and the masses of people who organized and mobilized against their transgressions, we have the Klu Klux Klan and racists to thank for enlightening us.

And let's not forget the "great educator" himself, Adolph Hitler. Were it not for his inflamatory rhetoric, which was rightly printed and heard throughout Nazi Germany, there wouldn't have been any debate by which to educate the German public on fascism (unfortunately, more Germans were inspired to support imperial aggression and the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and homosexuals, than any other political cause).

Never mind the underground Jewish resistance, or that a few million people had to demolish Germany in order to understand the minor glitches of fascism, we really owe a great debt to the Hitler and the Nazis for educating us.

So let us thank the great educators of this century. To show my gratitude, I hereby nominate David Duke, Jerry Falwell, the KKK, Adolph Hitler, the Nazi Party, Karl Striedeck and Bradley Smith for the 1994 Penn State teaching award.