Posted on 12/29/2004 1:04:31 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons" has focused unwanted attention—unwanted at least by college officials—on the sexual antics of American college students. The behavior is scandalous, but an even greater scandal is what students are being taught.
This mis-education is the subject of a new book by former BreakPoint editor James Nelson Black. In Freefall of the American University, Black describes how “colleges and universities are corrupting the minds and morals of the next generation.”
That’s quite an indictment, but Freefall will leave any open-minded reader realizing that the evidence supports it. As Black puts it, “the university is not a safe place to send your child.” He isn’t referring to their physical safety, although with all the drugs, drinking, and promiscuity on many campuses, those concerns are real.
Rather, what Freefall describes is the systematic effort on the part of what have been called “tenured radicals” to re-educate our kids. Instead of teaching them the kinds of things you expect them to learn in college, the curricula at most schools undermine the Western moral and intellectual tradition.
This contempt for the traditions—the ones that made the university possible in the first place—is as plain as the type in a course catalog. The University of Pennsylvania teaches, for example, “A Feminist Critique of Christianity,” but certainly not a “Christian Critique of Feminism.” Columbia teaches “Sorcery and Magic,” and Bucknell offers “Witchcraft and Politics.”
Then there are the many courses on various kinds of sexuality—not biology courses, mind you, but courses like Swarthmore’s “Lesbian Novels since World War II.”
All the schools I’ve mentioned are highly selective and, not coincidentally, expensive. A parent struggling to pay tuition may wonder what a course in “Sorcery and Magic” will do for their child’s future. These are reasonable doubts: Our best schools are graduating heavily indebted students who don’t know basic history as well as high school students in the 1950s did.
This “intellectual crippling” is exceeded only by what Black calls the “moral crippling” of our kids. Many universities actively subvert the moral underpinnings of our civilization. They substitute environmental awareness, acceptance of all “lifestyles,” and similar politically correct nostrums for traditional ideas about right and wrong, and they turn a blind eye to substance abuse and promiscuity.
Fortunately, as Black tells us, Christian parents don’t have to settle for expensive and subversive mediocrity. The key lies in doing some homework and becoming informed consumers.
Instead of choosing schools on the basis of where they are ranked in the U.S. News & World Report survey, Christian parents ought to look to alternative sources of information, like National Review’s or the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s guides. These alternative sources provide not just “safer,” but better alternatives: schools that provide a real education, both in and out of the classroom.
It’s important to remember that, at least in terms of earning potential, it’s going to college that makes the biggest difference. Where your children go will not make as much difference to their wallets, however, as it will to their minds and souls, which is why avoiding the freefall Black describes ought to be your top priority when choosing a college.
BreakPoint/Chuck Colson Ping!
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Imagine a graduate with, say, master's in witchcraft and magic. Flying a broom to a job interview and then leaving that broom with the receptionist. More traditionalist types could be flying a goat or a hog, but leaving domesticated animals with the receptionist would naturally turn noisy and messy, which is not the way to produce a proper impression.
In St. Louis, Lindenwood College has made a name for itself by a major overhaul in the past decade. The new president fired about 70% of the teaching staff, hired new staff, and informed everyone that they were going to work a *full time job* for a fulltime salary.
In addition, the dorms are strictly separated for men and women, and there's no overnight shacking up allowed, from what I've heard.
These expensive "ivy league" dens of vipers will continue to prosper as long as American parents *pay the tuition.*
I saw Wolfe interviewed on this book....I think he has an appropriate last name. He seemed quite delighted in using graphic descriptions of what he "learned" in the process of writing this trash.
Well, it seems he was right.
I am convinced that for the vast majority a community colege, trade school, or equivalent is an excellent path to a college degree. You can readily tranfer credits to a state school to get the "name", it is much cheaper, and (in the case of trade school) you actually learn something that you can make money at......
I tend to think that only Ivy school name recognition is truly important.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with a course in the history of magic / witchcraft in the West, depending on how it was taught.
Is this by The Chuck Colson who leads by moral example very very well?
Except students have to be careful - many vocational / trade school courses *don't* transfer to four-year colleges. Every state college now has to have a list of the courses that *do* transfer from every community college in that state, however.
If it's and Ivay league school your child is eyeing, send the brat to a community college and pocket the extra $50K a year. He'll get a better education and you won't have to drink Old Milwaukee for the next 4 years.
true enough, in CT the community college degree (associates degree) is fully transferable to any State college. Much, much cheaper and I bet the students are there to learn as opposed to party. Of course it is for each to decide but for a kid with some ambition and goals it seems the way to go.
yea, but Martin Luther is an apostate and a heretic.
It is absolutely hilarious that people pretend that all this is new on campuses. Where have the conservatives been hiding the last 40 years?
I went to college in the mid to late 70's. Everything described in the article was true at the small mid-western liberal arts college that I attended.
And when I visited friends at the large state schools, it was worse.
I agree. It's a part of our history - from the hermetic practitioners to Appalachian folk magic, it's a worthy and much-overlooked area of research. It may not be a relevent course for many majors, but I can think of majors where it could be beneficial. Medieval and Renaissance culture and literature, for instance; and cultural anthropology.
In addition, the dorms are strictly separated for men and women, and there's no overnight shacking up allowed, from what I've heard.
______________
LOL.
so the kids are having sex in the daytime, or else, the guys have their cake and eat it, too. Have sex with the girlfriend but not have to spend the night cuddling, so they can get back to their rooms, party with the guys and watch sports center in peace and quiet.
For all I know, maybe the women like it better that way, too.
I seriously doubt that dorm rules have any significant impact on, uhhh, student relations.
College is what you make of it. Even if you go to one of the eeeeevvviiiilll ultra-liberal schools, you choose a large percentage of your classes.
It's kind of foolish to think that college students, who are adults after all, need to be protected from bad influences on campus. If a kid wants to party, have lots of sex and worship Ba'al, it really doesn't matter what school they go to.
Big deal. That might work the first year, but if this school is like any other, most students move into off-campus housing after their first year.
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