Posted on 01/03/2003 1:25:41 PM PST by freepatriot32
Our nation’s education system continues to deteriorate in the name of political correctness. With the year ending, Young America’s Foundation has compiled a top ten list of the most shameful campus events in the U.S. education system in 2002.
10. Following a Young America’s Foundation event at Ithaca College featuring Bay Buchanan, homosexual and feminist student activists demanded that the event be declared “biased” by the school’s Bias-related Incident Committee. Although the speech was not ruled biased, committee hearings to determine whether an “incident” occurred are held behind closed doors and the accused is not informed of the committee’s decision unless it determines that the student or student group should be referred to the judiciary committee. Furthermore, discussions on changing the definition of “biased” are also held in private.
9. An American University student was pinned down and handcuffed outside a Tipper Gore speech by plainclothes campus police who refused to identify themselves. The student was charged with stealing Gore’s intellectual property by videotaping her speech, which was open to the public. The school claims that it made an announcement barring videotape recording of the event even though no such prohibition was on the flyers advertising the speech and print reporters covered the speech. The student had been critical of the university’s president in the past and voiced concern over the $31,000 lecture fee the university was paying Gore. As a result of the event, the student was placed on probation and threatened with expulsion.
8. Vanderbilt University renamed its Confederate Memorial Hall dormitory to Memorial Hall, because the word “Confederate” makes some people uncomfortable. Also, Vanderbilt Professor Jonathan David Farley, an assistant professor of mathematics, wrote in the Tennessean that Confederates were “cowards masquerading as civilized men” and that “every Confederate soldier deserved not a hallowed resting place at the end of his days but a reservation at the end of the gallows.” On his web page, Professor Farley has a picture of himself posing next to a poster of Marxist Ernesto “Che” Guevara, whom Farley says he considers a hero.
7. Incoming freshman at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill were required to read Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations. According to UNC Chancellor James Moeser, the book was “chosen in the wake of September 11th,” which was a “great opportunity to have a conversation on the teachings of one of the world’s great religions.” It is unlikely a book discussing Christianity will be chosen for next year’s freshmen.
6. The new guidelines for teaching history in New Jersey public schools fail to mention America’s Founding Fathers, the Pilgrims, or the Mayflower. Furthermore, the term “war” has been replaced with “conflict” and most of the references to inhumane treatment that many American soldiers endured in foreign wars during the 20th century have been omitted.
5. Officials at Lewis Elementary School in Barstow, CA, barred students from playing “cops and robbers” on the playground until they could determine if the game is dangerous. The school’s principal threatened a third-grader with suspension if he did not stop playing the game. The school district’s superintendent said officials want to establish guidelines for the game.
4. Harvard University re-invited controversial poet Tom Paulin after withdrawing the original invitation because students had complained of his statements comparing U.S.-born settlers in the West Bank with Nazis and how they “should be shot dead.” The school reportedly re-issued the invitation to show support for free speech. Earlier in the year, however, two editors of Harvard Business School’s student newspaper were reprimanded for publishing a cartoon in which they used the term “morons,” criticizing the school’s computer system.
3. According to the school newsletter, a Santa Monica elementary school principal banned the game of tag because “there is a ‘victim’ or ‘It,’” which creates self-esteem issues among weaker and slower children, and “the oldest or biggest child usually dominates.”
2. Texas school board administrators toned down the curriculum that teaches Texas independence by suppressing “us vs. them” perspectives in lessons about the Battle of the Alamo and the state’s independence from Mexico. According to the social studies curriculum manager of the Houston Independent School District, the school board administrators made the change because they don’t want “Hispanic kids, or any kids, to feel like we’re teaching a bias approach” to the history of Texas.
#1. Bucknell University held a forum in response to articles regarding free speech on campus that appeared in the conservative campus paper, The Counterweight. The dean of students and the assistant dean of students for multicultural affairs were in attendance. During the forum, students called the articles “hate speech” and the dean of students said that he was sure the editor-in-chief of the paper intended to hurt people by publishing the articles. The school administrators made no attempt to protect The Counterweight staffers in attendance at the forum who were being threatened by other students, nor did they reprimand the students making the threats. In fact, the multicultural affairs dean commented that the staffers were “lucky” the offended students at the forum were “such good kids” or the staffers would be risking physical harm. The dean of students threatened to have public safety officials remove the staffers from the forum if they did not leave on their own.
For further information or to schedule an interview, please call Rick Parsons at (800) 292-9231.
Young America’s Foundation is an educational organization promoting conservative ideas on our nation’s campuses through lectures, publications, and conferences. This past academic year, the Foundation sponsored over 300 lectures, including addresses by Walter Williams, Ann Coulter, Ben Stein, and John Stossel. In addition, Young America’s Foundation saved President Reagan’s Western White House – Rancho del Cielo in Santa Barbara, California – to serve as the centerpiece of its Reagan Ranch Program.
I'll probably send her to a small, conservative Catholic school.
Vouchers may or may not be the first step in that direction...Else, I will have to look very hard for a college for my 3 year old to go to in 15 years.
I'm not in the business of alarming folks but you need to keep your eyes open when selecting a Catholic College for your daughter someday.
Most (not all!) have trended toward the left nearly as much as your typical state U or private college. By this I include some of the most well known such as Notre Dame and Loyola but also other smaller colleges with excellent reputations (Univ of SF, Santa Clara U.).
Below I post a response I wrote several months ago when a similar thread started. When your daughter finally nears high school graduation, be cautious and verify everything! Good luck.
"Sorry to have to tell you all, but Catholic Colleges, long ago, began recruiting its faculty from the same talent pool that fills our nation's state colleges, universities, Ivy League schools, etc. And you know what this means -- their politics and demographics are largely the same as faculty at Missouri State or some other institution of lower learning.
"My stepsister is enrolled at a prominent Catholic University in northern California -- Santa Clara. Great school, but her religious studies professor is a liberal Jewish lady who is openly anti-Christian! She is protected by academic freedom and tenure. Apparently, the faculty senate does not require their new hires to be Christian believers. My father was shellshocked when he learned that the girl was not being taught by Jesuits who clearly adhered to the Catholic faith. He just assumed ... well, you know the rest.
"My wife's cousin teaches drama (it's a "he" and he is as liberal as they come) and he just received a tenure-track position at Loyola University in Baltimore. Sure, it's a Catholic school, but he spent hours during a recent party convincing everyone that even though it's Catholic it's a normal place where normal faculty work -- you know, Catholic in name only, a place as progressive as any other, etc. etc. I almost decked him as I heard him espousing his snooty liberal perspectives, holding his glass of chardonnay, at my father-in-law's funeral.
"Then there's the Univ of SF, also Catholic. It sponsors Kwanzaa events on campus (uhh ... there ought to be major league gulfs between the Catholic and Kwanzaa faiths), and there is a LGBT chapter on campus (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender to you naive folks out there).
"Flame away, you supporters of Catholic Universities, but my advice to you Freepers is don't think that by sending Junior to a Catholic College you have automatically surrounded him with a traditional, moral, righteous college experience. It's not hard to learn first-level facts about a college using the web. Another source of information is the campus' conservative newspaper editorial staff. Call them and ask questions! "
I was thinking more along the lines of St. Thomas Aquinas College, or Christendom College or Ave Maria University.
I say this as a graduate of Stanford who is deeply doubtful that any of my three children will ever attend my alma mater. My eldest is 9 and she is a crusader at heart. I never want to let liberals or leftists get their mitts on her energy or her heart. They are in private Christian schools and will remain in them as long as we can afford to send them.
I vaguely recall reading that a number of quality conservative schools are cheaper than their liberal counterparts (probably because the 'student governments' don't see 'activitie fees' and the like as great sources of free money).
Only if you want to support your kid forever. College grads earn a lot more than high school grads.
Comments like this provide fuel for the fire for those who see conservatives as anti-intellectual. This list contains 10 isolated incidents. I went to an Ivy League school where I studied the western canon, espoused conservative beliefs and no one tried to stop me.
These lists serve no purpose except being a fundraising vehicle for places such as YAF.
Nope. A number of Catholic Universities have excellent Jewish scholars. Do you think they should be fired?
Only two that I can think of: Franciscan College of Steubenville and University of Dallas.
My undergraduate years were spent at Fordham (Jesuit), where 90% of the students were poltically apathetic, with the remaining 10% who cared about politics flaming liberals.
Whoa ... this is not a logical extension of my comments. But consider my position from another perspective. Should a Jewish university allow a professor to teach a course on evangelizing and converting Jews to Christianity? Should a Physics department hire a professor who teaches astrology as if it were science? My point was that certain universities, in particular those with religious affiliations, should have the same academic freedoms as all universities but there will be some avenues which are not to be compromised. When I cited the Jewish professor at Santa Clara what mattered to me was the professor's open atheism and verbal attacks on the Christian faith -- not the professor's Jewish origins.
Notre Dame, for instance, has Protestant and Jewish professors among its Religion department faculty. Periodically, people in the Church cause a ruckus about this, but usually it dies down once they realize these professors are spiritually committed people who wish to guide students in seeking God as they seek the truth.
CLA:
I would be interested to know more -- make it a private reply if you think it's appropriate. My oldest child (a girl) is 9 yet is almost off the charts in intellect. As I mentioned, Stanford is my alma mater and family tradition says she should attend there, but as I look ahead eight years (which will fly by, I know) I am seriously debating restricting just where she can attend college.
Do you have personal observations? Do you know others who might provide me with a direct perspective? How is the degree viewed outside traditional conservative circles such as National Review? Did your older daughter have any trouble applying to graduate schools or post-graduate programs? Is Hillsdale stereotyped in the business world? Any info or comments would be welcome.
Thanks, Tom H
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