Posted on 11/10/2010 7:44:58 AM PST by JohnRLott
An axe-wielding Christ-figure stands before a fallen cross and a junk heap of shattered cultural symbols. Small, ghostly children stand in the shadow of a zombie-like schoolteacher, their gray-and-black schoolhouse looming in the distance. A gray-skinned Hernan Cortez stands in front of his burning ships, standing over piles of naked Native bodies lying at his feet.
These are some of the scenes José Clemente Orozco paints in “The Epic of American Civilization,” which is housed in Baker Library’s Reserve Corridor. Although Orozco shied away from politics, it’s not hard to guess where his sympathies lay. His belief in the need for a seismic change in economic systems is evident in his depiction of a socialist utopia rising from the ruin of our tumultuous capitalistic world. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at thedartmouth.com ...
If I presented history in my classes with such bias (either way), I could kiss my tenure goodbye. Articles like this cherry pick extreme examples, and people who’ve never been to college howl about something that doesn’t exist.
College teachers at all levels reflect society: 25% are conservative, 25% are liberal, and the rest just do their jobs.
And, for the record, I’ve been teaching for ten years or so, and worked for Reagan in both campaigns. And I admit this in public.
For those who get emotional about articles like this without attending actual college history courses, look up “external validation.” You know you want to.
Excuse me where did you get that statistic,
“College teachers at all levels reflect society: 25% are conservative, 25% are liberal” ?
Can you site your source?
Furthermore, I don’t believe for ONE SECOND that stat. College staffs are notorious for being known as leftist.
I tend to agree with you. I am sure there are some closet right wingers...but not many. True for pre college teachers also. Most of us left the teaching profession for other career choices
Sure he did.
They dare not display classic religious art by The Masters at the library because it might be offensive. However, if some artist had a certain ethnic creed his material can be displayed "out front" if slams Western value. Apparently, some people should be offended..
So where are all the campus Nativity scenes and quadrangle Christmas caroling? How about displays at Thanksgiving honoring the Pilgrims, or art shown at Easter exalting in the Risen Lord?
I suspect you would never even think of asking those questions.
And maybe 25 percent of college teachers are conservatives -- if you factor engineering and the hard sciences into mix which don't factor into the attempts to change society via indoctrination -- and 50 percent apolitical but they aren't the ones running things.
The comments are instructive, especially the one that implies that we should not celebrate technological progress because 1 billion people don’t have access to clean, potable water. I suppose that knucklehead would rather that all 6 billion people would not have access to clean water, or any of the other blessings of technology.
The comments on this site are priceless liberal drivel. For instance:
“Or how about the 1 billion people who don’t have access to clean, potable water?”
So you would think out of a billion people a few of them would have figured out how to provide themselves with potable water. Am I supposed to feel ashamed at the progress of American civilization because of the lack of civilization in large parts of the world? Is this what they call liberal guilt?
You're stat are way off too. Please site your source.
Your stats are way off too. Please site your source.
My stats are experience, unlike yours. I’ve met hundreds of history faculty since I started teaching, and I know those numbers are pretty much correct. College teachers aren’t demons, though they’ve been demonized by emotional, unthinking people here on FR.
My anectodal evidence is more extensive than yours, and from the inside. I don’t depend on talk radio or Beck for my information. nah nah nah
My wife is Catholic and my father is a Southern Baptist, and neither of them put up holiday decorations. A lack of Nativity scenes is only important to people who need things like that to reinforce their religious insecurities.
A college campus is a business. That’s the first point that has to be made. Second, it’s a busy place, and most people save the holiday decorating for home. We don’t live here. Last, the term “Our Risen Lord” has no place in an institution filled with Catholics, Lutherans, Buddhists, and heaven knows what all like my school.
Oh, and the last part of your post is correct. The hard sciences balance out the artsy fartsy types in the humanities. History nerds, like myself, DO follow the proportions I mentioned.
You spend too much time listening to the radio. I work here twelve months a year, and interact with hundreds of teachers every week from all over the country. You live in a fantasy land where we’re all commies, instead of people doing their jobs.
Oh, since it’s the appropriate date, my father—a 35-year veteran in the Marine Corps (Force Recon, by the way)—tells all who’ll listen how HOMOS are accepted in the Corps, as long as they do their jobs. Does that mean Marines are queer? My daddy is extremely manly. Shriek away, flower.
College staffs are notorious for being liberals among those who know nothing about them.
My numbers are anecdotal, based on my familiarity with hundreds of college staff. How many do you know personally?
Polls and studies as well as contributions to political parties all shown overwhelming liberal faculties. This is particularly true of “elite” campuses.
While I am personally encouraged by your anecdotal evidence, I am largely unpersuaded.
I’m not trying to pursuade anyone. Facts are facts.
And I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go pick up a bite to eat before teaching my 12:30 class.
It’s a survey Civil War class, by the way. Almost fifty students, and they better have their papers ready!
Last, the term “Our Risen Lord” has no place in an institution filled with Catholics, Lutherans, Buddhists, and heaven knows what all like my school.
As I figured, you miss the point.
Art, say in the library hall, at Easter-time calling Jesus "Our Risen Lord" would be something that would make you uncomfortable and that you would find controversial and would oppose.
OTOH, art showing an ax-wielding Jesus standing over the destruction of Native American civilization is something about which you say "feh, what's the fuss?"
And you really don't think universities have become places of indoctrination and that you really can't see that maybe you are a bit of a victim yourself?
That's how a conservative college professor responds to a challenge?
LOL! You're lying through you teeth about a lot of things, and most of us have seen right through you.
My stats (also based on experience) are in no way similar to yours. I doubt if 10% of the faculty I’ve worked with are conservative.
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