Posted on 07/22/2007 10:24:53 PM PDT by goldstategop
On December 27, 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote William Roscoe about his vision for the University of Virginia (chartered in 1819), "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error as long as reason is left free to combat it."
But what should happen 200 years later when our public universities avoid the testing of truths? Or suppress alternate opinions because they are unpopular or politically incorrect? Or no longer tolerate opinions now considered errors by the elite?
What happens when sociopolitical agendas or scientific paradigms dominate university views to the exclusion of a minority even being mentioned? When higher centers of learning fail to be places where all ideas are examined from a variety of reasoned perspectives?
What happens when the political and public educational pendulum swings from concern for the tyranny of sectarianism in Jefferson's day to secularism in ours?
The New Narrow-mindedness Of The American University
Dr. Jim Nelson Black, founder and senior policy analyst of the Sentinel Research Associates in Washington, D.C., in his excellent book "Freefall of the American University," documents well the clear biases pervading our public academic settings. Among this educational lopsidedness is the intentional training of students to distain America, freely experiment sexually, forcefully defend issues like abortion and homosexuality, as well as become cultural advocates for political correctness, relativism, globalization, green agendas and tolerance for all.
One of the primary ways these educative platforms are propagated is by recruiting and retaining faculty members who reflect and teach them. For example, citing from the polling firm of Luntz Research, Dr. Black notes that the 57 percent of faculty members represented in our most esteemed universities are Democrats (only 3 percent Republican) and 64 percent identify themselves as liberal (only 6 percent conservative). Moreover, 71 percent of them disagree that "news coverage of political and social issues reflects a liberal bias in the news media." And the No.1 answer they gave to the question, "Who has been the best president in the past 40 years?" was Bill Clinton (only 4 percent said Ronald Reagan).
The impact of secular progressive influence is being experienced by students across this land, tens of thousands of who have already cried out with complaints of academic inequity. A sampling of hundreds of student grievances from across the academic spectrum can even be found on websites like the Students for Academic Freedom and NoIndoctrination.org.
While I fully realize there are some great conservative people on the staffs of many higher learning campuses, I know virtually all of them would concur that a liberal bias in our academic curricula and system is overwhelmingly dominant and ubiquitous.
Is this present, restrictive and one-sided educational environment that which Thomas Jefferson and other founders intended for the future generations of America? Absolutely not! Rather than encourage free thinking, the U.S. academic system has turned Jefferson's plans for open education into our culture's system of indoctrination.
Ways To Stabilize The National Academic Imbalances
Among the list of correctives recommended by experts, I concur that our adherence to the following would bring a better balance to our nation's public education:
Don't blindly believe in a university's broad-base education, based solely upon its past reputation or a descriptive catalogue. Confront the administration. Ask the hard questions of course professors.
If you experience courses that create an intimidating atmosphere for expressing varied opinions, disparage alternative views, or advance one-sided political or social ideologies, report such courses and programs. Inform and educate the online community of your complaints as well. If our government is not going to hold our academic institutions accountable, then its citizens must.
Encourage your academic institution to accept The Academic Bill of Rights and The Students Bill of Rights.
Consider a counter-cultural mission by teaching or assisting in a public school, college, university, or even the U.S. Department of Education.
If proposed changes are not satisfactorily handled, consider alternative means of education. Private, charter and home schools and online educational opportunities not only flourish today but are producing some of the best and brightest in society.
Encourage your children to attend a private, conservative or Christian college or university.
Be an active and vocal part in your school's board, PTA or equivalent. Volunteer to assist in any way that can positively influence the academic current in the right direction. Work for installing Bible curriculum into your public school, which is even now happening in 373 school districts in 37 states.
Encourage you're teens and college-aged children to join The Rebelution – a counter-culture movement led by 19-year old twins Alex and Brett Harris, who are seeking to reinstitute and educate families on traditional values and beliefs. Like their parents Gregg and Sono Harris, so we should intentionally educate and build a legacy of leadership in our children, before culture and a secular education zaps it from them. Train your children in the tactics of America's culture war while they're at home, so they are equipped to engage it when they leave.
Additional counter-culture Blogs and resources can also be discovered at other teen sites, including pushbackignorance.blogspot.com, christianthink.blogspot.com, agenttimonline.com, and politicallyincorrectzone.blogspot.com.
When In Rome…
Thomas Jefferson was an enthusiastic advocate for public education and believed it was the key to preserving a republican government and society. Yet, he was equally an ardent opponent against "any tyranny over the mind of man." Whether that dominance is sectarianism or secularism, conservatism or liberalism, Jefferson (and I believe our other Founders) would oppose and seek to correct today's disproportions of instruction in our nation's public schools.
If Jefferson supported reform in public education as a prerequisite for a lasting republican nation, would he not expect the same of us today?
But will we follow his lead? Or will we allow the present path of degradation of the American educational spirit? If the latter, then I agree with Dr. Black's assessment, echoing the warning of Alexis de Tocqueville, in his classic work, "Democracy in America"
Because Roman civilization perished through barbarian invasions, we are perhaps too much inclined to think that that is the only way a civilization can die. If the lights that guide us ever go out, they will fade little by little, as if of their own accord….We therefore should not console ourselves by thinking that the barbarians are still a long way off. Some peoples may let the torch be snatched from their hands, but others stamp it out themselves.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
read later
http://www.thefire.org/ - Non-Profit Organization in defense of genuine academic freedom.
http://www.hillsdale.edu/ - The conservative “liberal arts” college.
Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for. There; my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!
bump for morning reading
Bookmark for later reading. Thanks for the post!!
later read
He seems like a well rounded, thoughtful person. This is good advice.
Why, oh why, do so many FReepers post a poem or an excerpt of prose without any reference to the author, the work or the title?
Oh lordy, you must be joking....if not, it’s sad, sad, sad.
Not a joke at all. So many song lyrics, poems and prose without any attribution. It drives me, well, to the edge. :^(
It’s Polonius’ bit from Hamlet — advice to his son — perhaps one of the most famous pieces in the English language.
p.s.
If I remember correctly, there was even an episode of Gilligan’s Island where they set it to music.
Alright, I am probably the most culturally illiterate poster on FR and even I know that's Hamlet. Heck, even the castaways on Gilligan's Island knew that.
Hamlet
It's a good play, but full of quotes.
Also as a parent of a teenage daughter, I find myself emphasizing math and the hard sciences. Engineering, math curriculum’s etc have little in the way of biases.
I encourage other parents to tell their children to limit the “Social problems in society” classes if at all possible. That’s where the wing-nuts tend to teach. A lot of it is opinion oriented, using skewed data to back up their far lefty claims. Unfortunately, most degree programs require these “socilaly liberal causes” in one form or another in most degree programs.
Another good idea I’ve been kicking around for my kids is trade school. Nursing, plumbing, auto techs, electricians, welding etc are respectable jobs, providing decent pay and are always in demand.
From my previous post (preview is my friend!)
socilaly = socially.
Hamlet, Act I Scene III - LORD POLONIUS
That way someone who has not been exposed might choose to look it up and read more.
Just a thought.
P.S. I was in a checkout line the other night and the clerk noticed my Moody Blues T-shirt. He asked if I'd really seen them live. ::: roll eyes ::: Yes. Then went on to how they talk about MB in Rock and Roll class at the local college.
"Rock and Roll class, for like credit?" Yes, he says...
So todays kids might be able to site the poem at the end of "Nights in White Satin", but they may not know Hamlet.
Tell your kids ever to take a college course with the words “and Society” in the title. That is death for a conservative. The only reason I took one was because I needed a cake class to alleviate some of the stress from my engineering cirriculum. I kept my head down and escaped with a C+.
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