Students can forget about the confines of an ordinary classroom for one day next week and learn through a very nontraditional method: skipping classes for a “teach-in.”

The September 29th Movement is presenting “A Teach-in on Diversity and Political Action” next Tuesday, Jan. 28, from 8:10 a.m. to 7:50 p.m. in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union.

Twelve presentations are scheduled for the daylong teach-in. Presenters will discuss topics ranging from racism and sexism to the Black Panther Party and the Rainbow Coalition. Audience members are encouraged to ask questions.

“The real desire was to facilitate more dialogue on campus where diversity is needed,” said Kel Munger, chairwoman for the teach-in. “We wanted an opportunity to examine diversity on campus more in-depth. We also wanted to include how politics is related to all we do.”

Munger, a graduate student in English, said the idea of holding a teach-in rose from student protests of the 1960s.

“Teach-ins were unofficial classes. The students would boycott normal classes and go to the teach-ins,” Munger said.

“Traditionally the teach-ins educated on black history and the Chicano movement. The whole idea of a teach-in is to go beyond the regular studies.”

Munger said the main reason Movement members chose to call the event a “teach-in” was to “make it clear that education is political.”

One of the workshops, “Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party: Originators of the Rainbow Coalition,” will be presented by Milton McGriff, a graduate student in English and a member of the Movement.

“I chose [this topic] … because I think the Black Panther Party has been demonized; certain images come up,” McGriff said.

“A lot of people think they are anti-white, but the irony is they were the only [black] radical group I know of that wasn’t anti-white.”

McGriff said he will tell the story of Fred Hampton, the deputy chairman of the Panthers for the state of Illinois, who was shot and killed at the age of 21.

“I’m also going to go back before that and give some history of the civil rights movement, when blacks and whites were working together well.

“And then I’ll tell what happened to that relationship,” he said.

McGriff, a past member of the Panthers for a short time, will give his presentation from 11:10 to 11:50 a.m.

Another presenter, Deborah Crown, also a graduate student in English, will co-lecture “Where No One Has Gone Before: Using ‘Star Trek’ to Negotiate Sexual Orientation in the Classroom.”

Crown and graduate student Jim Francis will analyze the creation of an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and show how different media deal with controversial issues, such as homosexuality.

“In this episode, there is a genderless race of people. Being male or female is considered deviant,” Crown said of the television show. “The viewer is put in the position of the deviant.”

Crown and Francis will present their workshop from 9:10 to 9:50 a.m.

“I hope it [the teach-in] will spur similar sorts of things on campus,” Munger said. “I hope it stimulates people to take the time to organize educational events, especially in our varied cultures on campus. I would like to see more of that.”

Students, members of the faculty and staff and the Ames community can attend all or part of the teach-in.