Christian proselytizing to public school basketball players

[Lennys Tap]

I’m just thinking you’re so focused on somebody teaching your kids that global warming and evolution are real that you’re ignoring the fact that there’s thousands of schools teaching kids homesxualiy is a horrific sin and that the earth is 6,000 years old.

Dead wrong in your "thinking".

[Galway Eagle]

Dead wrong in your "thinking".

So you are saying that even the hundreds of evangelical schools around the country are liberal?

Or you’re focusing on the liberal schools and just ignoring the conservative ones?

[Lennys Tap]

So you are saying that even the hundreds of evangelical schools around the country are liberal?

Or you’re focusing on the liberal schools and just ignoring the conservative ones?

No. I'm saying that you "thinking" that I want to protect my children from from being taught about climate change or evolution is as false as it is insulting.

Certainly, there are what I would call "conservative" (not religious) schools - Hillsdale, George Mason, for example. And Hollywood occasionally makes a movie with a conservative message. But to say that both are the exception rather than the rule is a huge understatement.

[Eldon]

Study by the Econ Journal Watch (don't know anything about them, maybe it's BS) surveyed 7,243 professors at 40 major universities. 3,623 reported being registered democrats, 314 registered republicans. IOW 11.5 Ds for every R. Stunning even to me. I'd be interested in other studies and their findings.

Not BS; it's a legit journal.

To be sure, surveys like that mask a lot of the heterogeneity of beliefs: "Democrat" has a different meaning for different people. 

I remember a similar survey of academic economists a few years ago.  IIRC, ~40% were Democrat, ~40% Republican, and the rest were Libertarian and other factions.  But I guarantee that an economist who calls him/herself a Democrat is much, much more moderate than a sociologist who calls him/herself a Democrat.

[GGGG]

Study by the Econ Journal Watch (don't know anything about them, maybe it's BS) surveyed 7,243 professors at 40 major universities. 3,623 reported being registered democrats, 314 registered republicans. IOW 11.5 Ds for every R. Stunning even to me. I'd be interested in other studies and their findings.

Regardless, that doesn't mean they are biased in their teaching.    Are there some?  Sure.  Is it widespread?  Doubtful.

[Lennys Tap]

Regardless, that doesn't mean they are biased in their teaching.    Are there some?  Sure.  Is it widespread?  Doubtful.

I'll put it this way - if the numbers were reversed would you be concerned?

[GGGG]

I'll put it this way - if the numbers were reversed would you be concerned?

No.  I conduct my job every day in a way that those who don't really know me have no idea what my political beliefs are.  There are countless others I work with who are the same.  Teachers and professors can certainly act the same way. 

[Benny B]

For those not reading between the lines of this thread, let me summarize its wisdom thus far:

Liberal, conservative, left, right, up, down, schlemiel, schlimazel.... NEARLY EVERYONE is spouting an agenda whether you like it or not.  And if you don't think it's a problem, you're definitely not part of the solution.

[GGGG]

For those not reading between the lines of this thread, let me summarize its wisdom thus far:

Liberal, conservative, left, right, up, down, schlemiel, schlimazel.... NEARLY EVERYONE is spouting an agenda whether you like it or not.  And if you don't think it's a problem, you're definitely not part of the solution.

There is no solution so stop with the pontification. 

[Lennys Tap]

No.  I conduct my job every day in a way that those who don't really know me have no idea what my political beliefs are.  There are countless others I work with who are the same.  Teachers and professors can certainly act the same way.

Can? Yes. It's possible. But I find it impossible to believe that most people teaching political science, philosophy, sociology, etc., etc., don't bring their personal opinions/biases into the classroom. And when you say that you would be unconcerned if faculties at our universities held right wing biases - based on your posting history, I don't believe you.

[Benny B]

There is no solution so stop with the pontification.

And therein lies the problem.  There is a solution, but I'll admit that I don't know what it is. 

However, dropping the "if you're not with us, you're against us" paradigm would probably be a good start.

[GGGG]

Can? Yes. It's possible. But I find it impossible to believe that most people teaching political science, philosophy, sociology, etc., etc., don't bring their personal opinions/biases into the classroom. And when you say that you would be unconcerned if faculties at our universities held right wing biases - based on your posting history, I don't believe you.

Well I don't care if you believe me or not.

Regardless, I was a Political Science major with an Economics minor at MU.  I had no idea what the political beliefs of my professors were except for Fr. Tim O'Brien (who told us), Christopher Wolfe (who made it obvious) and one of my Economics professors.  (Who I only knew about because of a rant she gave in her office.)

Even knowing this about them, that didn't seem to impact their teaching of the subjects.  They were all great professors.  I had multiple classes with O'Brien and Wolfe and I still consider the latter my absolute favorite professor at MU even though my political beliefs were pretty much directly opposite of his.

[Lennys Tap]

Well I don't care if you believe me or not.

Regardless, I was a Political Science major with an Economics minor at MU.  I had no idea what the political beliefs of my professors were except for Fr. Tim O'Brien (who told us), Christopher Wolfe (who made it obvious) and one of my Economics professors.  (Who I only knew about because of a rant she gave in her office.)

Even knowing this about them, that didn't seem to impact their teaching of the subjects.  They were all great professors.  I had multiple classes with O'Brien and Wolfe and I still consider the latter my absolute favorite professor at MU even though my political beliefs were pretty much directly opposite of his.

I was also a political science major with a minor in philosophy and english. Had one great, a few good, a few bad and mostly meh profs at MU. Only a handful banged the drum hard, but anyone discerning could tell where most came from - only one I remember totally stifled any debate.

You say your favorite professor at MU was one with whom you disagreed with on pretty much everything. WTF happened to young Sultan?

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

All this stuff about college professors is pretty interesting.

Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with taking a bunch of public high school kids to a luncheon advertised only as an event at which sandwiches will be served and then force-feeding them evangelical Christianity.

Anybody who does not want their kids to be subjected to liberal professors has a choice: Send them to one of these "conservative universities":

https://thebestschools.org/rankings/20-best-conservative-colleges-america/

Those 15-year-old kids didn't have a choice Friday; they were ambushed by fire and brimstone.

But hey, I love a meandering thread as much as the next Scooper, so carry on ...

Messiah College attempted to call my daughter a few weeks ago.  We normally screen calls, but I saw "Admissions Office" thought it might be a follow-up from one of her visits somewhere, so I answered.  She gave me the look of "no freaking way" when she overheard Messiah and I somehow politely got through that she wasn't interested.  They were bizarrely pretty pushy to speak with her.

[tower912]

Can? Yes. It's possible. But I find it impossible to believe that most people teaching political science, philosophy, sociology, etc., etc., don't bring their personal opinions/biases into the classroom. And when you say that you would be unconcerned if faculties at our universities held right wing biases - based on your posting history, I don't believe you.

Dr. Wolfe was/is very conservative.  Poli Sci legend in the 80's and 90's at MU  You knew it if you had been tipped off and were looking for it.   But it almost never came through in his teaching.  I loved his classes.   I was a poli-sci minor.   If I had taken one more history class at MU, I would have had a double minor with history.    As well as Theo and Phil courses.     Figure 16 (ish) of those courses.   2 Professors had a noticeable bias.    One was a Theo class where the course description mentioned liberation theology and the US Bishops encyclical on the economy.   (Look it up some time.    Those 80's era Catholic Bishops were socialists.    But I digress).     The other was an American History class.    Professor matched up with my political biases, but that was irrelevant because I thought he was a terrible teacher and didn't enjoy it.    In other words, loved the prof that voted differently than me, thought the prof who shared some of my political opinions was a lousy prof.        As it should be. 
    Clearly, this was 30 years ago.    It wasn't as hypersensitive a time politically.    We cared about the material and the presentation.     And as students at a Jesuit institution, we were supposed to embrace and seek the learning, not refuse to embrace it because the professor might vote differently than we did.   

[GGGG]

You say your favorite professor at MU was one with whom you disagreed with on pretty much everything. WTF happened to young Sultan?

Wolfe would humor my 20 year old attempts as describing Constitutional Law and Civil Liberties and then explained why he disagreed.  But since the class wasn't about our opinions, but the opinions of the federal courts, that didn't matter much.  And I worked my ass off and got As in both of his courses.  When I applied to graduate school, he wrote a very nice letter of recommendation and we kept in touch for a couple years until he left MU.

I wasn't harmed by differing political views.  He never held any sort of bias against me.  I think that's how it is for 99% of these professor / student relationships.

[tower912]

Your memories, impressions, and feelings about Dr. Wolfe are remarkably consistent with mine.   

[Jay Bee]

Certain “careers” are best suited for lazy liberals

[tower912]

Certain “careers” are best suited for lazy liberals

And some for brain dead conservatives.    So we have the name calling covered.   

And we need them all to make the world go round. 

[mu_hilltopper]

I wasn't harmed by differing political views.  He never held any sort of bias against me.  I think that's how it is for 99% of these professor / student relationships.

Clearly, you had to have been harmed, you just haven't come to the realization yet.    It's like some sort of Stockholm syndrome.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Serious questions for Herman, or whoever:

Is Marquette liberal, conservative or in-between?   (Maybe better, on a scale of 0-10, 0 being uber liberal, 10 being uber conservative, what number is MU?  What # is UW?  DePaul?  Xavier or Indiana U?)

2nd Q: What makes them that number?   The profs?  Required subject matter?  Student population?

I find it hard to peg MU as liberal or conservative.  Some profs are noticeably one stripe or the other, but the syllabus of most classes don't yield (many) opportunities to be political.  Math, chemistry, accounting, engineering, nursing, physical therapy, information systems, and the like .. you're going to need to go way off topic to get to a conservative or liberal topic the professor could indoctrinate you with.

Sure, the Gender Studies, Peace Studies, Sociology, Antropology, et al. profs are going to be of a certain bent -- but those classes aren't altering the political belief systems of the students .. (i.e. if you chose to go into Gender Studies .. you're probably not voting Republican ever.)

Or is it the student population that 'indoctrinates'?   Over the past 4 election cycles, Catholics are split nearly 50/50, so it's hard to imagine MU students being significantly different than 50/50 -- other than to say youthful people are typically more liberal than their parents.   That would apply to all 18+ year olds, though.

Discuss.

This. At every university I have worked at, the students as whole are much more liberal than the faculty/staff as a whole. Universities don't turn students liberal. They were already liberal and for many of them being at a university is just the first time they've been told it's okay for them to express those views.

Every generation has been more liberal than the last one. It's just the natural order of things.

[MU82]

Honestly, I have no idea what the political leanings of a single one of my professors or instructors were. It was a long time ago, but I don't remember a single one of them ever espousing a political viewpoint that would give a clue.

Looking back, from those I can remember - and I don't really remember a lot of them - I could probably make a few educated guesses. Especially among the Journalism school folks, since the majority almost surely were left-leaning, but all they'd be is guesses just like that one.

[Lennys Tap]

This. At every university I have worked at, the students as whole are much more liberal than the faculty/staff as a whole. Universities don't turn students liberal. They were already liberal and for many of them being at a university is just the first time they've been told it's okay for them to express those views.

Every generation has been more liberal than the last one. It's just the natural order of things.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/07/health/millennials-conservative-generations/index.html

Here's one article that disagrees, at least in part. I agree that the arc of history favors the acceptance of equal rights for all. But that's something that needn't break down on a liberal/conservative basis. True disagreement between liberals and conservatives stems from views on topics like the role of government in her citizens lives. In that area, at least, it appears millennials at 20 may be more conservative than baby boomers or Xers at a similar age.

[Jockey]

I'll put it this way - if the numbers were reversed would you be concerned?

You are presuming that teachers in all subjects are teaching left wing politics to our kids.

Simply untrue. You know that. The vast majority of teachers never mention politics unless that is the subject they are teaching.

[Jockey]

Study by the Econ Journal Watch (don't know anything about them, maybe it's BS) surveyed 7,243 professors at 40 major universities. 3,623 reported being registered democrats, 314 registered republicans. IOW 11.5 Ds for every R. Stunning even to me. I'd be interested in other studies and their findings.

Meaningless drivel.

Show me numbers of how many teachers actively teach their politics in a classroom setting.