Are All Education Classes Liberal?

self

[Cathryn Crawford]

I am taking my first and only education class this semester at the University of Texas. I've taken some liberal courses, but this one by far exceeds any previous. Is this standard?

All emphasis seems to be on multicultural education, the horror of vouchers, and the need for schools to be parents.

[Cathryn Crawford]

To be fair, my economics professor is extremely conservative. He's one of the absolute best.

[DeFault User]

I took an education course once and soon determined I would never take another one. The only worthwhile thing I learned was that 'you don't give homework as punishment'. Three wasted semester hours.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

First find out if she is an honest liberal or not. In other words will disagreeing with her will result in a lower grade?

If she is honest then have fun, if not you are going to have to make a choice.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Thanks! At least this class gives me article ideas.

Anytime you guys see an education column from me this fall, be assured that I was sitting in the back busily writing it while she waxed poetic on multicultural or bilingual education. My own private revenge.

[Arrowhead1952]

Consider yourself lucky. My daughter was thinking about going to UT next year, but has decided to go to A&M instead. She could not stand the liberal bias on the entire UT campus.

[jmc813]

Is it at least a cool liberal who will let you argue your point without your grades suffering as a result?

[Desparado]

If you really want to get an eyeful of what's going on in our Universities, go to the site, noindoctrination.org. You will be shocked at the listings there from all over the country by students complaining about biased classes and crazy leftist professors in top Universities from around the US.

[only1percent]

It's not so much that schools of education are liberal, but that their premise is a little mistated. The premise is not education, but social work -- and the challenge is not "how do we get the best possible education," but "how do we educate the children of degenerates?"

Children of responsible parents will, by and large, end up well educated because their parents will demand it and make the free market choices (private school, home school, moving to good public school districts, etc.) necessary to make it happen.

Children of degenerates have only the state to rely upon. Vouchers probably hurt them, because they enable the escape of any responsible parents too poor to have other alternatives.

[Tribune7]

All emphasis seems to be on multicultural education, the horror of vouchers, and the need for schools to be parents.

THAT is scary.

[Cathryn Crawford]

She's not a cool liberal. My constitutional law professor is that, at least. She is not.

[TomServo]

Sounds like you'll have some future articles from this. Savor it.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Yep.

[toolbreaker]

I am taking a "political beliefs" class where last nights' discussion was conservatism. The professor was very even-handed and presented a good lecture. The interesting thing was the visceral, jaw-clenching, anger that came from the students. They could not comprehend that conservatives were anything but vicious, racist, evil, war-mongering, fat cats.
Fascinating, the young products of our public schools!

[Cathryn Crawford]

Where do you go to school at?

I was lucky enough not to attend public school.

[TomServo]

Where do you go to school at?

A Southerner stopped a stranger on the Harvard campus and asked, "Could you please tell me where the library is at?" The stranger responded, "Educated people never end their sentences with a preposition." The overly polite Southerner then apologetically repeated himself: "Could you please tell me where the library is at, you jerk?"

[Dianna]

I expect it depends upon the school itself and the particular teachers but I'm not finding my classes to be overwhelmingly liberal. My Health Ed teacher thinks kids should learn gun safety (although she does think schools should take a more active role in promoting health. If you're dead being smart isn't a lot of use, is her her opinion.) My Intro to Ed prof doesn't like the teacher's union. The woman who is teaching us an intro special ed course thinks mainstreaming isn't always the best answer. My computer teacher showed a wonderful powerpoint presentation some 6th graders made about 9/11.

I expected to find myself annoyed quite a bit of the time, but I'm really not. Two textbooks talk about culture and education and both profs pretty much ignored the whole thing.

The most annoying thing about my whole school experience is that it seems every time we discuss a poet in my literature classes homosexuality or bi-sexuality comes up (Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Edna St Vincent Millay, and in discussing TS Eliot today we had to hear about Michelangelo's dubious sexuality because Eliot referenced him.)

[toolbreaker]

Where do you go to school at? I was lucky enough not to attend public school.

I am attending a University of Wisconsin extension. So where'd you get yer learnin' at?

[Cathryn Crawford]

Wild. I'm only in one class, and it's not even my major, and yet it's like walking into a...I don't know...pit when I walk in the education building. The atmosphere is really horrible.

[Cathryn Crawford]

I'm gettin' my learnin' at the University of Texas.

[redpoll]

Hi Cathryn! I'm an English teacher and I've returned to college this year in order to update my credentials to fit the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act. The one-word answer to your question: yes. I've dealt with the same problem with ideological purity in my classes up here, too. My solution: find something else to do that occupies the higher-level thinking part of my brain, sometimes nod my head when the prof wants me to, and mine through the slag for the nuggets of wisdom that sometimes emerge. Practically all of the profs I've run into are old hippies reliving the glory days of 1968. I know that I need a piece of paper at the end of this process in order for my career to go forward. Another thought: there are some really great profs out there, too, who concentrate on teaching skills and methods that help students think. I stay sharp in those classes and keep in touch with them even after I'm done with the coursework. Last thought: in the end, your classroom is yours. I've found that students, especially in this era, are tired and bored of Leftist ranting and political correctness. Those of us who are conservative in outlook and demanding in our practice are a breath of fresh air. The best compliment I get from my students is, "You really taught me how to write well," or "You're the first teacher I've had who challenged me." So don't sweat the collegiate process. It's just a hoop to jump through... and hopefully someday we'll have vouchers, where good teachers can thrive.