Posted on 08/14/2019 8:03:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Are taxpayers funding academic institutions to indoctrinate our kids? That disturbing and irresistible question plagued me during the long drive home last week from college orientation. I doubt I am alone in this wake-up call.
Like many other women, I just sent my youngest child to college. I am so proud of him and his decision to join the Army ROTC and study engineering. He will be attending a revered Virginia institution known for its military Corps of Cadets program.
The centerpiece of the campus is the military parade field featuring beautiful pylons bearing the school’s founding principles: words such as “honor,” “duty,” “brotherhood,” and “ut prosim” (that I may serve). The war memorial also bears the names of all known cadets who have given their lives for our nation since World War I.
Established in 1872, Virginia Tech has an honorable and proud tradition in my home state, and its graduates are some of the most accomplished and wonderful people I know. Hokies shine around our nation as leaders and as a great credit to their school. I know many to be people of faith, and many, many are conservative.
Because of this, I was shocked to experience what I can only describe as extreme and overtly leftist propaganda spewed at our children’s orientation. The opening “University Welcome” event for students and parents separated families immediately in the auditorium.
Nobody expected the event to begin with prayer or the Pledge of Allegiance — heavens, no! But one might expect to remember the names of fallen cadets on the pylons or the 32 dead and 17 injured in the 2007 shooting on Virginia Tech’s campus, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Nope. Instead, the administration made the stunning choice to open orientation by recognizing two Native American tribes on whose land the college was built (with the implication that it was stolen).
What followed went from slightly bothersome to downright alarming. The college filled the next two hours with speaker after speaker who introduced themselves with not just their names and titles but also preferred pronouns — as in, “Hi my name is Penny Nance, and I identify as she and her.” At first, parents were slightly surprised; by the end, they were mad.
Every person on the stage looked exactly as you would expect them to identify. At that point, I noticed all the new students’ badges contained not just their names but also their preferred pronouns because the school had made it part of registration. The heavy-handed diversity lecture that followed seemed rather tame in comparison. Parents left the venue in shock.
The rest of the day followed the same two-track program, parents versus children, allowing the college to share different sets of information with each. It gave parents the hard line against underage and excessive drinking, but according to students present, the university assured them that campus police are there to help them navigate wayward behavior, which was implied to be normal. “Be open to new experiences,” orientation leaders urged throughout the day.
“Parents, don’t be shocked if your kid comes home changed,” they intoned in the other room — this to the hundreds of parents, including myself, who had saved and sacrificed to send our children to this “top educational institution.” The attitude they conveyed was one of how “privileged” we should feel that they selected our children to attend such a fine and prestigious university. Lucky us.
At one point, after dinner, they sent parents off to oblivious sleep while they lectured students on not making assumptions about each other’s gender or sexuality. Were they suggesting students ought to be fluidly “exploring” their gender and sexuality, as if it were some expected adventure? In the era of “Me Too,” that seems off message.
The school constantly defined and showcased identity group politics, but certainly not all identities. It’s apparently way cooler to be a minority trans woman with food allergies than simply to be an American college student. Interestingly, the university offered Halal food but no certified kosher meals. Religiously observant Jewish students, tough luck, but if you are vegan, you’re in business.
As a mom, part of me wanted to load my son in the car and head up the road to Liberty University, but since he’s an adult, that wasn’t my choice to make. The other part of me thinks: Why should my son be denied the engineering program he wants and earned? Why should conservative kids be forced to become educational refugees from public institutions that, despite enjoying our tax dollars, don’t welcome us?
Let’s not forget, all Virginians pay taxes and thus have equity and stake in what government institutions teach our children. Alumni are also deeply invested in the reputation and direction of their alma mater. I doubt they approve of what appears to be a new “woke” version of their school. Here’s the problem: Virginia Tech and most other public universities have forgotten they work for us.
We must send them a clear message: Every Christian, Muslim, Orthodox Jew, conservative teacher, college employee, and every student whose privacy they are violating — we all have rights, too.
Why should a public university force a young man or woman struggling with identity issues, for example, to disclose those personal details and prominently display them on a name badge? Gender dysphoria is real, and the small number of students struggling deserve to be treated with dignity and kindness.
Why should a public institution be allowed to violate teachers’ First Amendment rights by bullying them into using the made-up terms they/them, zie/zim, ey/em (or about 60 more) instead of she/her or he/him? The reordering of centuries of grammar usage is an offensive overcorrection, and it bullies Christians, Muslims, and other students into violating their consciences to appease a small group of nonsensical identity politics warriors.
Bottom line, why should taxpayers foot the bill for liberal indoctrination? We shouldn’t, and if we all demand it, we won’t have to anymore. The Republican Party is still in control of the Virginia Assembly and Senate. One line in an appropriations bill would assure the rights of students and teachers in this madness.
Virginians deserve better. We do not bow to the ascendancy of the liberal, ivory-towered academic’s worldview over ours. We can both care for and love struggling kids who don’t feel included, while maintaining our sanity.
I have called out Virginia Tech in this op-ed, but other schools in Virginia and around the nation exhibit the identical issue. It is rampant.
Parents, donors, and alumni, if you identify with this experience, it’s up to you. Our institutions have gotten this out of hand because most people are silent, too afraid of the social media harassment and bullying tactics of liberal activists and professors. Speak up.
First, send screen shots, video, or your story to Concerned Women for America at [email protected]. We won’t disclose your name without permission, but we will tell your story.
Second, contact your state legislators and demand legislation prohibiting the forced use of speech codes. The state controls most of the funds for public universities and can prohibit the use of those funds for nefarious means. Finally, contact the president of the offending institution or complain on social media while tagging the institution.
I have requested a meeting with Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands. If parents, students, and alumni would simply call to complain, we could at least wake up “the woke” to the fact that conservatives also attend their schools and are sick of the madness.
Campus insanity has gone this far because we were silent. When do we say “enough”?
The leftists own the public universities now, all of them. Your tax dollars at work.
But the parent said nothing about telling their child to quit that hellhole did they? Stop paying the tuition. Say it was a miistake and tell them to go find another path to their goals in life. If this parent thinks the orientation is th end of it or writing an article will save their child from years of indoctrination headed their way that is called being willfully complicit and trying to assuage guilt without actually doing anything.
SAVE YOUR CHILD. GET THEM TO DROP OUT NOW.
My best friend reported same orientation deal for her son at Kennesaw college here in Georgia. The campus atmosphere is so bad he moved back home after three weeks and transferred to N Georgia college this past year which is much better.
Your Majesty - Your Majesty - Her Majesty - Her Majesty's
Evey statement must begin with the words:
“...but since he’s an adult, that wasn’t my choice to make.”
No, Mom. That is your choice.
Now you know why they are called ‘hokies’................
All I can tell this mother is tell your son to focus on the technical stuff and IGNORE the political stuff.
You can’t BS in Science and Technology. If your logic does not work, your program won’t work. If your calculations are wrong, the building collapses.
Forget “calling out” the University; it is faceless. Call out Tech President Timothy Sands and hold only him responsible! Lefties are cowards. Keep the heat on him and isolate him!
Dad, stop payment on that check while you can!
RE: Kennesaw college
Newt Gingrich used to teach a course there.
I was shocked ...Shocked to find out the liberals are active.
Pronouns are only useful when a person is being talked ABOUT. Why is the left concerned about facilitating gossip?
Penny sounds like she was triggered. VT is considered a “conservative” campus by today’s university standards. Part of that is the very large number of international students. The other is the large number of STEM students. Both groups tend to be less interested in playing the “reindeer games”.
Sit back, enjoy the beautiful campus, the new biking paths at Pandapas, hike the AT, watch the football team implode, go to Sharkey’s for AYCE wings, enjoy the best food of any college campus (#1 every year), a selfie at the neon VT flag at TOTS and most all, don’t be a butthole.
We might come visit you up there some day.
“All I can tell this mother is tell your son to focus on the technical stuff and IGNORE the political stuff.
You can’t BS in Science and Technology. If your logic does not work, your program won’t work. If your calculations are wrong, the building collapses.”
Agreed. After he fulfills his basic requirements (English, etc), he can concentrate on what really matters to him - the science and math classes. He doesn’t have to associate with Women’s Studies or Sociology majors.
Milton Friedman was the speaker at my 1977 VaTech graduation. If you stay in STEM classes minimize your contact with liberal arts & humanities profs you will hardly notice the fools.
“All I can tell this mother is tell your son to focus on the technical stuff and IGNORE the political stuff.
You can’t BS in Science and Technology. If your logic does not work, your program won’t work. If your calculations are wrong, the building collapses.”
I agree totally. I am an older student currently and I am in the tech side of things and I can tell you the political agenda is in everything. My hope is that when people send their kids to these schools they have been taught right from wrong and understand that the piece of paper does not make the person and all the non-technical BS is just that BS.
Many schools now stipulate that in order to graduate, STEM students must take several “Social Justice” classes, so there’s no escape.
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