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Educating Ignorance: The best-kept secret in America is the huge drop in the quality of college
American Thinker ^ | 12/14/2012 | Janice Shaw Crouse

Posted on 12/14/2012 8:10:10 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The best-kept secret in America today is the precipitous drop in the quality of college since the Left seized power in higher education. Every year, various magazines publish a list of rankings for American undergraduate institutions. Forbes assures parents that "Every school with a Forbes grade meets a high standard." U.S. News and World Report assures its readers that they consider a wide variety of factors in measuring a college's effectiveness. While American colleges were once great institutions of learning, those who know higher education today recognize that "high standards" of quality are casualties in the war against traditionalism and American values. Where religion and love of country and family were once revered, radical Leftist ideology now prevails. Traditional values have been replaced by moral relativism, anti-establishment teachings, and the breakdown of the family.

The radicalization of colleges did not happen overnight. What we have now is a product of past indifference and disinclination to do anything to reverse the spread of Leftist trends. John Howard's new book, America's Best Colleges! Really?, lays out his analysis of how the traditional purpose of education has been eradicated and replaced by radical ideologies of the Left. Howard outlines a brief history of how our Founders desired our public education system to reinforce religion and morality in order for our self-reliant experiment to survive and thrive. In contrast, he points out how the Left has imbedded its teachings in America's educational system and perverted the Founders' original intent in order to undermine the country's foundation.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: college; education
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1 posted on 12/14/2012 8:10:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I understand that not everyone has the same beliefs that I do. I actually do get that. The problem I have with current college professors is their practice of ridiculing everything they disagree with. So much for the idea of colleges being places where a person is allowed to present their ideas and others rationally discussing the topic.


2 posted on 12/14/2012 8:15:25 AM PST by Pecos (Double tap: the only acceptable gun control)
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To: SeekAndFind

The explosion of degrees in Womyn Studies, African Studies, Diversity Studies, White People Are Evil Studies probably have something to do with it.


3 posted on 12/14/2012 8:16:33 AM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: SeekAndFind

You would be far better off learning a worthwhile skill like electrician, plumber, car repair technician. Those are good bartering skills too for when money becomes worthless.


4 posted on 12/14/2012 8:27:45 AM PST by crosshairs (Too many things to say. Not enough room.)
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To: 2banana

Yep, beginning in the 1960s, neo-Marxism and socialism infected all the public universities and colleges and many of the private ones too. If you’re a Conservative and have a Ph.D. forget about teaching since the department chairs and faculty hiring committees are ex-hippies and professional protestors from that era..


5 posted on 12/14/2012 8:29:05 AM PST by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: SeekAndFind

My son graduated with a business degree from Purdue last year. He could only land a job putting tires on cars at a tire store. Worked his butt off for the better part of a year, coming home most nights looking like he’d been in a foxhole for a month.

Recently he landed a job with a very good company as the shipping manager for their warehouse operation. I don’t think the degree got him the job, I think it was more that he proved he was a dependable worker who was willing to get his hands dirty. Although this company was probably looking for a college graduate, I can guarantee they wouldn’t have given him a second look if he had been waiting tables instead.

Once upon a time, the degree alone would have landed him a job. Now it takes more than the degree.


6 posted on 12/14/2012 8:29:34 AM PST by henkster ("The people who count the votes decide everything." -Joseph Stalin)
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To: SeekAndFind

Not only is it a lower quality education, it now costs a fortune. In fact I think in majors other than science the kids come out more ignorant than when they went in.


7 posted on 12/14/2012 8:36:19 AM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Obama being re-elected is the political equivalent of OJ being found not guilty.)
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To: 2banana

“The explosion of degrees in Womyn Studies, African Studies, Diversity Studies, White People Are Evil Studies probably have something to do with it.”

Also explains the rising costs.


8 posted on 12/14/2012 8:44:19 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (You cant bring something to its knees that refuses to stand on its own)
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To: henkster

What was his minor?


9 posted on 12/14/2012 8:45:38 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (You cant bring something to its knees that refuses to stand on its own)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

Schools like M.I.T, Stanford and the like, where science, engineering and other hi tech degrees are awarded, those students will always have jobs.

Business majors need a masters as does Management majors. If the kid doesn’t want a masters, then he will need a JD. Plus, these days, jobs in business are highly specialized.

Anything else, ie: Liberal Arts majors always have Starbucks or the government.


10 posted on 12/14/2012 8:55:01 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (You cant bring something to its knees that refuses to stand on its own)
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To: SeekAndFind

Most computer grads can make a web page in a heartbeat with HTML or use third party tools to construct stuff but given a logic problem that requires critical thinking and math, the odds are good the solver is over 45 (or Asian).


11 posted on 12/14/2012 8:56:18 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: Resolute Conservative

RE: over 45 (or Asian).

And what schools do these Asians go to?


12 posted on 12/14/2012 9:06:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Not only can’t the liberal assh*les teach, they’re also financially ripping off students. One more liberal scam foisted on the population...


13 posted on 12/14/2012 9:06:48 AM PST by GOPJ (Detroit should be renamed 'Michael Mooresville'...)
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To: SeekAndFind

If one is in college question everything it’s the only chance to be educated.


14 posted on 12/14/2012 9:07:07 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: SeekAndFind

Some here, most I know got their undergrads in Japan and China.


15 posted on 12/14/2012 9:18:26 AM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: SeekAndFind

16 posted on 12/14/2012 9:24:37 AM PST by StAnDeliver (Own It.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Thanks. America's Founders viewed education as a primary means of preserving liberty, and wrote extensively about that goal.

Once the so-called "public school" movement was under way, there were those who warned of potential dangers, and were either ignored or ostracized.

It is the same today. Those who speak out against the Dept. of Education and all of the other multitudinous bureaucracies that control the propagandizing of youth today in the name of "educating" them must be willing to be marginalized by the media and politicians.

Even as early as the Year 1886, such was the case. A man by the name of Zacharias Montgomery was denied an important post in government for doing just that. You will read some of his words below.

With that said, those who love liberty must be willing to come forward to declare that it is better to be remembered for standing on and articulating enduring principles of right versus wrong, liberty versus tyranny, than to be praised by the mainstream media and so-called "progressives."

The words of Zacharias Montgomery in his 1886 Book entitled "Poison Drops in the United States Senate . . . ." are worth reading. Although his treatise dealt primarily with the public school question, the following remarks might be helpful to those who, today, are concerned by what passes for "public education."

Excerpts from his work:

"My countrymen, disguise the fact as we may, there is in this country to-day, and in both the political Parties, an element which is ripe for a centralized despotism. There are men and corporations of vast wealth, whose iron grasp spans this whole continent, and who find it more difficult and more expensive to corrupt thirty odd State Legislatures than one Federal Congress. It was said of Nero of old that he wished the Roman people had but one head, so that he might cut it off at a single blow. And so it is with those moneyed kings who would rule this country through bribery, fraud, and intimidation.

"It is easy to see how, with all the powers of government centered at Washington in one Federal head, they could at a single stroke put an end to American liberty.

"But they well understand that before striking this blow the minds of the people must be prepared to receive it. And what surer or safer preparation could possibly be made than is now being made, by indoctrinating the minds of the rising generation with the idea that ours is already a consolidated government ; that the States of the Union have no sovereignty which is not subordinate to the will and pleasure of the Federal head, and that our Constitution is the mere creature of custom, and may therefore be legally altered or abolished by custom.

"Such are a few of the pernicious and poisonous doctrines which ten millions of American children are today drinking in with the very definitions of the words they are compelled to study. And yet the man who dares to utter a word of warning of the approaching danger is stigmatized as an enemy to education and unfit to be men tioned as a candidate for the humblest office.

"Be it so. Viewing this great question as I do, not for all the offices in the gift of the American people would I shrink from an open and candid avowal of my sentiments. If I have learned anything from the reading of history, it is that the man who, in violation of great principles, toils for temporary fame, purchases for himself either total oblivion or eternal infamy, while he who temporarily goes down battling for right principles always deserves, and generally secures, the gratitude of succeeding ages, and will carry with him the sustaining solace of a clean conscience, more precious than all the offices and honors in the gift of man.

"History tells us that Aristides was voted into banishment because he was just. Yet who would not a thousand times rather today be Aristides than be numbered amongst the proudest of his persecutors.

"Socrates, too, in violation of every principle of justice, was con demned to a dungeon and to death. Yet what name is more honored in history than his? And which of his unjust judges would not gladly, hide himself in the utter darkness of oblivion from the with ering scorn and contempt of all mankind ?

"From the noble example of Aristides and of Socrates let American statesmen learn wisdom, and from the undying infamy of their cow ardly time-serving persecutors let political demagogues of today take warning."

So said Zacharias Montgomery in 1886. Read his complete work at HERE. He provides statistics and documentation to that date to support his position.

To read his report and conclusions leads one to realize this man's ability to see the consequences of what his fellow Americans were advocating in the area of education of youth.


17 posted on 12/14/2012 9:26:15 AM PST by loveliberty2 ( -)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is not a shock to anyone who spent 4 years in these “higher learning” institutions.


18 posted on 12/14/2012 9:30:20 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: EQAndyBuzz

“Anything else, ie: Liberal Arts majors always have Starbucks or the government.”

There’s nothing like paying big money to a university only to come out more ignorant, crushed by debt and unemployable. Talk about a scam.


19 posted on 12/14/2012 9:40:48 AM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (Obama being re-elected is the political equivalent of OJ being found not guilty.)
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To: henkster

“I don’t think the degree got him the job, I think it was more that he proved he was a dependable worker who was willing to get his hands dirty.”

The latter certainly helps, but the former probably has more value than many other majors. I majored in accounting; all of my professors were men (white and Asian), and opinions had no place in the classes. The female professors were in the “soft subjects”, and often used the class as a bully pulpit to spout post-Christian bile. There were some good female professors in biology; they were bright, competent people.


20 posted on 12/14/2012 9:44:05 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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