Academic Liberal Bias: Not All Bad?

Glenn Ricketts

At least that's what Mytheos Holt argues in this longer piece over at Phi Beta Cons. I agree with him up to a point. If you're sure of your traditionalist convictions, you've got to read a lot more carefully and thoroughly, and you'll have them subject to far greater intellectual challenge than your liberal classmates will ever encounter. Much less intellectual flabbiness to be sure, and conservative undergraduates are not nearly as likely to ease into smug complacency, since the academic landscape isn't very friendly toward their ideas. We've seen that time and again in numerous postings here in Collegiate Press Roundup. Holt's got a point, as I said, but I also think you shouldn't have to work so hard to find even the smallest particle of real intellectual diversity. If a college education is supposed to challenge every student's incoming assumptions, then that's certainly not happening for the great majority who are already multiculturalized. As Ashley Thorne's piece today illustrates, there's at least one liberal journalism professor who's aware of the problem, even if his proposed solutions remain part of the problem.

  • Share

Most Commented

October 29, 2024

1.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

November 19, 2024

2.

Lee Zeldin Should Reform EPA Science Policy

NAS welcomes the nomination of Congressmen Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency....

November 20, 2024

3.

NAS Welcomes Administrator McMahon's Nomination to Serve as Education Secretary

With McMahon, the new administration has a chance to drastically slim down and depoliticize the Education Department....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

May 26, 2010

3.

10 Reasons Not to Go to College

A sampling of arguments for the idea that college may not be for everyone....