Free Republic

Author Mark Bauerlein aims to provoke in his new book, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" (Tarcher/Penguin). Do you agree? Take a look at eight reasons the Emory University English professor gives to ''not trust anyone under 30'' -- see which you think is the best. Disagree, or have your own spin? Have your say on this message board. Or see if Bauerlein answered your question directly in a chat from Wednesday, May 14. 1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targetsBauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to...

Last week marked the final set of hearings on academic freedom by members of the Pennsylvania state house. The Select Committee on Academic Freedom met at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) on May 31st and June 1st to hear administrators, union officials, professors and students. Dr. Peter H. Garland and Dr. James D. Moran came representing the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) and said that it is their goal “to ensure that the more than 107,000 students attending the 14 PASSHE Universities receive the very best education possible” and said that each school already has policies in place...

Professor Mark Bauerlein of Emory University traveled from Atlanta, Georgia to Millersville, Pennsylvania for hearings on academic freedom in late April to share his thoughts on how bias in academia becomes institutionalized. “If we get too much uniformity, too much agreement on debatable issues, too little dissent, then the group slides into complacency, insularity, and groupthink. Within the group, attitudes harden. As the years pass and the members reinforce each others’ opinions, those opinions start to look like more than just opinions. They become the truth. To agree with them is simply to be rational and ethical. Anybody who disagrees...