The Case Against Mortarboarding
by Burt PrelutskyI have received a number of e-mails over the years from disgruntled parents griping about the left-wing indoctrination their kids are forced to undergo at colleges and universities all over America. One minute, it seems, the kids are sane, or at least as sane as one can expect of 18-year-olds, and the next thing you know they’re parroting the likes of Ward Churchill, William Ayers and Noam Chomsky, bad-mouthing America and yodeling the praises of such left-wing troglodytes as Hugo Chavez, the Castro brothers and Barack Obama. I feel their frustration. Even if the little nincompoops can’t do long division or write a coherent sentence, parents feel like child abusers if they don’t pony up the dough to send their kids off for what is laughingly referred to as higher education.
If I were running things, most high school grads would enter trade schools. America will always need nurses, plumbers, carpenters, glaziers and mechanics. What nobody needs is some 21-year-old schnook who’s wasted four years and most of his inheritance majoring in black, Hispanic or lesbian, studies. And, then, to make matters worse, because like the Scarecrow of Oz, they have a sheepskin, they’re actually convinced they’re smarter than their parents.
One of my readers, Penny Alfonso, of Glendale, California, shared a conversation she had with her daughter. “I told her I won’t pay the tuition for any classes that end in the word “studies”. I have also told her that while I have no right to tell her how to think, if she comes home hating America and spewing the lies of the leftists, I will tell her I love her, and that she has the right to believe whatever she wants to believe, but I don’t have to pay for it. In the 20 years of her life, if she’s learned nothing else, she has learned that I am completely serious about this.”
If more parents adopted this attitude, the state of education would improve in a hurry. The lefty professors want to mold young minds, but the administrators just want your money. So use your clout where it counts. Adopt Mrs. Alfonso’s declaration as a Bill of Parental Rights.
Of course, the other thing I would promote is an end to the tenure system. The original idea behind it was to protect professors from being fired because of their unpopular political beliefs, but in 2009, conservatives aren’t hired in the first place, so the only people whose jobs come with a lifetime guarantee are those addlebrained morons, safely ensconced in the Humanities, espousing liberal claptrap.
Somebody recently took me to task for referring to Michael Jackson as a pedophile. This yutz pointed out that Jackson had never been convicted in a court of law, as if that proved anything. The fact remains that the King of Pap had paid out millions of dollars in hush money to keep a case from going to trial. And, by his own admission, he admitted he enjoyed sleeping with young boys. Where I come from, if it waddles, swims and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
Whenever people use that court of law argument to make a point, I know they’re desperate. Heck, O.J. Simpson and Al Capone were never convicted of murder, and Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Idi Amin and Kim Jong-il, have never even been convicted of jay-walking.
Something else I always find irksome is when Obama’s liberal groupies, along with a few conservative commentators, deny that the President is a left-wing ideologue. All of his schemes, from gobbling up car companies and banks to nationalizing health care and redistributing wealth, show his true colors. As I say, if it waddles, swims and quacks like a duck, feel free to pop it in the oven and serve it with string beans and sweet potatoes at Christmas.
In fact, while mulling over the man who sits in the Oval Office, I was reminded of a riddle from my childhood. You’d be asked what was black and white and read all over, and the answer was a newspaper. These days, I’m afraid the appropriate answer to what is black and white and red all over is Barack Obama.
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129 Comments
I think the best thing we can do as parents is to ready our children for the upcoming indoctrination and make them knowledgable enough to hold their own against these brainwashing prof's.
Haven't read column yet – but love the headline.
My niece is 14, and she is ready already! She listens to Mark Levine and Glenn Beck, and has a strong interest in history and poly-sci….and she loves to debate. She even got her eighth grade teachers to re-think their convictions, because she resolute in her case, and backed it with facts.
Actually, Hitler was convicted of treason once. He used the time in jail to write Mein Kampf
My first thought, too! Made my day.
Instead of paying for it, get them to take out college loans in their names, pay the interest on them until they graduate, and pay them off after they graduate, with the proviso that if they waste their time in "studies" classes, get degrees in subjects one can master just by reading in the evenings (read most liberal arts degrees) instead of a degree that starts with a "Bachelor of Science", and cannot find jobs with their useless liberal arts degrees, you will stop paying. When the bills start showing up and they learn their credit rating will be in the toilet if they don't pay, they'll start drifting to the right real fast, especially when they learn that virtually every employer cares not a fig for anything but real skills.
They can postpone repayment of the loans then by enrolling in graduate school to get a useful degree of some kind, like a master of science in IT, business, accounting, etc. Tough love, but they'll thank you when they finally grow up.
hitler was not convicted of treason.
but close+
The title is great…… Churchill, Chomsky and Ayers three great scholars…. that teach our children that AMERICA IS BAD and we should APOLOGIZE for everything that the REPUBLICANS have done in the past….. My children have already been BRAINWASHED in the CONSERVATIVE values that the MacLachlan household adheres to…..The conservative values that where instilled in me, are the same that I have been raising my children with…..I tend to think that if PARENTS actually take the time to raise there children and express a interest in everything they do… those conservative values will shine through!!!!
"America will always need nurses, plumbers, carpenters, glaziers and mechanics."
No. What we'll need are people properly-certified in the repair of the robots who'll be doing all those jobs…
"if she comes home hating America and spewing the lies of the leftists,"
To which my immediate response would be, "what if I only spewed the true parts?"
Broken clocks and all that…
(continued)
(continued)
I'm as sympathetic as I can reasonably be toward the "my kid came back from college diff'rent" sentiment. My parents were lucky: I've been indignant and resistant to authority of any kind since I could chew solid food. But it strikes me as both a losing prospect and plain old counterintuitive to try and "freeze" intellectual development over generations. That's not how humans work. Either one's children will carry on the bulk of one's worldview or they won't, and they will subsequently either succeed or fail based on that choice and it's functionality in the real world. A worldview that is functional will survive, one that is not will not. Natural Selection is a beautiful thing.
I love this column! I am going back to school today for beginning meetings and I needed this encouraging note from Penny Alfonso. As an inner city high school teacher working in an Art department with aging hippies I wish that I was able to sell conservatism openly like my fellow Libs do with their Obama t-shirts. However, I know that unfortunately, selling Lib ideas openly is fair game. I have to keep a tight lid on my conservative ideas to keep my job. I have found more suitable ways to convey alternative ideas. I put together projects that encourage the students to think for themselves by incorporating themes from Orwellian novels and let the students come to their own conclusions. Imagine that.
Burt, thanks for the hope, I am an America loving optimist and I will continue waiting for the change in our school system.
How about joining the local school board. See if you can make a difference. Sarah Palin did. Look to where she is now.
"I've been indignant and resistant to authority of any kind since I could chew solid food."
Everybody has, son, it's called "Being two years old." The public education system has been engaged for over 40 years in nothing more profound than assuring children of all ages that if you crap your pants, Mommy will clean it up.
"Natural Selection" as a means of choosing which worldview will survive based on "it's functionality" hasn't prevented an entire industry of grievance-mongers from continuing to promote a philosophy which has failed in every society in historical memory. And it hasn't taught you much about apostrophes, either.
only because the presiding judge was a secret Nazi.
"What's black and white and red all over?"
Ha!
Beautiful
In short then DrPain… we need to be good parents, and actually raise our kids with good moral standards with foundations on more than just a good conscience.
I was kind of worried that my school offered an AA in Liberal Arts… luckily I discovered that was just the generic term for gen-ed pre-reqs… phew!
This is true. However, this is my second career. I went back to the University for a teaching degree because I wasn't satisfied with my current, very lucrative career choice. When I was in high school myself I had an epiphany that I would be a teacher someday. I believe teaching is a calling, not a career. I have not been disappointed in the many years thus far. I think that sometimes we expect change to come from the top, but according to grassroots organizations, it comes from the bottom and grows a firm foundation. The education system has been hijacked by liberals who understand this. I wish more conservatives would join me down in the trenches where real policy is born.
Sarah too has a calling and she feels it with as much passion as I do for teaching.
Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Idi Amin and Kim Jong-il, have never even been convicted of jay-walking.
Demonstrating the worth of a college education, three of those leaders did time in jail. Guess which ones!
My mom was a teacher. She did teach me how to learn. Her speciality was diagnosing learning disabilities.
Due to moves about the country, she eventually was considered too educated to be a teacher. She had a masters and almost a PHD.
Joe, that is a great suggestion…… We are the only ones that can make a difference for our children!!!
It's even worse from inside the acadamy. Most "studies" courses have only few students unless the department makes it a prerequiste. However, these guys will often control the department and attempt to drive out the more conservative professors and abolish courses on traditional military and political history.
Higher education is no longer education anymore but has become indoctrination. Grade inflation and the dumbing down of academics have made our universities – even Ivy League ones a joke. My kids will go to good Christian schools and get solid education and a sound worldview. When they graduate they will dominate the secular idiots who took all the "studies" courses.
First off, great article. It's stuff like this that makes me afraid to send my kid to college. The last thing I need is for my son to be brain-raped by some kooky lefties and their hippy/utopian "thinking."
uh, as of yesterday she's out of work and Jon Stewart's headline under her photo read "Quitter!"
I like this idea. We should not teach our kids to think. That way they might come up with subversive ideas. Let's train them all to be plumbers and other technicians. After all, as long as we never give them a chance to think about the society they live in, they will follow orders all their lives. And that, of course, is the conservative idea of "freedom."
but in 2009, conservatives aren’t hired in the first place
This isn't true. We are hired, but we are fired if we let it slip about what we actually believe. Tenure protects us too.
I worked at a public high school in Westchester, NY that didn't even offer students the option of the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning. I was told by the principal that the school was "proud of its liberal tradition." The Friday before Memorial Day, I recited the Pledge on the school's daily cable program. I wasn't tenured. I was let go.
I agree with that there is way too much "agenda" teaching going on at our higher learning institutions. The sciences and engineering fields are light on the liberal agenda, but many schools have fixed that problem by requiring more humanities courses. They do this to help the scientists and engineers become more well rounded and brainwashed. Why don't they have the letters and arts students take more science and math classes to balance it out? Fair is fair!
She has a speaking engagement in August and she is writing a book as we speak.
No we should teach them to think, but only present them with one perspective. As long as we call it "intellectual" and "diverse," we can all pretend it is. That seems to be working out great so far.
[...] I don’t agree with Mr. Prelutsky on everything he’s written at Big Hollywood, but do check out all of this article. [...]
As someone starting a family, it's my prayer that my children will grow up to be America-lovin' patriots. Given how vocal my husband and I are about our conservative views, I don't think that will be a problem.
"The original idea behind it was to protect professors from being fired because of their unpopular political beliefs, but in 2009, conservatives aren’t hired in the first place,"
Uh huh. Never heard of Ann Althouse, John Yoo, John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson, Daniel Pipes, Donald Kagan or Douglas Feith ever breaching those ivory towers. Nope.
When America elects its first Yale-educated conservative president, then it'll be alright.
Actually, I was aware that Hitler had been in jail. Also Stalin. I assumed that people reading the article would be aware that I was referring to court trials and jail time for the crimes they committed against humanity. Apparently even at Big Hollywood, it isn't always safe to assume anything.
As for wr1's comments, suggesting that I wanted people to be trained to be plumbers and technicians so that they wouldn't have a chance to think for themselves, he could hardly be more mistaken or more obviously snobbish and elitist. For one thing, plumbers and technicians have useful skills, which is more than most liberal arts graduates possess. As for thinking for themselves, nearly every plumber and air conditioner technician who has shown up at my door in the past ten years was an immigrant from Israel or Russia. Not only are they competent guys making a very nice living, but they can all definitely speak and think for themselves, and seem to have a much clearer concept of what freedom actually means than wr1.
Regards, Burt Prelutsky
The problem is that higher education for the most part does not teach students to think unless it is to think only about what the Left considers correct. And I have never thought that it is the conservatives that follow orders. Most conservatives are very capable of thinking for themselves and are able to discern garbage when they see or hear it. It is the Liberals who get kicked off of the plantation when they fail to follow orders.
the trouble with that "teaching our children to think" is that the educationalists bypass such dull ordinary stuff like the multiplication table, history with dates, reading classics like Winnie the Pooh and Kim and etc. You know, stuff that is OLD. I myself have paid my grandson to memorize "If", and a "Dangerous Dan McGrew". As to the latter, did you know that your average bright kid cannot follow it, because the WORDS ARE TOO DIFFICULT??? (It was as BEST SELLER at one time.) I am giving him a copy of Atlas Shrugged and Siddhartha. And, I am going to encourage him NOT to go to University. Learn a trade, be independent, and enjoy learning!!!!
Great read again Burt, and dig the troll action, hmmm… perhaps you’ve hit on something that really disturbs these leftist, …cutting off money to the college kids and the institutions in which these miscreants thrive, …hell of a good idea, Burt. Cut the money off and the mind will follow.
As always Burt, a nice article. I feel lucky that my youngest is a bright, energetic, well spoken, young conservative, so I am more than happy to be helping him financially with his M.B.A. at U.T.
Actually, I was aware that Hitler had been in jail. Also Stalin. I assumed that people reading the article would be aware that I was referring to court trials and jail time for the crimes they committed against humanity.
Then write a column that says that instead of one that says they've never been convicted of anything, Mr. Professional Writer Guy. Perhaps you need a writing teacher. Maybe a college-educated one.
My dad was a blue collar scholar. He worked in a paper mill, that is before he was put out of work two years before retirement because grocery stores switched from paper to plastic. He loved poetry and literature and he was proud to be supporting a large family. He made education and critical thinking a priority for his children. Our conversations were intellectually amazing. He was my inspiration for becoming a teacher because he was such a good one for his children. Nothing wrong with that.
I understood what he meant. Why didn't you?
As sad and perhaps even cynical as this may sound, it's almost as if she's all primed up and ready to get flunked out of school… She will certainly will get D's and F's in any of the cultural crit classes.. While my own school was pretty liberal and in my 20's I was too, it may after all serve a purpose. I can honestly think of only one class (literary criticism) taught by a gray haired old lesbian (who I may even have liked under different circumstances) who gave me a bad grade for using the word "bitch" in an otherwise good term paper. I was refering to Jane Austin if I remember correctly, who I still consider to this day to be a lousy writer.
Joelim, if you didn't understand what he meant, you'd still post that you understood what he meant. You're a Sarah Palin fan.
Pretty obviously he did not write what he says he meant, but he's generally not the brightest, which is why he's funny.
You still haven't answered my question. I am a Sarah Palin fan.
That is delightful.
I promise to answer your question after you explain what made you stupid.
Obviously, what made him stupid is talking to idiots like Substanceless Nogravitas
I was stupid. For the first ten years of my life, I was a liberal, then I grew up.
I think it is unfair for every college professor/teacher to be labeled as a lib because it simply is not the case, nor particularly rational despite there being a strong majority of liberal professors in academia.
Well then, we both agree that Joelim is stupid, and that's enough for me.
Okay then, my turn to answer: nonsensical question.
Precisely!!!
Mr. McGravitas, you really love your Barry don’t you, he so smart. So what’s in it for you?
Bert,
Conservatives ARE hired. They teach math, science and engineering. At Grad level professors are pressured to dumb things down to keep up enrollment (you must maintain a 3.0 or better usually). Tenure protects those professors who refuse to play that game. Some professors think you should get what you pay for and want to turn out competent professionals.
The problem that you have in this scenerio is that liberal profs will flunk your independently minded children right out of school. Trust me on this one. The key is to regurgitate the crap they want you to and keep your mouth shut otherwise, as a student you will garner a reputation as one of the unholy and be banished forever to higher education hell. I let it slip once while we were being lectured on the inherent anti-semetic nature of the bible and I was forever branded an imbecile and a hate monger.
That anyone can 'teach' anyone else to 'think' is completely ridiculous, unless you factor in massive propaganda pooling over completely passive minds. Successful propaganda, of course, presupposes ignorance of basic empirical facts (like, do Jews really own all the banks and control the world??? Has the world's climate changed during the past 1,000 years??? Did the Battle of Hastings occur in the year 1066 CE and was it important to world history??? Is "Evolution" a "theory", a "law", or a "hypothesis", and can you explain your answer in one paragraph that someone else can read and understand??? Was the 9/11 attack the work of President Bush, Osama bin Laden, or the Mossab?? Again, choose and explain your answer in a paragraph that someone else can read and understand.)
"No. What we'll need are people properly-certified in the repair of the robots who'll be doing all those jobs… "
Uh, news flash buddy: In order for these to be developed, we need a little something I like to call "innovation."
When's the last time liberals cared about innovation? They don't. They prefer stagnation.
It emits less carbon…
maybe that's what you do to get a good grade, but in taht case it is usually better to record your in class discussions and file a formal complaint. Trust me it works!
Maybe that's what you do to get a good grade, but in that case it is usually better to record your in class discussions and file a formal complaint. Trust me it works!
Maybe that's what you do to get a good grade, but in that case it is usually better to record your in-class discussions and file a formal complaint. Trust me it works!
I watch Oreilly, listen to Rush and read read read.. My son is always asking me about who is on TV, are they Republican's or Dem's. If very interested in it(13 yo). He had a social studies teacher last year who CRIED during Obama's nomination. I asked him if he wanted me to say anything, he didn't.
I am VERY worried about college.. I will do ALOT of research when the time comes and nix the liberal arts or the most liberal of colleges. No thanks to Harvard or Columbia.
My experience at work and at school where I had to get college credits in teaching (despite having some years of training and experience in the actual field I am teaching) to become "highly qualified," was that there is a vast majority of left wing thought and process in education. I had a college professor who used a book written by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn as a text (about teaching nonviolence and keeping guns out of schools, no less). The balls it takes.
So I agree that blanket labeling all of us as is not true, but I do think it is pretty rational. And that's coming from one teacher.
My experience at work and at school where I had to get college credits in teaching (despite having some years of training and experience in the actual field I am teaching) to become "highly qualified," was that there is a vast majority of left wing thought and process in education. I had a college professor who used a book written by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn as a text (about teaching nonviolence and keeping guns out of schools, no less). The balls it takes.
So I agree that blanket labeling all of us as liberal is not true, but I do think it is pretty rational. And that's coming from one teacher.
Trust an immigrant to know the value of freedom and liberty. For all the rubbish the liberals spew about how bad the United States is, I defy them to find a country with a higher reatio of people coming in to people going out.
What's the "it" that you think I want to be in on?
The loss of tech schools has been a complete disaster. I hate to point it out to the Self Esteem crowd, but not everyone can be a doctor or a chemical engineer. Lots of kids may, in fact, prefer to go to a tech school and learn a hands-on trade instead of struggling in university with crap they don't care about to please their parents and the expectations of society. My nephew loves to fix cars and he's good at it, but there was no help for him in learning to do so. If he'd wanted to go to uni, counseling, loans, etc were there, but car repair? Nada. He had to track down an apprenticeship on his own.
In England they used to have the O and A levels. If you made your A level exams, you were on the university track. If you could only manage O level, you were put on the tech school track. But things have fallen apart over there, too. Now every little brat is assumed to be a larval lawyer or budding quantum physicist, and the tech schools are being shuttered.
It's absurd. A plumber makes more than a liberal arts grad and certainly provides more benefit to the country, but Obama wants to finance a uni eduction for everyone because of the "benefits to society." You really want to benefit society, Big O? Take every nickle you planned to spend creating more graduates in Medieval French Literature and Ethiopian Shard Analysis and build tech schools across America. But the truth is that all he wants to do is make sure as many kids as possible get into the Great Liberal Brainwashing Machines known as universities. Future voters, doncha know.
Here are 30:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_net_mig_rat...
People, people! Calm down! SMcG simply didn't understand a clearly stated idea, so quit picking on him. If he reads the article over and over again for long enough, he'll get it. Have some patience with those among us who are "challenged"…!
Oh hey Mr. McGravitas, you really do love your Barry so very much, how does a free American come to love a Washington politician right or left? I assume you must get something, so I ask what’s in it for you? What are you getting for your love and devotion?
Oh hey Mr. McGravitas, you really do love your Barry so very much, how does a free American come to love a Washington politician, right or left? I assume you must get something, so I ask what’s in it for you? What are you getting for your love and devotion?
"But it strikes me as both a losing prospect and plain old counterintuitive to try and "freeze" intellectual development over generations."
Nobody here is suggesting that. I think you are positing a false either/or set of options. Nobody here is suggesting that we don't support teaching the history of America warts and all—what we object to is the "progressive" version of that history which only mentions the warts.
Natural selection is indeed a wonderful thing, but does not prevent non-functional worldviews–like Communism and State-run economies–from lingering for decades and destroying the lives of tens of millions of people. Which is precisely the point of both BH and Prelutsky's column. One of the supports of the Statist worldview is the hammerlock of the Left on college campuses. Which is probably why Obama, the product of the academic echo-chamber, is so anxious to expand funding for college tuition.
I must be old school. I thought you took geography, philosophy, psychology and art for fun and an easy grade in college!
Stan, you're making a lot of assumptions that you seem to think substitute for an argument. Find an argument you can back up with something and I'm sure someone will take you up on it.
Omigosh – great column. Love the ending.
No, the kids who who learn to think critically and can adopt any view that will be rewarded by the market will dominate the kids who are taught ideology and fairy tales. They already do.
Guess who doesn't understand the term Sarcasm? No diploma needed.
Your monicker is a misnomer. You lack both substance and gravitas, and even a scintilla of wit.
You mean a washed up 1/2 term governor quitter of one of the least populated states? The lady is nothing but a wink, a smile, and hairdo. Let's give kids real role models, not media-driven sex symbols.
I see the Huffinton Post has a little spill over today with all the liberal trolls.
SM seems to be a person who takes his initials literally, he likes punishment. When he has been beaten down enough by the liberals and moves out of his parents basement to the real world, then he will wake up.
I really did get to you. Thanks for the compliment. You know it isn't every day that a troll acknowledges his superior.
)
Oh I’m sorry Mr. McGravitas, I’m not making myself clear, let me help. Do you want to be able to buy booze with your Food Stamps? You want to be Section 8 near your Messiah in a ten by twenty foot cinderblock dwelling? You want health care to be like a trip to the post office or the DMV? You’re a sculptor and want to erect monuments of your Barry in all the town squares for better goose stepping? See it’s easy, …what’s in it for you?
Want to go to the worst school in world? It's where everyone thinks the same, like private Christian schools (of which I am, sad to admit, a graduate of). The notion that conservatives are being shut out of higher education is nonsense. I am conservative and did very well in all my higher education (including law school and graduate school). My professors may not have always agreed with me, but they liked having students who would argue and debate with them. Now I am a teacher myself, teach a conservative worldview in a public school, and all my classes (electives) are full of liberal students. We have a good time.
You people on here have no idea what the world is really like. You think it's this Godless, Liberal government-run everything. The truth is, conservative Christians run EVERYTHING, and I shake my head when they (and most of you) adopt the "the world is against me" victim mentality. Oh pahleeeessse….
Sure, we need a nation of plumbers, specifically Joe the Plumbers (women should stay home and not think, just look pretty and wink all mavericky-like). Then Palin is sure to be elected!
Aw. Poor little insane wingnut fu*ktard. Getting up in McGravitas' gree-ull with a cornfield of context-free strawmen to validate your theories. A fearsome cocktail of stupid.
Hmmm. Interesting choice of words. Tell me did they flunk you out of Troll school as well?
absolutely, because we all know how tolerant liberals are of differing opinions. lol
You’re a sculptor and want to erect monuments of your Barry in all the town squares for better goose stepping?
I'm sure this kind of arguing works on parking meters and lampposts. Keep at it!
I believe that'd be Aleric. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
wr1.1:
As someone who worked at a large university for years, I noticed that even many atheist viewpoints are frowned upon these days (because nature is sexist, racist, and politically-incorrect ), that's how narrow-minded these people have become. They even stock their science departments with foreigners because they're not likely to argue with them.
On average, most of the professors I worked with were either Pagans or Socialists, serial adulterers working on their second or third divorce. And most of the women had hyphens in their names.
I thought i was a liberal until i worked there… but it made me physically ill just to be around these people after a while.
It is sickening to see children intellectually molested by adults whose ideas about the world are unsupported by the surrounding evidence, and can only be perpetuated by foisting them on those too inexperienced to defend themselves. This is sadly true of many teachers, but it is also true of some parents. If your goals in raising children include making them agree with you, you can count yourself among them. While I agree with many of the points made in the article ("studies" courses are WORTHLESS!), I'm concerned about the us vs. them dynamic. There is a solution to every problem that is the most effective, and all our energy should be expended in the relentless pursuit of that solution. As a conservative, one of the best educations you could give your child would be to send them (prepared with the thinking skills you have taught them) to hear the ideas of a rational person who holds opposing views. If their is a problem with our education system (I think that there is), it is not that there are too many liberals, but that there are too many people who are trying to teach a point of view.
Oh I’m sorry Mr. McGravitas, you were arguing, …Okay you’re a poopey head …no, that wasn’t as much fun. Pay no attention to Paul_D, Joelim he’s from the 57th state. So what’s in it for you two? What is your Barry going to give you?
[...] here to see the original: The Case Against Mortarboarding This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
If you mean "thinking critically" in the tradtional sense of a careful evaluation of all the facts, then a quality Christian education naturally leads to critical thinking. Christianity teaches honest and open inquiry. It teaches personl integrity and intellectual integrity. It teaches that truth is knowable and it prohibits the relativism and the useful myth approach to life. It grounds education firmly in the truth of Scripture instead of an educational philosophy that will give way to another such philosophy within 20 years.
If I raised my kids to "adopt any view that will be rewarded by the market" then I will have failed as a parent and so will you. The free market is a wonderful think but it is not a moral authority – in fact it is often amoral. The market is often wrong – otherwise why would it have to correct itself so much. What it rewards today it will punish tomorrow. To make it the supreme authority in our life or the life of our children is to cast them on the waves of the sea where they will be tossed back and forth. My kids, Lord willing, will be anchored to something eternal.
As someone going through a teaching program right now, I can attest to this. For my field (I deal with history a lot), I tend to get hammered with the 'promote critical thinking' sledge a lot. I agree with the core premise, but their idea of the specifics tends to run "bash Europe" for the ancient history, and "bash America" for basically everything since early colonization.
The best reaction I ever got from a professor was the conniption fit I caused when, in one class, I used contemporary Arab historians to make the Crusaders look like not bad guys. "But you told me to go outside the normal sources and promote alternate viewpoints…"
You must have an extremely broad definition of "conservative Christians".
For that, you are my hero for today.
Also, I guess ratio was a bad measure.
Sure, if you want to be wrong wrong wrong in a thread that purports to stick one to those with book learnin'.
I'd be surprised if their combined populations were a quarter of the US.
Then be surprised, smart guy! You may need to stick your tongue out a little as you work the calculator.
If you follow that site to some of the other statistics, you'll see that the actual number of foreign born people living in the United States is 300% higher than that of the next highest country, Russia.
If your point is that the US is large and able to take in more immigrants than Liechtenstein, well, gosh, yes, I agree. And America does a better job of taking in immigrants than most countries. That's terrific, right?
Not the best job though.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_for_pop-imm...
Another class to look out for: Restoration Lit (the English Restoration) – if it's anything like my class was, it'll be mostly comprised of pr0n.
Well, just as kids often do, you raise them the same and they turn out totally different.
I had one son get into a trade. Gifted electrician!
Two sons went to college. One bought the whole liberal line, lives in CA, voted for Obama.
The other had more of an experience like jc5cents. He fought the professors (and most other students) all the way, was given barely passing grades on many papers.
So it just goes to show, you can do your very best, but once you send them off, you can't be sure of the outcome.
Good for her! Tell her to keep it up!
My daughter will be a HS senior next year and she drives her liberal teachers cra-zy.
I know this is often not the case, but God as been so kind as to surround her with at least a few other conservative kids in most of her classes. So once my daughter speaks up, it empowers the others to also.
She is constantly coming home and telling me about the awesome discussions that were sparked because she had the guts to speak up.
I'M SO PROUD OF HER!
After 10 years of employent in the IT field, those with fine arts degrees are worth more than those with IT degrees, and MBAers in that field are down there with non-grads.
Excellent response.
To which I say Amen!
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