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In America, Most Republicans Think Colleges Are Bad for the Country (chronicle.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Chronicle of Higher Education:
A majority of Republicans and right-leaning independents think higher education has a negative effect on the country, according to a new study released by the Pew Research Center on Monday. The same study has found a consistent increase in distrust of colleges and universities since 2010, when negative perceptions among Republicans was measured at 32 percent. That number now stands at 58 percent. By comparison, 72 percent of Democrats or left-leaning Independents in the study said colleges and universities have a positive impact on the United States... In the Pew Research Center's study, distrust of colleges was strongest in the highest income bracket and the oldest age group, with approval levels of just 31 percent among respondents whose family income exceeds $75,000 a year and 27 percent among those older than 65.
Higher Education has a long history of being rather left leaning. It is well known that most who are on the left when they are at University become less left wing as they grow older.
When I was at University in London in the mid 1970's we had many very left leaning factions. There were groups of Communists, Marxists, Marxist-Lennists, Maoists, Trotskyists, Broad Left and a few more. One of the Marxists is now a local politician for a right of centre party. That was something he would not have considered happening when he was in his early 20's.
University is the first time for most people where they are free to develop their own opinions. Being different from their parents/family is a natural stance to take.
I would not worry about it. 99% of them will grow out of it.
The French have a perfect way of describing it. 'Vive la Difference'.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
On one side of the isle, you have a group of representatives who appear hell-bent on maintaining an uneducated society in order to maximize the manipulative capability of a government to control the stupid and ignorant masses.
On the other side of the isle, you have a group of representatives who appear hell-bent on feeding the Educational Industrial Complex with the goal of funding capitalism, regardless of the growing lack of return on that investment, or the personal impact of massive debt.
As usual, one has to choose the lesser of two evils.
I believe the Bible, but then I live in a secular world. I don't worry too much about the craziness in it because I know I'm here for a few years and then it's time for eternity. I disagree with a lot of what happens in society but I let God worry about that, it's his job. He tells me to live for him and if I do that I'm going to be okay. While I think abortion is murder, it's sadly legal so I don't burn down clinics or shoot abortionists. I do not, however, ever vote for an abortionist candidate. I believe God created the Universe but I studied and learned about evolution is school. God said to live in the world but don't be "of" the world. Sometimes I get angry when people lie about conservative Christians but hey, only God is perfect.
It's not a minor problem. If a "hostile work environment" isn't something we tolerate, why are you shrugging off a hostile school environment?
I went back in for the grad school thing and as a condition of registration, I had to take a sensitivity test where to pass, I had to assert on the multiple-choice quiz at the end that 40% of women on college campuses are victims of rape. And that accused don't have rights because I had a moral duty to "believe the victim."
See what happened? If you challenge the believability of that number ("Look to your left, look to your right, one of you is being raped right now!"), you confess to not "believing." Lovely game, no?
This was ten months ago, and not at some backwater no-name liberal arts school, either.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
— Isaac Asimov, 1980
I think this is an old (older than the US as a nation) reaction to the pro-intellectuallism of the Northeastern states -- Yankeedom. The culture of this region has always been very pro-education, to the point that during the Puritan era social status was primarily determined by education level. The southern part of the country, of course, had constant economic and ideological conflict with the north. The north was aggressively egalitarian and prized communitarian notions of freedom and community self-government. The south was aristocratic and prized the individual liberty of the aristocrats. Social status in the south was based on wealth and heritage; education was largely irrelevant, though some sub-cultures in the south lionized classical education as a sign of and means to culture and gentility.
I think anti-intellectualism arose primarily as a straightforward rejection by the south of all things northern. As history rolled on, this view became deeply embedded in the conservative culture, and was regularly reinforced by the fact that intellectuals always want to apply their knowledge and theories to change society, while conservatives obviously don't want change.
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I have three kids in college right now and one that's graduated already.
Yes, I regularly hyperventilate about how much it costs. I hyperventilate more about the weddings they describe and think I'm going to pay for (three girls).
And none of them knows what the hell you're talking about. They don't typically hear left leaning ideology. They hear lectures on the course topics. And of those professors that do bring up politics in the classroom, and they are apparently a small percentage, it seems balanced between left wing and right wing.
Don't let Fox "News" and Breitbart convince you that higher education is bad. Growing the uneducated portion of the population serves the GOP's need for an ignorant and fearful power base.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
Interesting how you talk about free speech but cheer those who want to deny professors the right to teach what science tells them is best. People entering colleges are adults. They can choose not to accept the ideas that are taught to them but denying them the right to hear perspectives outside of mainstream US ideas is censorship. Forcing schools to teach what is already commonly accepted ideology pushed by the government is what indoctrination is. You right wingers are nothing but hypocrites who fear people being introduced to ideas that challenge your ideas. The backlash you are facing from colleges is exactly the opposite of what you are claiming it is. Groups aren't blocking free speech they are demanding a safe space away from the US propaganda, nationalist supremacy bullshit and other idiotic things that lead people to believe a billionaire con-man somehow speaks for the working class. Stop being a joke. You know what the real fear is.
True. But keep in mind that teachers are required by law ("no child left behind") to teach to the test; if they don't, they get pay cuts and then fired, and entire schools can be shut down. When Texas started this strategy under Bush Jr., it led directly to corrupting the school systems, because they were forced to do so to save their schools. So, for example, they spent all class time cramming for the material on the test, and taking practice tests, which helps test scores but hurts actual education. Then as the bar was raised and penalties started really hitting, teachers "corrected" tests before submitting the scores, or transferred "bad" students to another school (on paper) the day before the test, so their scores wouldn't hurt the school. But it created (fake) rising test scores, so it was a "success" for the politicians.
Then Bush Jr did the same thing to the whole country, with the same dismal results.
This had nothing to do with parents or unions - generally, both parent and unions opposed the disaster of "no child left behind" and oppose "teaching to the test". But they didn't have the leverage to stop it, since it was pushed by the GOPs national and state political leaders, then enforced by the school administrators, who care a lot about their budgets.
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