Conservatives in Education
Donald Douglas, an Associate Professor of Political Science teaching in Southern California, wrote two posts about liberal bias in the academic world, and more specifically at the Community College where he’s an associate professor. Both posts are well worth the time to read.
Lawyer, Guns and Money linked to one of Donald’s posts, criticizing him, and acting as if the examples given by Douglas aren’t strong. The problem, of course, is that Donald’s experiences don’t stand on their own. I know Centrists and Conservatives who teach at American Universities and Colleges and they’ve told me the same thing. With regards to the Netherlands, well, I already shared my experiences. There most certainly is a progressive bias, and it’s a real problem: if these people would keep their opinions for themselves it wouldn’t be a problem, but they share their views and seem bend on influencing the new generation of thinkers.
Is that a problem per se? No. As long as their opinions are balanced by conservative opinions, and that’s currently not the case.
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Thanks Michael:
A small point of note: I teach community college. My school does use academic titles, though, and after the four-year tenure process, I became an associate professor: http://www.lbcc.edu/
Great blog. I look forward to reading it.
Good luck to you!
Donald, loved your apt description of LGM as having a "frat boy, hate-addled readership." It’s a bit like getting gang-mugged in an alley. Ah, a place where ridicule substitutes for reason.
In fairness, I saw one LGM commenter who made a fair point:
"I’ve been in Academia long enough to verify that there is a liberal bias, but I’ve never seen anything like serious discrimination. I know it occasionally happens from places like the thefire.org but look at any given year and you might see only a dozen or so cases worth condemning and almost all of these are cleared up and corrected once the spotlight is shown on them. Verdict: Hardly an epidemic and no more than would be expected by the natural tendency of groups to prefer to hire like-minded individuals."
At least this concedes the obvious liberal bias. My hunch is that, over time, this bias plays out to the students. Callimachus at "Done with Mirrors" makes this point well:
"Hence, an educated public that can’t tell exposition from propaganda and a critical media that can’t or won’t tell facts from convenient lies. In the most powerful nation on earth. You may someday, after 23 is past, realize Maya Angelou is not, in fact, the greatest American poet ever and Polynesian social systems are not superior to Western ones. No real harm done there, though don’t go asking for your $70,000 back. But critical thinking, like languages, is best learned young and is a damned difficult habit to acquire when you’re already fully engaged and committed in life."
Bingo.
Amusingly, Douglas’ department (poly sci) at LBCC is a den of self identified Republicans and complaints from the students (such as they are, most of them like the classes) say that what indoctrination there is comes from the right.
"Amusingly, Douglas’ department (poly sci) at LBCC is a den of self identified Republicans and complaints from the students"
Citations?