Sun
Nov 30 2008
11:05 am
College students beware of catching liberal cooties!
By: R. Neal

The News Sentinel has a column with the loaded headline "students need not fear liberal professors."

The columnist cites concerns about "studies" showing the dangers of "curricula of radicalism that tenured leftists are imposing on our students under the pretext of providing them with an education" and that expose the most "dangerous professors, who are using our public classrooms to propagandize for America's enemies in a time of war."

But he says parents shouldn't worry all that much about any of it rubbing off on their kids, because their political leanings are usually set by the time they get to college or they aren't all that interested in politics in the first place.

Anyway, no wonder so few kids in Tennessee go to college. It's a dangerous place where they might get reprogrammed and come out terrorist zombies!

Parents should be more worried about radical right-wing indoctrination picked up from the "news" media and hate-speech radio.

UPDATE: See Katie Allison Granju's post and the discussion.

Topics:
bizgrrl's picture

I think "liberal professors"

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 11:56am.

I think "liberal professors" should be the least of a parent's worries when they send their child off to college.

Nobody's picture

I am always willing to allow

Submitted by Nobody (not verified) on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 1:55pm.

I am always willing to allow any viewpoint to be expressed in class, but when it starts drifting toward nonsense, you have to check it.

Perfect. Who decides it is nonsense? The one with the power.

Nobody's picture

My experience is that

Submitted by Nobody (not verified) on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 3:49pm.

My experience is that students with deeply held ideological positions often attempt to dominate classrooms. My experience also is that the contemporary student who engages in this sort of behavior holds particular beliefs; ones that are both conservative and/or bound by religious fervor.

Is that meant to sound as biased as it reads? What about teachers with deeply held ideological positions that often attempt to dominate classrooms? Only knowing you from what you write you seem to have a superiority complex. Your summary above is filled with transferance. Aren't you what you say you try to protect your classes from?

Rachel's picture

Well, I don't know about

Submitted by Rachel on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 4:43pm.

Well, I don't know about metulj, but I do know that I got my liberal bent entirely from my calculus professors (rolls eyes).

MDB's picture

old joke. you need some new

Submitted by MDB on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 5:03pm.

old joke.

you need some new material, a ton of it, in fact.

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

Rachel's picture

Are you sure you're not my

Submitted by Rachel on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 5:17pm.

Are you sure you're not my smart ass bro-in-law? This sounds EXACTLY like something he'd say.

And then I'd groan. So -- groan.

MDB's picture

I apologize in advance for this

Submitted by MDB on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 5:21pm.

Calculus professors are long time liberals.

After all, they came up with the idea of integration, and taught it in the schools.

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

Hayduke's picture

xkcd

Submitted by Hayduke on Sun, 2008/11/30 - 6:52pm.

reform4's picture

The only professor I remember...

Submitted by reform4 on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 8:03am.

.. that pushed his political viewpoint in class was John Scheb in PolySci. It was a ConLaw class, so it's kind of hard to hide your feelings (although I saw plenty of other political science professors that took a non-judgemental attitude and presented both sides evenly).

Outside of political science, I don't recall any politically loaded issues coming up, and I certainly don't remember any of them bringing it up out of the blue. Scheb was the only prof I would have been able to guess how he voted.

Higher education couldn't have changed that much- for cryin' out loud, Reagan was in office when I went, and if that wasn't a topic for conversation, I don't know what would be.

MDB's picture

Reagan was in office when I

Submitted by MDB on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 8:43am.

Reagan was in office when I went, and if that wasn't a topic for conversation, I don't know what would be.

Most of my fellow students in Electrical Engineering were pretty apolitical. They leaned conservative, like much of the country at the time, but politics wasn't an especially big topic of conversation.

Now, there was one liberal fellow EE major, who was actually politically motivated enough to write a column in the Daily Beacon. Whatever became of him....

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

reform4's picture

He probably turned into a complete loser or something?

Submitted by reform4 on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 11:03pm.

I mean, c'mon? An engineer who policy wonked in his spare time?

MDB's picture

It could be worse

Submitted by MDB on Tue, 2008/12/02 - 8:07am.

He could have ended up living in Maryland. Working in software, not hardware.

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

RayCapps's picture

Now wait a cotton pickin' minute!

Submitted by RayCapps on Wed, 2008/12/03 - 11:44am.

I mean, c'mon? An engineer who policy wonked in his spare time?

I resemble that remark.

gonzone's picture

I agree, sounds to me

Submitted by gonzone on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 9:31am.

Sounds to me like this columnist has been drinking the Horowitz Kool-aid. You are correct that there's no problem, except in David Horowitz's fevered brain. But he makes a living with his troll and what winger wouldn't hate a "liberal arts" education whereby one might gain an expanded view of society?

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson

smalc's picture

On another note about the

Submitted by smalc on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 11:59am.

On another note about the local paper, I'm shocked the News-Sentinel actually published an article that stated the earth was over 1 billion years old AND mentioned evolution.

(link...)

lovable liberal's picture

Troublemaker

Submitted by lovable liberal on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 8:01pm.

I just went and threw some gasoline on the fire. Some days I can't help a little immature fun at the expense of the fundies. I'd be a better person if I could, but laughter is good for my blood pressure.

By the way, does the KNS comment interface hang anyone else's browser? I'm using Firefox 3.

Liberty and justice for all.

My home

MDB's picture

Poe?

Submitted by MDB on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 8:12pm.

Someone finally noted GWB4Ever's "real name" is Nathan Poe, I see, too...

I've never had KNS's site hand my browser, either Firefox 3 (Windows and Mac versions) and Safari.

"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." -- Will Rogers

lovable liberal's picture

Firewall at work?

Submitted by lovable liberal on Mon, 2008/12/01 - 10:53pm.

My guess: Timing out the ads.

I don't have the problem at home with the same laptop.

Liberty and justice for all.

My home

smalc's picture

By the way, does the KNS

Submitted by smalc on Tue, 2008/12/02 - 10:37am.

By the way, does the KNS comment interface hang anyone else's browser? I'm using Firefox 3.

Yes. I'm using Firefox as well. I usually hit reload after waiting a while.

Bbeanster's picture

Careful you don't catch

Submitted by Bbeanster on Tue, 2008/12/02 - 10:56am.

Careful you don't catch anything from Katie's trolls, who were particularly attracted by this topic.
She's a patient woman....

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