I just got a gig as a contributing writer for EducationNews. It's an old site--been around since 1997--and used to be one of the leading education news sites out there. It went downhill in recent years, but has just been completely revamped, with a new editor, new contributors, and an updated look and feel. The goal is to make EducationNews a leader in its subject area once again.
My first piece for EducationNews was published yesterday, and is up on the Higher Education page. Check it out here. It discusses that age old assumption: that college is a liberal breeding ground, full of activist professors and administrators who "indoctrinate" impressionable students into left-wing ideology. I researched this subject extensively for my Masters thesis earlier this year.
Just how much of a "liberal" effect does college actually have on students? The answer may surprise you. And what forces in the collegiate environment actually do impact students' political views--professors? Administrators? The weird guy who scoops your Mystery Meat at the dining hall? That answer may surprise you, too.
Suffice to say that, when it comes to political influence, college is one of the most highly misunderstood social agents in existence. And critics like David Horowitz, who has written things like “[College] Curricula are designed not to educate students in critical thinking, but to instill doctrines that are ‘politically correct’," and "activist instructors routinely present their students with only one side of controversial issues in an effort to convert them to a sectarian perspective," are very misled. This is a forgivable misunderstanding of the college political experience at best, and a purposeful distortion of reality at worst. I don't know which it is, but the bottom line is: it's flat-out wrong.
