Right But Wrong

I can see it at my little Podunk Community College outpost of educational malaise. No, I don't sit in on other profs classes--there are only two other folks teaching government (AKA political science)on my campus and one is the former chairman of the county Democratic Party, so I know where he is coming from. He's writing a book--on the village cemetary and its residents.

I get it from the students. I see what they've been taught from high school where they didn't like their course in government and usually note that it was taught by the coach. I get it in my online courses where I get an array of students from other colleges and universities, not only in Texas, but around the country. The liberal perspective is pervasive. Government solves all problems, wealth should be equitably distributed, and profit is to be avoided in business because it is unfair.

My job isn't to indoctrinate the mushy little minds into my way of thinking. I really work at staying objective and trying to offer both sides of a rational argument in the hope that inevitably they will draw the correct conclusions regarding the role of government and the political process in America. It is an uphill battle.

Here's a guy with a lot more heft in political science pedagogy than I could ever hope to bring to the table:

Could We Simply Teach It?

He is correct that the proper action would be to offer course material on conservatism to balance the well-established load of leftism which is offered. He is sincerely objective in stating that he disavows any desire for an affirmative action program to hire ideological conservatives to fill the void. He simply says create and teach courses that explore the conservative movement, theory, leadership and thinking in American government. Inevitably that would mean hiring some conservatives, but that would be a subsidiary result and not a program requirement.

Unfortunately he is also wrong. What he suggests is based on a fantasy of an objective intellectualism which could entertain teaching such material without succombing to the left's predilection to discredit, demean and ridicule conservatives and their ideology. It couldn't happen in today's academia.