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June 7, 2005Can I “Home- COLLEGE” Buster?Betsy Newmark has the scariest story I have read all day. After reading it, I am wondering if there is some way I can join the “home-schooling” movingment. Except this is about college. If this is what collegiate environments are turning into, then what is the point? This story discusses a proposed “diversity” program at UO that lays out requirements for tenurs. The requirements for tenure appear to be navel gazing and an unwillingness to engage the student intellectually, or harbor any expectations of satisfactory student participation and work. Writes Ms. Newmark: This is what professors seeking tenure will have to demonstrate competency in. · Advocates for social justice · Ability to identify, discuss, and challenge institutional racism and bias. · Ability to receive and integrate critiques of cultural competence · Shows a commitment to continuous education about the educational implications of race, class, and language diversity · Ability to engage in personal self-reflection around issues of race, ethnicity, class, and privilege · Exhibits non-judgmental openness to new experiences · Understands the history of oppressed groups This is scary. These are all non-objective standards that can be twisted to mean that anyone could be described as “incompetent” in their devotion to cultural diversity. No wonder the professors were very upset about this plan. This newspeak in the plan sounds like a way to punish professors who don’t pass all their students with grades distributed equally among racial groups. And if any little darling complains that their professor didn’t measure up on one of these criteria, kiss good-bye to tenure. The UO president is unhappy that bloggers are concerned about this. You’ll want to read the whole thing and go to Betsy’s links. http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/06/07/can-i-home-college-buster/trackback/ 6 Responses to “Can I “Home- COLLEGE” Buster?” |
June 7th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
Here’s what you do, unless Buster is interested in the sciences, business, medicine, or engineering, don’t send him at all. There are plenty of trades with a higher pay and without student loans. There are also a whole host of opportunities out there in liberal arts fields that while they might appreciate a degree, aren’t so demanding as to demand one. Four years of experience at one of those jobs would be worth a degree.
Now if he wants a degree in a field with less indoctrination, consider sending him to community college for a few years to get the prereqs - the English, the languages, the basic sciences. Not only will he save money, but community colleges are generally less leftist. Then send him off to a big name university with a good department. He’ll spend his time in his department studying a particular field with little chance for indoctrination.
The key though is make sure he’s able to see through the B.S. he’ll get shovled there. If you have the least bit of concern for him, hold him back ( though don’t tell him that’s the reason ). Remember you hold the checkbook. If he doesn’t like it, he can pay his own way which practically assures your worst fears won’t be realized.
June 7th, 2005 at 7:52 pm
You raise a question that my colleagues in lifecoaching and career counseling are increasingly being asked to help parents and kids consider. LRFD makes some good points. So much depends on the child, the goal, and the alternatives. The trade apprenticeship / community college option can buy a couple of years for strategizing and maturing, and some of the tuition money saved can go to travel, group programs, etc.
Like so many things, it’s not a no-brainer, but rewards clarity, investigation, and creativity. It’s worth it; when our family travels to other universities for music events, we meet miserable generalist students clutching unreadable humanities textbooks. Very sad. I remember the intellectual excitement of a conventional curriculum 4 decades ago.
For a start, how about finding a grant for a web site that collects liberal arts syllabi from the best (schools and professors), vets them with an experienced eye, and publishes them, with discussion questions, on the web? Wouldn’t take very many of us old-line college grads to make it happen….
June 7th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
Egads. “non-judgmental openness to new experiences”?… like abortion? or like conservatism… hmmm… I wonder which one they mean. With a daughter about to embark on this process, I find it frightening… just went shopping this afternoon for “Choosing the Right College 2005: The Whole Truth About America’s Top Schools”. Besides that, the best remedy I’ve come up with is to give generously to http://www.thefire.org (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), with which I have no affiliation other than as a highly satisfied contributor. They’re not hitting the tenure problem directly, but for now it’s one of the most effective tools we’ve got.
June 8th, 2005 at 10:19 am
Dilys actually this idea has been floating around for a while. Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost is asking for contributions for an online Master’s program on various subjects for a few weeks. Amazon has plenty of “so you’d like to learn…” lists out there. The problem of your idea to website the learning process is as follows: 1. centralization - Amazon comes closest, but there isn’t a known and trusted website out there that’s well known and deals in these sorts of things; 2. a bias against online degrees - unspoken, but out there; 3. certification - it would need to be approved by various governmental and civic organizations for the degree to mean anything; 4. resistance from current Universities - distance learning programs just don’t bring in the money and the goal, the supplication of the University system to a non-P.C. conservative agenda would mean outright war.
I think that these problems can be overcome. There’s an abundance of online literature out there, it’s just a matter of getting it all together and then fighting the powers that be for existance and recognition. The monetary costs would be small at first, so the real start-up capital would be human. I’m willing to throw my hat into the ring, but my primary experience is in math and engineering. I’ve read a good deal of history and literature, but not enough to make a solid case for my expertise in those subjects. In order for this project to succeed, a number of highly qualified liberal arts members would have to cross lines and, in short, work against the very system that produced them. Finding those men and women of principle, that’s the problem that desperately needs to be solved for this to succeed.
June 8th, 2005 at 10:23 am
Around the Blogosphere
Ground zero hijacked by America-haters Michelle Malkin, Captain’s Quarters, WizBang, Professor Bainbridge, Ace of Spades, GOP Bloggers (also here, here…
June 8th, 2005 at 11:39 am
LRFD - a good, thoughtful response, but I do have to say I was asking the question with tongue in cheek. Buster plans to study music and broadcasting. His plan, I think, is to try to fill the Limbaugh-void when Rush retires, and use the music to support himself on crappy radio broadcaster salary until he hits a big market. Or something. All of which is supposed to lead to him being elected President.
Sigh.