Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups






















« Weird News Dump | Main | Saturday Gardening Thread: How natural is your garden? [KT] »
December 02, 2017

Thread before the Gardening Thread: Conservatives in Education??? [KT]

Serving your mid-day open thread needs

dunce-cap-cultural-revolution.jpg

Dunce Cap, Cultural Revolution

That photo kind of reminds me of The Inquisition at Laurier University for showing a short YouTube video featuring Professor Jordan Peterson for discussion.

But Steven Hayward over at Powerline, one of the few non-leftists to actually teach classes at Berkeley lately, has another piece up this week on why there are so few conservatives in higher education now.


I am long overdue in delivering a World Wrestling Federation-style smack down on Damon Linker, one of my favorite liberal writers, for a column he wrote in The Week way back in August on "The Real Reason There Are So Few Conservatives on Campus." . . .

Let's take Damon's second major claim in the piece first. Conservatives, he says, are less interested in breaking "new knowledge" that is the mode of operation for universities these days, even in the humanities. In other words, conservative academics are like baseball players trying to play in the NFL--it's just a different game. There is something to this criticism, but only because it accepts as its premise that breaking "new knowledge" is the sole function of a university, rather than being partly a repository for conserving and passing along the knowledge capital of our civilization. . . .

Why should the knowledge capital or our civilization matter when we can emulate German Research Universities of the 19th Century?

This problem was understood to some leaders of higher education when our universities were deciding to emulate the German research-university model in the late 19th century. One of the presidents of Harvard at the time (I forget which, but as I'm on an airplane at the moment I can't check Louis Menand's account of this) thought it might be necessary to have two faculties at Harvard--a graduate research faculty, and a purely teaching faculty to carry on the older mission of being the transmission belt of our heritage, unburdened with the task of grinding out endless journal articles that almost no one will read.

So it is true that most conservatives in the humanities are wholly alienated from the mode of humanities instruction in universities today. Linker and other liberals should ponder that the number of majors in humanities and social sciences (excluding economics) has fallen by two-thirds over the last 30 years even at our most elite universities, corresponding precisely to the transition in the humanities from the old style to the "new knowledge" style. By contrast, note that the scarce conservative professors and their courses are often very popular with students (my courses all have long waiting lists, while the radical left courses--most that I check on are barely half full; also, check out the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Study of Great Texts at UT/Austin--it's ragingly popular with students). Maybe there's a lesson here?

Besides, even conservative keepers of supposedly "old knowledge" have relevant challenges to make to the so-called "new knowledge." . .

Hayward then goes on to note that "most of the so-called 'new knowledge' in the humanities is, simply put, crap". And to examine a typical job announcement for ideological bias. For contrast, a couple of job announcements from Arizona State University's new School for Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, which has been set up by conservatives, are included.

Know anybody who might be interested?

While you're in the neighborhood, you might want to scroll through Powerline's Academic Left posts. Kind of entertaining, if troubling.

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

digg this
posted by Open Blogger at 11:14 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Cuthbert the Witless: "When they cut into the TV show last night they tal ..."

TheJamesMadison, finding suspense, madness, and humanity with Michael Powell: "41 Did Obama give Joe the green light to pardon Hu ..."

Duke Lowell : "He will pardon his brother next. ..."

Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle : "how long Hunter stays clean and sober. I give it 5 ..."

Archimedes: "There hasn't been enough discussion of the fact th ..."

Ganowicz Commie Exterminators, LTD.: "Robert Hunter Biden, Esq. Heh. The grift is comi ..."

Eromero: "Virtual mountains of money, great gobs of cash, pl ..."

weft cut-loop[/i][/b] [/s]: "[i]To hell with them all, literally. Posted by: A ..."

Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM)[/b][/i][/s][/u]: " Open the Joseph R Biden, Jr. Presidential Librar ..."

The ARC of History!: "It's pretty funny that Joe cites Hunter's "sobriet ..."

I used to have a different nic: "[i]It's not just Joe Biden exposed as a rancid lia ..."

Thomas Bender: "@7 >>I dunno. It doesn't matter, no one is g ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64