Colleges

I just finished reading a magazine sent to me.  The articles, all of them, centered on students at many of our colleges and universities, namely their movements to remedy being "uncomfortable," facing "microaggressions," etc.  Wow!  The articles were very disheartening.

I'm pretty passionate about education.  Although I didn't appreciate it at the time, the discomfort from my college professors was profoundly influential on my later life.  I benefited from their challenges to my "safe spaces."

What I read was very upsetting.  From one of our Ivy League universities a professor is quoted, "Placing more emphasis on diversity of political beliefs," that is, hiring more conservatives in light of 96% of the faculty contributed to Democrat candidates, "would almost certainly require sacrificing on general quality......"  What?  Is this guy saying hiring conservatives would diminish the quality of education at the school?  Is he suggesting conservatives are stupid or, at least, stupider than his own liberals?  Is he intimating that conservatives are worse teachers or, perhaps less subtly said,  not as good as liberal ones?  From my experiences, I wouldn't make such as statement, but I would defend more conservative people in the classroom.  OK, I'll just come out and say it.  From my experiences, the best teachers can very well be conservatives.  Of course, not all of them, just like many liberal teachers can also be rotten.  But for a professor at an Ivy League college to say that??????  With such a closed mind, maybe his tenure should be terminated?

I found that merely calling the US "the land of opportunity" can be offensive, causing "microaggressions," and on some campuses might lead to a visit from the campus police or, at the least, a summons from the dean of diversity and inclusion.  Wait.  There is such an administrator.  No wonder the cost of a college education is skyrocketing.

At Yale, students were asked to sign a petition that urged repeal of the First Amendment.  More than 60 signed it.  Surely we wouldn't want to protect freedoms of expression, nope.

Why would we expect students to know anything about the First Amendment and freedom of speech, petition, etc. when some courses at a variety of colleges around the US include "Philosophy and Star Trek," "Centuries of Dramatic Cross-Dressing," "What If Harry Potter Is Real?," and worse?

One Texas college includes a professor who asked, "Why do we keep such an allegiance to a Constitution that as driven by 18th Century concerns?"  An Ivy League dean blurted, "There's a whole conservative world out there that's not being very nice."  Hmmm......  It seems to me it's the liberal professors and deans who are being nasty--they are the ones trying to silence opposing views.

It hurts to see this stuff happening even at my old school.

What happens when one of these graduates is hired and his/her boss says, "This work is rotten.  Do it again."?   How about, "You're fired!"?  Talk about a microaggession!