America's sleep is still mighty strong, and the American People still don't see this broad, hostile takeover of this country that is happening daily.
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst has written a very cold commentary about this drive to prevent students from getting "too much education," because if you get too much, you lose your core values, your foundation, and *gasp* become liberal.
If you wanted any more proof that America is drifting toward a fascist country, this "too much education" drive is exactly what prompted the Nazi turn in Germany: keep your core beliefs, refuse to be challenged, listen and obey, the enemy is *insert creed*.
I urge everyone to read that article and start fighting this attack back, because if we don't, then the majority of American universities, mostly those that can educate the financially-strained, will offer nothing but this one "corrected" version of everything, from history to science, from math to music, everything.
This should alarm everyone, every true American. As I mentioned in a past post, the rest of the world is moving on, and unless we do something to stop this regression, we will be forced to play catch up with a less grateful and helpful world, no matter whom we elect to lead us.
What the Right wishes to perform is Educleansing - the elimination of education principles and teachers to achieve "balance", and yes I just made up that word. But, it fits with today's right-wing hostile takeover of basic education.
As much as we liberals, democrats, and progressives like offering differing points of view, these folks don't want another view offered even if they are crying for "balance." Let's not forget that these people are the same folks that have already ruined the bipartisan political discourse in this country with their baseless attacks of treason on those who don't think the same way they do. That caveat alone should be enough for us to rise up like a brick wall against this tide.
We fail to do this then we, as a nation, will stop learning, and the only thing we'll ever be taught is to listen and obey - the exact commands thrusted upon a people of a totalitarian, authoritarian, or fascist civilization. The future of this nation will not be able to think for itself, nor will it be able to get off a boat that is clearly sinking, even if the commander of that boat says "stay on!"
Education has always been the backbone of a democracy - a well-educated public keeps democracy and its government on its toes, while a less-educated public lets democracy slip away and allows government to run roughshod over its citizenry. For a professor to say that students should be careful to not get "too much education" is to betray one of the most fundamental aspects of universities, not to mention being a professor.
Universities are there for higher learning, to give people there the chance to learn something they may not have already known before. They, and the professors who teach there, test theories, research and document events, challenge past theories into proving them or providing even better theories or facts, and so much more; they don't simply exist for college athletics.
I never always agreed with my professors, but I did not let that stop me from becoming the man I am today. What Horowitz and these conservative students and professors aim to do is to literally stop you from becoming who you can be and forcing you to become what they WANT you to be. As an example, conservatives hate homosexuality - the kind of education they will suggest teaching is that homosexuality is wrong, unhealthy, evil, and even illegal. They will want to eliminate any publishings, films, or music that put any positive spin on homosexuality, because they desire to make you hetero even if you are not or don't feel that way.
I love Morgan Freeman's line in the film Stand By Me that he gives to the students about school: "You are here for one reason, one reason only, to learn....the alternative is to waste your time." Needless to say, most of America today has wasted countless amounts of time, and hasn't bothered to learn anything. If they did, George Bush would have packed up his Oval Office by now. A nation that refuses to learn is a nation bordering on insanity, and as history has shown us, the world will only put up with an insane nation for so long before engaging it in some manner or form.
"Too much education" should never be given a bad rap, because as I mentioned before, would we have cars much less the wheel if too much education was the standard by which we all lived our lives? "Too much education" is responsible for our race to the moon, the construction of television, of the phone, even harnessing electricity - would conservatives say that Benjamin Franklin was too educated?! In a time where education is sorely needed like it never has been before for the safety of our lives, "too much education" must always be made available for those who want it, not held back because certain folks don't want it.
Lastly, and on a side note, what's sad is that this "too much education" critique is yet another attempt to trash the name "liberal." When will liberals and democrats, who seem to be so enthusiastic about their ideas given that they really are the majority of America, finally stand up and wash off the dirt that has been on their name for so long?
As an example, isn't high time that we finally stoked the fires of these hate-filled, religious, Republican souls with declarations like, by His actions and how history has described Him, Jesus really was a liberal? For these less educated folks, wouldn't this really make them squirm in their pants if someone were to say that the Jesus they all worship, idolize, and say is responsible for everything in their life was really a long-haired, sandal-wearing, poor-to-the-bone, peaceful, caring, raging liberal?
I have a good idea that Jesus spoke in parables not to sound witty or thoughtful or religious, but to finally make us think about our actions, and use stories to make us focus on how we should live our lives. Wouldn't Jesus' parables and teachings in that time equate with the Right's current classification of "too much education"? It's clear that by what the Right talks about and stands by today as moral values, Jesus wouldn't even be able to pick up a job as a Sunday school teacher, much less a professor.
Jesus scared the Pharisees so much with His "too much education" that they crucified Him, but as the Good Book tells us, even crucifixion couldn't stop Jesus nor His "too much education". In other words, while we dumb ourselves down, the world smarts itself up. The Right aims to crucify those that don't share their views as well as those that do not wish to present their, and only THEIR, "balanced" curriculum. We must stand up and defend our universities for the knowledge and information they provide, for without them, our society and our country will destroy itself with sheer stupidity.