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Student Question of the Day

But...but...but...

You are wrong. All wrong.

Multiculturalism is good. Expands horizons...global village....different cultures....well rounded students....acceptance...

Sorry. Had to step back into my comfort zone for a minute. I feel better now. :)
 
My parents are both socially liberal Democrats, so I was a socially liberal Democrat through my formative years. Voted for Clinton twice. I was lucky enought to attend a "magnet" high school in Philadelphia. Basically, they take the top 1% of students from all the middle schools (public and parochial and private). Most of the teachers and students were so focused on actual higher education. We students were obsessed with keeping our GPA's high. In short, "agendas" were very rare at my high school.

I found myself blown away when I got to college. Wow, here are teachers that not only make the lessons "personal" instead of "dry", but they all believe the same things I do! WONDERFUL. By sophomore year, I was intelligent enough to think, "Wait a second, if every teacher teaches lessons from the exact same viewpoint, isn't that kind of one-sided, even if I happen to agree with their ideas?"

I began to look at things more skeptically, and examine things from a more "right-leaning" or "cocservative" viewpoint. I began to see that not only were all of my professors promoting a very liberal agenda, they were actively engaged in denouncing a conservative or more right-wing point of view.

So, I began speaking up in class. Playing "devil's advocate" if you will, asking questions from a Conservative point of view.

You know what it got me? Rebukes, and countless, "If you would like to show me your credentials, I'd be happy to let you teach the class. Otherwise, I'd like you to keep your comments and questions germane to the lessons." Seriously, I was belittled simply for asking what the Conservative point of view was.

God forbid you even think of professing any type of faith in a higher power.

It saddens me to think that the majority of students will swallow lefty bullshit and believe it as "fact", simply because a professor tells them it is.
 
This discussion begs the question, why are lefty liberal teachers so afraid to teach or even address the right? I mean, if they're right, they're right, right?
 
It's not a matter of fear, L_G.

It has everything to do with not being exposed to any other way. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've never questioned the orientation of the educational theories I was taught. I took them on faith, and as fact. Any other viewpoint was wrong, and detrimental to the educational process. If you are a dedicated educator, teaching something that is detrimental is ethically reprehensible.

To suddenly find out that those beliefs you held dear are fallible, and perhaps detrimental, could mean that you've been impeding your students' education. An intrinsic ethical battle ensues, one that begins with denial, and ends...who knows where?
 
Most leftists in education have never met an intellectual conservative. That's the real problem. Their idea of on conservative is a Rush-listenin', Nascar-goin', Bush-votin', country-music-singin', Church-goin' redneck.

Friday is correct--they don't really know any other way of thinking, because they've never been exposed to the intellectual tradition of the right. Hell, even in composition textbooks, when you're given a pairing of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, the Marx selection is generally longer and the Smith section chosen to cast him in the most unfavorable light possible. And the Marx is preceded by editorial commentary that is generally positive in tone, while Smith is upbraided for not caring enough about poor people.

In a textbook I was looking through the other day, the voice of the left was represented by a leading left intellectual (I can't remember her name); the right was represented by the text of a speech by Dan Quayle. A little biased? And this is pretty common. I'll post a few links to some table of contents for the most commonly used textbooks in freshman composition courses at some point over the weekend.

A true conservative intellectual, like Thomas Sowell for example, is never heard from in economic and public policy discussions on university campuses. Most of the intellectual right is holed away in think tanks, and they aren't really welcomed at the university. This also means that there isn't really a handing down of the intellectual traditions of the right, because think tanks aren't there for the purposes of teaching the next generation of thinkers.

And the fact that the Republicans forwarded George W. Bush as their shining light hasn't exactly done much to change their opinion; if anything, it's reified it. Nor is it helpful that campus Republican groups generally invite people like Anne Coulter to campus.
 
Number_6 said:
Most leftists in education have never met an intellectual conservative. That's the real problem. Their idea of on conservative is a Rush-listenin', Nascar-goin', Bush-votin', country-music-singin', Church-goin' redneck.
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That's a pretty accurate assumption.

Friday is correct--they don't really know any other way of thinking, because they've never been exposed to the intellectual tradition of the right. Hell, even in composition textbooks, when you're given a pairing of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, the Marx selection is generally longer and the Smith section chosen to cast him in the most unfavorable light possible. And the Marx is preceded by editorial commentary that is generally positive in tone, while Smith is upbraided for not caring enough about poor people.

In a textbook I was looking through the other day, the voice of the left was represented by a leading left intellectual (I can't remember her name); the right was represented by the text of a speech by Dan Quayle. A little biased? And this is pretty common. I'll post a few links to some table of contents for the most commonly used textbooks in freshman composition courses at some point over the weekend.

A true conservative intellectual, like Thomas Sowell for example, is never heard from in economic and public policy discussions on university campuses. Most of the intellectual right is holed away in think tanks, and they aren't really welcomed at the university. This also means that there isn't really a handing down of the intellectual traditions of the right, because think tanks aren't there for the purposes of teaching the next generation of thinkers.

And the fact that the Republicans forwarded George W. Bush as their shining light hasn't exactly done much to change their opinion; if anything, it's reified it. Nor is it helpful that campus Republican groups generally invite people like Anne Coulter to campus.
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In education, conservatives/righties are looked upon as the enemy, if for no other reason than they are prone to budget cuts, most typically in the arts. Pisses us lefties off who think that the arts make a well rounded individual.
 
Friday said:
That's a pretty accurate assumption.
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Hopefully, that was a joke.

Friday said:
In education, conservatives/righties are looked upon as the enemy, if for no other reason than they are prone to budget cuts, most typically in the arts. Pisses us lefties off who think that the arts make a well rounded individual.
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But this is largely a misconception. The left pays lip service to education, but I've gone through Democratic and Republican administrations and legislatures in four different states, and the lack of money is a constant, no matter who's in charge.

A large part of this is extremely poor budgetary management on the part of administrators, though. When you look at how much some states spend per student, you have to wonder where the hell all of that money goes. Judging from the cars and houses the big administrators own, I think I know where some of it goes, at least.
 
when you're given a pairing of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, the Marx selection is generally longer and the Smith section chosen to cast him in the most unfavorable light possible. And the Marx is preceded by editorial commentary that is generally positive in tone, while Smith is upbraided for not caring enough about poor people.
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This is something that annoys me as well. Both sides of the political spectrum use Marx and Smith as ideological props, without paying much attention to what they actually said. Smith is one of my favorite political economists because he realized that economic systems are created by and embeded within political and economic institutions. Most free market fanatics of our time ignore this simple fact in favor of the notion that the market is some kind of pure, natural utopia that can exist completely divorced from government and the rest of society. If they actually understood Smith, their views would be much more nuanced.
 
WordInterrupted said:
This is something that annoys me as well. Both sides of the political spectrum use Marx and Smith as ideological props, without paying much attention to what they actually said. Smith is one of my favorite political economists because he realized that economic systems are created by and embeded within political and economic institutions. Most free market fanatics of our time ignore this simple fact in favor of the notion that the market is some kind of pure, natural utopia that can exist completely divorced from government and the rest of society. If they actually understood Smith, their views would be much more nuanced.
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And this is why I hate anthologies in general. I don't want to be limited to assigning what someone else thought were the important bits in a piece of writing. In fact, I don't want to assign bits of a piece of writing at all. If you're going to read a work, read the whole thing.
 
This reminds me of my friend, Joanne, who is a history prof. Along with her Christmas letter she sends out a list of the most hilarious answers to test questions she's seen that year. I wonder if I still have one around somewhere...
 
Yeah, it's that time of the year. I always dread the last week of the term, because it's when all the students who've fucked off all semester come crying for mercy.

Their idea of mercy is generally that I will accept all manner of work late, and somehow get it all graded before grades are due at the registrar's office.

I always start the term by telling them, "Some of you will come crying to me during the last week of class . . . " But they never remember that I've made it explicitly clear that I don't take late work.

Oh, well.
 
Maybe if you made a rap song about it and had it playing before every class starts... or put it on a big flashing neon sign? :lol:
 
This is why I refuse to have discussions or debates with college students. They're all idiots that don't know they're idiots, and instead claim to know everything about everything.
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Lucky that I never went to college then.


I was cast out of school at fifteen years old. I found High School easy to the point of wanting to kill myself with a science lab approved bottle of hydrochloric acid instead of listening to the stupid fucking shit they taught at my school. Also I was somewhat of a troublemaker and my school was too posh for that malarky. My school years were somewhat...intense to say the least.

I do intend to go back to school and continue my education at some point. I don't see why anyone who hadn't yet gone into higher education wouldn't want that.

But since I am not yet embroiled in the fantastic world of academia I can still get away with saying shit like this:


FUCK THA POLICE COMING STRAIGHT FROM THA UNDERGROUND ..FUCK ...FUCK.. FUCK.. THA POLICE.!


Hey homies, don't be calling ma edumacation whack or ya get a Mcnuckle sandwich from the DON MEGA, ya hear?! WOOP! WOOP! RAISE THA ROOF! Now, give me ya wallet' I got niggas to feed muthafucka!
 
I think a majority teenagers are literally insane. I'm the oldest of six and they all go from normal kids around 12/13 to egomaniacal-suicidal-selfloathing-cocksure-fascists to normal 22-year-olds. I think those hormones just whack you out, and there is not enough money or good intent in the world to convince me to work in a field where you are routinely forced to interact with teenagers
 
Except for the fascist part, I agree. I see them go both ways politically. What characterizes them in terms of politics is their inability to be moderate. It's all or nothing with them.

I sometimes wonder whether it's actually wise to have people go to college when they do, to make important decisions about the rest of their lives when they are in the silly-stage. For so many reasons, I'd like everyone to be forced to enter the workforce after high school, and to come back to college a few years later. If nothing else, they'd appreciate that they're being given four years to pursue intellectual pursuits, instead of the 9-5 grind.
 
Mentalist said:
As well as valuing it a hell of a lot more.
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Yeah--that's what I was trying to get at. There's a world of difference between the 18-year-olds in a freshman course and the so-called "non-traditional" students, people who've decided to come to college in their mid- to late-twenties, or even older than that.

Those students may come in a bit rusty (though many are actually more skilled than those who've just come from high school), but they genuinely want to be there, and they are happy for the opportunity to learn and try to move up in the world.

They also bring with them valuable life experience that the 18-year-olds simply lack, and really contribute to discussion.
 
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