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Good question. There are 5300 colleges and universities across the country. Is it possible all 1.87 million post-secondary educators, down to the small community colleges, are in cahoots?
If true, would it be more acceptable if colleges were turning people into conservatives instead?
If true, would it be more acceptable if colleges were turning people into conservatives instead?
Does college turn people into liberals?
Posted from theconversation.com
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Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 7
I think this is a debating fallacy meant to openly undermine people in academia. "If you can't attack the message, attack the messenger." If people in academia can be openly undermined, their perspectives, their research, etc., can simply be ignored without having to address the content supporting their perspectives. I've now worked in/for four large institutions, and I've never felt that I've been surrounded by liberals. In fact, everyone has been rather enlightened and able to articulate their perspectives that fell all across the political spectrum.
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SFC (Join to see)
LTC Kevin B. I absolutely agree. Thank you for sharing your personal experience on the topic.
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COL (Join to see)
I would have to disagree. First, you have to separate the government schools from the private schools- state schools. State schools have a monopoly of sorts because they are subsidized by the government. Unless you have a recognized name brand it’s hard to compete on price. So schools live in this fantasy utopia that illegal immigration is ok, pot is good, environment should be above economy, bad actors are just disenfranchised good people that we should respect, border security is racist, conservatives in general are racist, socialism provides incentives for progress, and these other utopian views that are unrealistic of the real world. So you have protests, sit-ins and sit-outs, marches, and hate groups on both sides. You have these professional students who just live off student loans with degrees like African Studies or Chicano Studies that can’t get a job anythere but at Kinkos thinking the system his failing. Second, you have professors that can’t compete in the real world so they drill their disgruntled views of society and the free market on these young minds. A majority went into academia because they have a PhD in some benign subject. They stay in academia either because they were scared to enter the economy, or couldn’t because there was no room for them. In my experience very few college professors have had a goal of never leaving school and just teaching. In general those that can’t do, teach. The good thing is that there are more and more that finish a career and then go into teaching. Those are the professors I seek.
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LTC Kevin B.
COL (Join to see) - Have you worked in both public and private colleges, as well as having assessed the political leanings of your colleagues? I have. My comments are based on first-hand experiences in multiple academic settings.
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LTC Kevin B.
COL (Join to see) - Oh, one other thing. Most of the professors with whom I've worked would flourish in the private sector. They love academia because they enjoy helping develop people to reach their full potential and they enjoy expanding the knowledge base through research. I'm sorry that you've had a bad academic experience and that you choose to characterize many great Americans so negatively using such a broad brush. I'd certainly hate to go through life based on such a sour perspective.
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Anyone who hasn't placed his children in college is hardly likely to know the answer. The media is doing its damnedest to camouflage what is going on at American campuses (and secondary schools now that recent college graduates dominate the battalions of teachers across the nation). Students are not only not taught to think for themselves, but also they are punished for thinking for themselves. Their grades suffer if they don't regurgitate by rote the opinions of their teachers (most often on subjects having nothing to do with the intended program of instruction). And if poor grades are not sufficient, fellow students ostracize and shun those who do not comply with the accepted group think. Does all this make our children liberal? Hell no. It makes them Liberals and there's nothing liberal in that. Liberty, libertarianism, and liberality are four-letter words among Liberals. Finally, in answer to your question, no, hell no, I don't want them to indoctrinate our children into conservative politics. I don't want them to indoctrinate our children into anything. Just hold their hands (metaphorically) while they learn to think and make decisions for themselves based on empirical evidence.
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SFC (Join to see)
CPT Jack Durish What are your opinions of the article's study findings? I'm trying to define a line between limited cases of extreme outcomes, Vs the usually more abundant cases of average outcomes.
Where did the assertion colleges are supposed to teach people how to think come from? Is that an actual mission statement, or is it something similar to the saying "the customer is always right," where it's a commonly misconceived notion by customers.
For any course of instruction, wouldn't it be the teacher's job to teach student's what to think, in order to ensure student's fully grasp the topic? Using grades to gauge a student's understanding, as usual, then from there the student indirectly learns how to think about other topics.
It seems there are an abundance of classes that are not related to politics, where political ideology would not need to become a factor for most students during the course of instruction, whether first brought up by the Professor or the student.
Where did the assertion colleges are supposed to teach people how to think come from? Is that an actual mission statement, or is it something similar to the saying "the customer is always right," where it's a commonly misconceived notion by customers.
For any course of instruction, wouldn't it be the teacher's job to teach student's what to think, in order to ensure student's fully grasp the topic? Using grades to gauge a student's understanding, as usual, then from there the student indirectly learns how to think about other topics.
It seems there are an abundance of classes that are not related to politics, where political ideology would not need to become a factor for most students during the course of instruction, whether first brought up by the Professor or the student.
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CPT Jack Durish
SFC (Join to see) - Ah, statistics. Everything depends on the sample. Who was sampled? How were questions worded? I prefer empirical evidence. I have walked campuses. I have sent children to those colleges. I have talked without other parents of college students. Our experience, though not a scientific sampling, is universally the same. How then can it differ so widely from the benign effects reported in this article? Such a divergence makes me wonder about the publisher/sponsor of the research. I then look to new reports of campus behavior. The media appears confident in reporting misbehavior (though it does reveal Leftist indoctrination which they ordinarily attempt to camouflage). Now where did the assertion ("to teach people how to think come from")? Well, the Socratic Method fairly leaps to mind. To be fair, there is a certain amount of "indoctrination" expected in grade schools (K to 12). Socialization. Civics. That sort of thing. Civilizing children "takes a village". The problem is that the civilizing going on these days is the opposite of that which is needed to prepare children to function as free adults. Now, if you want to raise a little socialist, that's your business. I don't.
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