Sunday, December 22, 2002
More SCSC Tales
This evening I became aware of the St. Cloud Times discussion board and found that a number of past and current students understand some of the nonsense that passes for higher education social justice education. Below are some select exchanges that I've extracted "as is."
Click here to find this page.
Dannyboy from St Cloud:
I have all sorts of horror stories from my days at State. The place is wrought with the proverbial hacks we hear about staying in the comforting cradle of school instead of entering the real world. And that isn�t really even the worst part about many of them. A small, very vocal, yet very powerful minority of them actually got into teaching for the expressed purpose of propagandizing our youth with their political biases.
I�ve heard everyone from political science and economics teachers, to sociology teachers say outright that in their view the best part of their job was the molding of impressionable, na�ve, young minds to agree with them. I�ve seen people like sociology professor Alessio verbally chastise students in front of 400+ peers for �disturbing� the class with unwelcome, yet well reasoned, questions that challenged Alessio�s lecture. (The lecture was a 25 minute rant about how a small cadre of racist/sexist uber white men control all the prices in the world, and force Mexican children to make nikes.)
I�ve had political science teachers who giggle with joy in higher level classes, admitting that one of their greatest pleasures was, �creating new socialists,� in freshman classes. Or, more times than I�d like to recount, I�ve endured half-baked monologues about how Ronald Reagan was the worst thing to happen to America since slavery; that Canada�s healthcare system is the best thing since sliced bread; that the guiding principle of America is racism/sexism/homophobia; that Cuba isn�t all that bad� blah blah, so on so forth.
Almost every time these �teachers� make the case that, not only is their opinion unorthodox, but they seems to think it their duty to expose �the other side of the story� to the young minds of Minnesota. The sad fact is, though, that the �other side of the story� is all kids will ever here�unless they take classes from old, fusty philosophers like Myron Andersen in the philosophy department. (Himself a reformed Marxist.)
Anonymous from 208.13.90.32:
A person demanded the removal of a flag from a kiosk because is was offensive. I wonder what her views are about burning the US flag?
Dan Becker from St. Cloud:
Thank you Dannyboy for sharing your views and experiences. I will keep following this SCSU stuff with interest. Did you take those classes as elective or requirements?
Dannyboy from St Cloud:
Mr. Becker:
Actually, many of the classes where I witnessed the most egregious examples of misconduct were those designated MGM, or multicultural requirement classes. These classes seem to be�in my experience anyway�little more than forced programs for the indoctrination of young students. They normally lack any rigor whatsoever, exemplify doctrinal bias in their �field�, and result in a skewed, normally counterintuitive vision of the world for those students who lack experience with other perspectives that do not get play in the universities. Unfortunately, that is a considerable demographic in the student body.
Anonymous from 162.96.22.28:
Hi totally agree with Dannyboy; he could not be more right. I am a student at SCSU and could not be more disgusted by the Univeristy.
Anonymous from 162.96.22.28:
The classes that are required pertain to nothing that is needed and the prof's are terrible. I am often embarressed to even say I am attending SCSU.
This evening I became aware of the St. Cloud Times discussion board and found that a number of past and current students understand some of the nonsense that passes for higher education social justice education. Below are some select exchanges that I've extracted "as is."
Click here to find this page.
Dannyboy from St Cloud:
I have all sorts of horror stories from my days at State. The place is wrought with the proverbial hacks we hear about staying in the comforting cradle of school instead of entering the real world. And that isn�t really even the worst part about many of them. A small, very vocal, yet very powerful minority of them actually got into teaching for the expressed purpose of propagandizing our youth with their political biases.
I�ve heard everyone from political science and economics teachers, to sociology teachers say outright that in their view the best part of their job was the molding of impressionable, na�ve, young minds to agree with them. I�ve seen people like sociology professor Alessio verbally chastise students in front of 400+ peers for �disturbing� the class with unwelcome, yet well reasoned, questions that challenged Alessio�s lecture. (The lecture was a 25 minute rant about how a small cadre of racist/sexist uber white men control all the prices in the world, and force Mexican children to make nikes.)
I�ve had political science teachers who giggle with joy in higher level classes, admitting that one of their greatest pleasures was, �creating new socialists,� in freshman classes. Or, more times than I�d like to recount, I�ve endured half-baked monologues about how Ronald Reagan was the worst thing to happen to America since slavery; that Canada�s healthcare system is the best thing since sliced bread; that the guiding principle of America is racism/sexism/homophobia; that Cuba isn�t all that bad� blah blah, so on so forth.
Almost every time these �teachers� make the case that, not only is their opinion unorthodox, but they seems to think it their duty to expose �the other side of the story� to the young minds of Minnesota. The sad fact is, though, that the �other side of the story� is all kids will ever here�unless they take classes from old, fusty philosophers like Myron Andersen in the philosophy department. (Himself a reformed Marxist.)
Anonymous from 208.13.90.32:
A person demanded the removal of a flag from a kiosk because is was offensive. I wonder what her views are about burning the US flag?
Dan Becker from St. Cloud:
Thank you Dannyboy for sharing your views and experiences. I will keep following this SCSU stuff with interest. Did you take those classes as elective or requirements?
Dannyboy from St Cloud:
Mr. Becker:
Actually, many of the classes where I witnessed the most egregious examples of misconduct were those designated MGM, or multicultural requirement classes. These classes seem to be�in my experience anyway�little more than forced programs for the indoctrination of young students. They normally lack any rigor whatsoever, exemplify doctrinal bias in their �field�, and result in a skewed, normally counterintuitive vision of the world for those students who lack experience with other perspectives that do not get play in the universities. Unfortunately, that is a considerable demographic in the student body.
Anonymous from 162.96.22.28:
Hi totally agree with Dannyboy; he could not be more right. I am a student at SCSU and could not be more disgusted by the Univeristy.
Anonymous from 162.96.22.28:
The classes that are required pertain to nothing that is needed and the prof's are terrible. I am often embarressed to even say I am attending SCSU.
