Shut Up and Teach!

Russ “responds” to my post by scarcely saying much in regards to my point which was more experiental than anything else.

Russ wrote regarding the idea that Jay Benish needed to balance his class out:

Hogwash. Teachers should teach the subject with passion and with a quest for the truth. This is easy in a hard sciences class, but in a social studies class, it is necessarily going to be infused with personal opinion. The idea that we should provide “all sides of the issue”, regardless of the merit of the argument, is ridiculous. That’s what leads to schools teaching Intelligent Design along side Evolution, so as to provide a “fari (sic) and balanced” look at biological science. It’s how news organizations now feel they have to report Swift Boat attacks alongside actual military records, because if one side says one thing and the other side disagrees, bioth (sic) must be presented on equal footing.

So, lets say I’m a teacher and I get up in my classroom and in the Middle of Geography, I explain precisely why the Palestinians don’t have a foot to stand on, and how there’s so much good going on in Iraq right now but that the media refused to support it.

Then as a student asks a question about the oil fields of Brunei and then go off on a tangent about the French, the Iraqi Oil for Food program scandal. How could we trust these corrupt bozos at the UN as they’re all on the take.

And Russ would say, “Get that wingnut out of the public schools!” Would any liberal seriously support that and claim it was part of an appropriate discussion for the classroom.

As Russ went on to explain how he agreed with or sympathized with many of the teacher’s statements, his argument would be that my statements are wrong. I’m not going to argue them, but who is to decide what propaganda gets taught in school? Radical Russ Belville? Adam Graham?

Now, to Adam’s point. Does any of this belong in a geography class? I guess it depends on what you consider geography. If it is just the location of countries, their capitols, the rivers, mountain ranges, etc.? If so, then political discussions do not belong. But in the geography classes I took, the geopolitics and history were an integral part of the discussion. Otherwise, geography could be learned with an atlas over a weekend.

Ah, thus the justification for turning education into re-education, have to make the good comrades behave.

I think what Adam’s angry about is that professors have this annoying tendency to question authority.

No, what actually angers me is that people don’t pay good money so they can hear the “Opinions” of College professors or High School Teachers. I came to class every morning at 8:00 a.m. to learn Montana History. I didn’t come to hear Moses’ views of Republicans, didn’t come to hear his attempts at painting Bush as an idiot, nor the opinion of the class on the Gore-Bush presidential debate.

Call me task-focused, but I came to get an education. At the end of semester (surprise, surprise) we were told to read a lot of stuff in the book as there wouldn’t be time for it in class. Also, wouldn’t be time for people to present their research papers to the Class. Where did all that class time go? One guess.

Yeah, a teacher who sits there and tries to shove political views down people’s throats while another kid sits in the back trying to figure out the geographical facts they need to understand the world-and you’ve got an example of a prime problem with education.

When kids in the US are falling behind the rest of the world, teachers like Jay Bennish are wasting their times with nonsense. If you want to give an opinionated speech: hold a meeting, start an organization, but don’t do it with taxpayer dollars.

But that’s what Russ forgets. These are taxpayer dollars. George Soros ain’t funding this school, the taxpayers of Colorado are. The taxpayers of the United States are. You don’t want “In God We Trust” on the money, but you’re perfectly content to promote liberalism with taxpayer under whatever guise you can find such as “broadening their horizons.” As for the leaning towards “challenging authority”. Does that explain why 90% of the elite university professors are Democrats?

After all, Adam’s liberal professors didn’t seem to be able to brainwash him into joining the ACLU, NARAL, and the Sierra Club, now, did they? Is it so harmful that students may be presented with viewpoints counter to the God-Mom-Apple-Pie America that is served up daily in political speeches, church sermons, and misty-eyed historical dramas?

First of all, Russ, I had a lot stronger core than a lot of folks entering college. So many people are just plain sheep. The professor says, “Up is down.” and they just nod and go Baaaah. People enter college awestruck by some of these guys.

These professors and teachers have the power to help them succeed or crush them like a grape. A mix of what seems like Amazing education (including Masters, Doctorates, and the whole jazz) combined with incredible power and the professor stands in an incredibly intimidating position over his students.

Its true of High School teachers. If you were a Conservative, wouldn’t you be afraid that Jay Benish would ruin your high school career if you stood up to him. He has that power.

Of course, you don’t hear much about us lefties complaining that the military is relentlessly conservative, or that business schools turn out a majority of conservative students, or that seminaries and religious colleges are turning out conservatives by the thousands.

This is of course somewhat silly. The military is Conservative because more Conservatives join it. You’d have cause to complain if instead of teaching business, the teacher went off on a 20 minute tear on the Clinton Administration’s disastrous spending policies setting the stage for our current deficits. You really don’t have cause to complain about religious colleges and seminaries. Religious Colleges are private, which means you really don’t pay for them. Seminaries particularly at Liberal Universities tend to produce all those liberal ministers who preach the social gospel.

Still, look at the facts. The closest the study I cited showed Republicans was 20% of the faculty. 20%! Boy, what a diverse group these Universities are.

Linked to Don Surber, Cao’s Blog, Basil’s Blog, TMH Bacon Bits, Freedom Watch USA, Blue Star Chronicles, Jo’s Cafe

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