My Biased, Biased Education

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
1

Is there anyone else out there who is attending post-secondary, especially taking political sciences / international relations, similar studies, and getting the liberal left-wing bias thrown at you everyday? My international politics class consists of the prof. ranting on about the great conspiracy that the neocons have been formulating for years in an attempt to take over the free world’s resources. From his choice of books on the reading list, it is easy to tell he is a P.L.O. and Taliban sympathizer, anti-Israel, a hand-wringer, and a gutless pussy (but thats just my opinion).

I can’t be the only one that thinks profs. should be presenting facts with very little bias. I’m sick of the bush-bashing (leave that for the bloggers), the left-wing indoctrination, and the hammering of students who have different (read: conservative) views. The funny thing is, until now I saw myself as anything but conservative but these liberal fantasy-land types disgust me. Once , we actually had an NDP party member (thats one of the left-wing parties here in Canada for you Americans who don’t know) come into class and pass around fliers depicting an opposing party’s leader in a derogatory cartoon. The worst part about it is that I’m financially supporting guys like him because I had to buy all the books on the reading list to pass the class. What a joke.

2

Yes, it is bad - very bad.

But that is what you get when you get an opinionated ideologue protected by tenure who doesn’t understand that education should spend most of its time teaching you how to think, instead of what to think.

But the “long march through the institutions” started in the 1960s, and where else are they going to find jobs that let them force a captive audience to share their grievances with?

Best professor I ever had was a true blue center-left liberal (not left-winger) - but I only knew that because of our discussions outside class.

3

The average of the outlooks of my profs in IR was probably somewhat right of center. More than anything though the thing I remember them having in common was a healthy sense of cynicism. That was just my experience in that area though.

Overall I had some right wing professors and some left wing professors. I had profs I agreed with and ones I didn’t for a variety of reasons. That’s life. If you actually have an interest in learning rather than just reinforcing your preexisting views though then you will learn to learn from both sides and all in between. Even the professor with the most seemingly distorted view on any given subject knows a shitton more about his/her field than some 19 year old undergrad whose total reading on the topic could fit in a peachie folder. Listen, read and learn. If your views are robust then they will stand up to all the scrutiny and challenge thrown at them.

4

[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
Yes, it is bad - very bad.

But that is what you get when you get an opinionated ideologue protected by tenure who doesn’t understand that education should spend most of its time teaching you how to think, instead of what to think.

But the “long march through the institutions” started in the 1960s, and where else are they going to find jobs that let them force a captive audience to share their grievances with?

… [/quote]

If only campus ideology were a matter of secular swing alone; we could plot out the political temperature and see the swings of fashionable thought every 20 years or so.

But I think there are also more insidious forces at work. As an example to which I have recent access, the Saudis have funded, to a large extent, several colleges’ departments of Mideastern studies. Harvard and Columbia University come to mind.

In the case of Columbia, a few years ago, the department violated the law and failed to report a $250,000 “gift” from a Saudi individual. When a 5 person committee was named to investigate charges that faculty members were harassing dissenting students, they were whisked off to a “junket” of the eastern Mediterranean, paid for by Saudi Aramco, and again, not reported. The committee whitewashed the profs of any wrongdoing.

Now I do not endorse conspiracy theories, but the Saudis, and other foreigners, have agendas, agendas which include the indoctrination of Americans. The honest presentation of a point of view is not suspect necessarily, if it is transparent, which is not the case at Columbia, or if it promotes opinion and inquiry. But it is clear from reports at Columbia, and UCLA, for example, that there is a pattern of harassment designed to block legitimate academic inquiry as well.

Perhaps this, too, would not be so worrisome, if college students had the intellectual strength and curiosity to challenge notions on their own. But having seen some of the crap, here on PWI, that passes for discourse, I am bereft of even that hope.

5

A very interesting, on-topic thread here:

http://www.volokh.com/posts/chain_1191937589.shtml

6

I have one professor who is extremely liberal and very critical of US foreign policy. I also have a professor who is a staunch republican. The latter is the more outspoken about his views, although the former doesn’t really make any secret about it either. I also have a professor who does a very good job of concealing his views.

Personally, I have no problem with a professor who has strong views as long as he is careful to allow all opinions to be discussed in class, and doesn’t vindictively try to come down on or show up students with whom he disagrees. Part of the point of a liberal arts education is to learn how to reason and argue, and thus it is important to learn how to deal with views contrary to your own. As long as professors grade fairly despite any idealogical disagreements, and try to nurture discussion rather than push a message, I’m okay with it. If their lectures are more rant than substance, then I agree that it is a problem.

7

[quote]DrSkeptix wrote:
Harvard and Columbia University come to mind. [/quote]

Ha, Harvard? Of all places?

What a joke!

8

I had healthy spectrum of teachers in college, only one of which try to shove her ideas down our throats. But she was such a stereo-typical left wing, lesbian feminist, almost to the point of caricature, that we didn’t take her seriously.