Our left one way leaning educational system

The American educational system has been notoriously left leaning, and not just at the University level. Everyone is familiar with the Howard Zinn types and university protests, but the left wing agenda is reaching our younger students as well.

For the past few years it has been just fine for schools to encourage intellectual debate regarding the presidency. There have been many Anti Bush instances at many schools (just google schools anti Bush) and I fell that was fine. Encourage these young minds to think outside of the box. Let them research and make up their own opinions. Don't chastise them for not agreeing with the modern standard. But allow them this freedom.

We have come to a dividing or uniting point in our Nations history. Obama, yes is the first black president. And he is probably the most liberal. Both of those factors will cause controversy and stir emotion. Much of it bad, much of it good.

My question is, why is it not ok to voice opinion on this election unless it is very much pro-Obama? Take for expample the attached news article. The SCHOOL has decided there will be no anti-Obama sentiment allowed. What sort of message does this send?

www.daytondailynews.com...

Couple this with the fact that any scrutiny of Obama's background results in a racist label. Is this the change we were promised? Just the other day a student in our class was asked if he had "racial issues" by a member of the staff after pointing out that Obama has freely admitted to coc aine use, which he pointed out was the same as confessing to a felony in our state.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a republican or democrat so I guess I can see this from both sides of the fence, and yes a fence is being built. I have never heard Obama make any devisive comments BUT his followers show no tolerance!

I don't know where he got the fact, but about four years ago I had a history professor tell me that 90% of American university professors are Democrats. I'm not sure of the reasons, but it's no surprise when with that many of them, the system tends to lean towards the left. Canadian education seems to be fairly similar in that there are more lefts than rights in both staff and students.

I wonder whether it is the system that attracts the left-leaning people, or whether left-leaning people are more likely to become academics.

The article seems to indicate (in my mind at least) that they just don't want people being rude to Obama. For instance, it sounds to me like it would be acceptable to, say, debate the merits or lack thereof of Obama, but not acceptable to jump up and shout the N-word. It's one thing to disagree with somebody, and another to just throw out catcalls and insults, and I think it's the latter they want to stop.

reply to post by DragonsDemesne

I agree with you to a point. We all know the n word is not acceptable for that reason or any other, so I don't buy it completely. The left has the mentality that they can form a law or rule against anything that is out of step with their beliefs.

I wouldn't take one history professors word at the political affiliation makeup of todays University professors. College is about ideas and thinking and sometimes you run up against an idea which is ludicrous but instead of calling it that you learn to form an arguement backed up by evidence. If you are smart you learn to shed outdated beliefs in the face of new facts and understandings. I had so called lib and cons professors and they always maintained a professional demeanor. Even if they leaned in one direction they didn't steer debate so that they were comfortable.


OK I just remembered one professor who did want me to think a certain way. She called me conservative and I had to laugh being a registered green at the time. I guess you get your idiots inevery field but one rotten egg doesn't spoil the whole basket.

If we can't say the N word then why can we use the R word? Bias?

I will backup Dragons on this one.

The article seems to indicate (in my mind at least) that they just don't want people being rude to Obama. For instance, it sounds to me like it would be acceptable to, say, debate the merits or lack thereof of Obama, but not acceptable to jump up and shout the N-word. It's one thing to disagree with somebody, and another to just throw out catcalls and insults, and I think it's the latter they want to stop.

The news source simply wants to sell their stories so they will phrase it in whatever way makes it sound worst. This would be a prime example of a "manufactured controversy". Superintendent is like, we will not tolerate inappropriate behavior, so the newspaper is like, Superintendent forbids criticizing Obama.

I disagree with you on this point.

My question is, why is it not ok to voice opinion on this election unless it is very much pro-Obama? Take for expample the attached news article. The SCHOOL has decided there will be no anti-Obama sentiment allowed. What sort of message does this send?

www.daytondailynews.com...

Couple this with the fact that any scrutiny of Obama's background results in a racist label. Is this the change we were promised? Just the other day a student in our class was asked if he had "racial issues" by a member of the staff after pointing out that Obama has freely admitted to coc aine use, which he pointed out was the same as confessing to a felony in our state.

I've been in civil discussions with people who disagree with Obama's policies. I am one of them. I disagree with some of his policies but I like his other policies and people don't call me racist. I'm left leaning, and, I haven't seen many people called people racist for criticizing Obama, the only people that say that people who criticize Obama are racist are on the right. I haven't really seen that happen myself. I think people only say that people who criticize Obama are called racist in order to discredit Obama and his supporters.

In Rhode Island there was story recently in the Providence Journal about someone who was working on getting his Master's Degree in Social Work.

Apparently when he wrote his thesis his topic/stance 'leaned right' and after going to graduate school for 2-3 years, Rhode Island College felt 'he wouldn't be a good fit' as a social worker, rejected his theses and pretty much gave him the boot from the school.

He's now taking them to court which I'm sure will take a few years and a number of appeals until it's resolution.

So much for living in a Democracy.

In Rhode Island there was story recently in the Providence Journal about someone who was working on getting his Master's Degree in Social Work.

Apparently when he wrote his thesis his topic/stance 'leaned right' and after going to graduate school for 2-3 years, Rhode Island College felt 'he wouldn't be a good fit' as a social worker, rejected his theses and pretty much gave him the boot from the school.

He's now taking them to court which I'm sure will take a few years and a number of appeals until it's resolution.

So much for living in a Democracy.

reply to post by RIviolator


You have to either put in a god awful paper or do something totally off base to do something like that. My graduate thesis was on how, atleast from a dollars and cents POV, illegal immigration was a huge benefit to this country and backed it up with facts and it went through just fine.

I think that we shoudl keep im mind that, at least at a college level, these are not public schools and do not have an obligation to be fair and politically balanced.

There are schools that are adimitadly left-leaning and schools that are very conservative. There are schools that discourage religion and schools that factcheck most everything against the Bible.

It's all part of the selection process a student goes through when he chooses which college he will attend.

I also should mention that I think it's natural that our schools are left leaning in education. I kind of like it.

I used to be extremely conservative but now the liberal ideology has brought me closer to some fundamental truths about the world. I still take pride in my conservative beliefs but now I'm way more open minded than I used to be. I used to be somewhat of a fake liberal at first when Bush was in power, then, I became somewhat of a religious conservative, and after I've gotten a bit more education now I've become more liberal and I think while it's important to have conservative views in education as well I think if you're a conservative or if you have some conservative views like me you can at least defend your views among the people there in college who are liberal and who don't know about other views.

You have to either put in a god awful paper or do something totally off base to do something like that. My graduate thesis was on how, atleast from a dollars and cents POV, illegal immigration was a huge benefit to this country and backed it up with facts and it went through just fine.

*****

Yeah well, this guy is by no means an idiot. He already has his Bachelor's degree and serves in public office on a local town council.

His paper touched on subjects concerning teen pregnancy, children born out of wedlock, and a 'welfare state' that rewards bad behavior. For example, the more children you have the more money you qualify for.

The 'socially conscious' do-gooder types didn't like his views and he wasn't allowed to graduate.

To make this debate simpler, could someone post his thesis or a link to it. Quality of research can not be evaluated without the source material. That will make it much easier to determine if the paper was low quality, he doesn't understand research or if it is conservative persecution complex.