Posted on 11/05/2004 4:38:40 PM PST by Republicanprofessor
I'm wondering if there are indeed other Republican professors or teachers out there. This seems the time to band together, gain strength from each other and begin to buck the liberal bias in education.
I have never begun to be active in this way, but even sharing stories (horror or otherwise) may help up to be stronger on our own campuses.
What situations bother you that you feel the need to speak out against? For me it is two things that I can think of right now:
1) The assumption that multi-lingual education is the way to go (i.e. English as a second language)
2) Unions demanding pay raises. Do Republicans belong to the unions on campus? I know many of us are underpaid, but is there another way to deal with this issue than whining for more money from state governments? My Republican side is for accountability and tax-cuts, but our pay is pretty bleak.
Please let me know if there are others of you out there and what your ideas are. (Other, non-professorial types are welcome to chime in too.)
Make sure you don't use your campus network to go to Free Republic. Big Geek is watching...
you can walk out every night carrying nothing, and you will be paid exactly the same as those of us who carry (and actually grade) piles every night.
you can work your heart out, your students can score higher....and yet we are all the same...nobody gets any more (in the way of classrom supplies, salary or equipment) than anyone else.
we are all the same...
In New York, I used to be an involuntary member of a faculty union. They suck. The union was useless when it came to raising pay. It was against merit increases and for across-the-board increases that really only benefitted the aging brain-dead old liberals who'd retired the day after they got tenure. Merit increases were the only way an Assistant Professor could get his salary up out of the cellar. So the union was, in effect, negotiating my pay downwards.
Fortunately, Nebraska is a right-to-work state.
I am (almost) a PhD academic in history
I'm not sure about educators. I can tell you, however, that in my sons speech class in college,they had the obligatory kerry vs. Bush debate and there were only three students on effins side of the room--everyone else was for the Pres. It did my heart good to know he has conservative peers.
We are indeed to be found in academe, even in the most unlikely places (e.g., liberal arts colleges). We are, however, heavily outnumbered; but every once in a while we have a chance to influence things.
I ran into one of my old electrical engineering professors at the local Boortz/Hannity/North/Bennett get out the vote rally on October 30. We never talked politics while I was in college so I had no idea he was a Republican.
I could write 2000 words about the times I have been abused by liberal Democrats at different schools. However, it is of no interest to anyone and would be boring and repetitious. If ANYONE out there can use a fluently bilingual, very God-fearing conservative teacher please freepmail me with a contact. I've tried to send out resumes for about two years in an attempt to find something else and have been unsuccessful mainly due to overqualification for the types of jobs I was willing to do (and stay at). However, if I send a resume for a teaching position, administrators are more than willing to interview me and even offer a slightly higher salary (to teach in a God-forsaken school) which does not solve the initial problem -- I want out! So, if someone out there has mercy and can truly be of help, I would be most grateful.
You nailed it.
I am a parent educator... court appointed. I catch flack because I "teach" classes, not "hold" group therapy. I work in a predominately "liberal" agency that seems to find a way to "let go" of conservative employees. I have held my own for over 6 years. The stories I could tell...
I hope things will change in teaching. I am studying now(transfering to Fresno State in Jan) to become a teacher. I am double majoring in poli sci also. Seems it might come in handy in my small hometown in the future. I hope things change though. I see the liberal bias in schools everywhere. They are pushing their views on you at every turn. Unfortunately for them, I am not a quite conservative. I have gotten in a few debates with instructors!! Anyways, that's my two cents.
So, since you are a professor, are you an expert? If so, have I seen you on any of the networks?
How wonderful to see your post! I am probably the most outspoken conservative on the campus where I have taught for 24 years. Collegiality? Not much. If one doesn't kowtow to the party line, one is persona nongrata. If one does not proclaim that he is a "brother or sister" to fellow unionist, traitor is the label.
So what can we do except maintain a profile, continue to speak up, and not be intimidated, and keep the faith...
I welcome your suggestions. For one, I would like the definitive answer to resigning from the NEA. How to go about doing it. Nobody seems to know the steps required. It's like going down a deep hole every time ask about it.
I am on staff at a west coast campus. It bugs me when they have speakers come to speak to the campus community they NEVER have a conservative speakers just the Michael Moore type. And they the RATS want to have so called 'Diversity', what a joke.
I have a daughter that is a senior in a liberal arts college. You can only imagine what she has endured for 3 1/2 years.
Now my youngest daughter is trying to pick a college and it's difficult for me to watch without steering her away from some schools just for their political leanings.
advice would be greatly appreciated....
Here in the USA am a very part time adjunct faculty at a Jr College.
I hope to be back in Taipei as Assn't Prof at a University full time.
Guess I'm a bit foolish about pay--bleak as it is, if I can live, I don't fuss over much and don't join unions. I hate what the NEA has done to education.
I am aghast at the strictures that have descended on the college/university life in the 15 years I was gone. I'm supposed to not answer any personal questions that students commonly ask psychology profs. I don't dare disclose hardly anything about my politics or spiritual life and preferences.
Thankfully, I'm still pretty prayerfully resourceful about teaching solid JUDEO/CHRISTIAN values at key points in the text. They happen to be the wisest values--in support of family, marriage, moderation with alcohol etc.
Anyway--FWIW.
I'm stuck here in NYS where we have no choice but to belong to the NEA.
It's God awful (not the students---for the most part they are OK) even after teaching 24 years on this campus, the propaganda, the deceit, and the leftovers Marxists from the 60s who have not retired etc...makes for a stifling campus catering to the loonies.
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