Dear Leader already in textbooks

Geez! what brought THAT on? I must have touched a nerve!

Is it because I didnt AGREE -in a post- with 'parenting having something to do with it'? Well, it DOES - Exactly! Meantime, my mom was a Public school teacher, my cousin is a PS career teacher in Columbus, I've had neighbors that were teachers, my niece is a teacher in training. Several of the blogs I read many times a day are by college professors... what the hell do you want?

 

Don, we will have to agree to disagree because the dominant paradigm in higher ed is left leaning.

These notes are from a class I took over the summer. Ratio of professors that classify themselves as liberals -- 20 to 1. Ratio of liberal arts (history, sociology, political science, anthropology, etc.) professors that call themselves liberal vs conservative -- 5 to 1. I can't find the ratio for business professors, but the ratio is about the same in the other direction, to be sure.

More on this -- http://edge.org/discourse/vote_morality.html

[][/quote]Why are academic social scientists so wrong about conservatives? It is, I believe, because almost all of them are liberals! A 2005 study by the George Mason University economist Daniel Klein, using voter registrations, found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans among the faculty by a staggering ratio of 10 to 1 at the University of California, Berkeley and by 7.6 to 1 at Stanford University. In the humanities and social sciences the ratio was 16 to 1 at both campuses (30 to 1 among assistant and associate professors). In some departments, such as anthropology and journalism, there wasn't a single Republican to be found. The ratio for all departments in all colleges and universities throughout the U.S., says Klein, is 8 to 1 Democrats over Republicans. Smith College political scientist Stanley Rothman and his colleagues found a similar bias in a 2005 national study: only 15 percent professors describe themselves as conservative, compared to 72 percent who said they were liberal (80 percent in humanities and social sciences).

Why do people vote Republican? Because they believe their lives—and the lives of all Americans—will be better for it. And as often as not they are right. [/quote]

I consider myself a conservative in a field dominated by liberals -- education and political science/history. I wasn't always a Republican, I was one of the 25 members of the military that voted for Clinton. Twice. Maybe that means I didn't learn the first time. Fortunately for me I saw the error of my ways :lol: . I think.

Sadly, I do see liberal professors using their position of authority as a bully pulpit for hitting conservative students over the head. To be sure, some of them have deserved it -- I have seen conservative students write the most ridiculous arguments that came straight from Rush's show -- entertainment as serious opinion. That ain't gonna cut it. I have also seen a graduate social work student who believe that homosexuality went against his spiritual teachings have to fight his social work professor on the point in a way that a "liberal" professor should be ashamed of himself if he was truly trying to have diversity of opinion. http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/20183.html.

More form George will on the issue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02151.html

I can't say that I have faced any serious flak for my views, some of that I would like to believe is that I carry myself in a way that isn't Rush-like but more along the lines of Powell. I inspire myself in my field with Powell's story when Clinton forst came to the WH. Ol' Bill had a disdain for the military and couldn't even be bothered initially to learn how to give a correct salute. For those who are not familiar with a military culture, you'd damn well better believe this simple courtesy is highly important. Powell felt the ostracism of the BC brain trust. What did he do? He kept on taking high roads and doing his job in the ultra-profeessional capacity that he always has -- and he won over the libs in power there in surprisingly swift fashion.

Fog, thanks for the link on Haidt -- that is useful info to me.

I have a newer edition of Schlesinger's book, BTW, from 1998.

 

There are conservative leaning universities out there, I went to one. And to Don's point, they do challenge the origination and process of ideas. However, they don't have the unbalanced liberal bent you hear about in Boulder, Berkeley, etc.

For the record, from friends who have attended universities/colleges all over the country, I think the whole thing is vastly overblown. There are some extreme examples and they're not exactly secret. Just as it's not hard to find a conservative school.

 

Thankls, I didn't know that about A&M.

 

When I stated that Bust is the worst President ever, it was not an emotional reaction. It is not a politcal or partisan reaction (I am not party affiliated). It is not my personal form of entertainment to deride W. IT IS A FACT. If I really have to expound on this I will, but it would deserve its own thread, and a special kind of candor.

As far as education goes (the basis of this thread, if I remeber correctly), Bush has failed and it has nothing to do with Democrats or anything else. NCLB is a failed policy. It leaves children behind. Education is probably the only problem in this country that can be solved by simply throwing money at the problem. Better facilities + better materials + better paid teachers = more engaged students = lower dropout rate = more intelligent society, not to mention fewer criminals. An uneducated youth is a very, very, very poor investment for society. Bush has not poured the resources into the problem, he has taken away resources, and that is the enduring legacy and unfortunate trend. And before someone screams "Democrats' fault," think about Bush's unilateral, unwavering devotion to NCLB and the general hubris of the administration with regard to the ideas of others.

Not to sound old, but has anyone stopped and looked at our youth today? It's scary - they care more about their cellphones than their education. Don't believe me? Ask any high school student to name every state or every President. I'm sure they could confound you with text messenging language, but that is cheap and dumbed down. What used to be commonplace knowledge when I was in school is now rare.

We are getting dumb, fat, and corrupt as a country, and I believe that is a trickle down example from our dumb, corrupt President. I know its not all Bush's fault, but I've never seen a society drop so fast, so much as has occurred in the last 8 years (since Rome perhaps - and you'd be hard pressed to find a high school student who can explain that analogy)...

 

AG, while there is no doubt that conservative leaning schools exist, I fully agree with you, but with all due respect, I can rattle off 100 left leaning universities right now, and I might be able to come up with 10 that are conservative, most will be smaller Christian universities.

A&M is a new one to that list and pleasantly surprised me, I know several people that went there and man are they enthusiastic about the university, so it must be a good place.

I think what Steve has researched, tells a lot of the story very clearly, at least statistically. I personally don't think this issue is overblown, in fact I think it is not fully appreciated because the part of the population that would normally bring this to light, don't see it as an issue because they buy in to the politics of the Professorship. My two cents.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread. Good to continue to get some differing opinions on education.

 

Apology accepted. Your uneducated opinion duly noted as well.

 

But it's so much fun. And I'm usually pretty good at not getting stung. But when I do get stung, it only hurts for a few seconds.

Good thing I am not allergic.

 

There are far too many educators on this board that can better argue this, but I'm pretty sure Washington DC has one of the highest per student spending in the country. However, their education results are one of the poorest in the country.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www ... 06685.html

 

On the off chance anyone is interested, liberal bias in education is probably going to be my topic for my dissertation one day. 5 years from now, when Fulham has won the Champions league, I'll post and let you all know how it is going.

Excellent thread, BTW -- good to hear what everyone has to say.