""My professor-I have this great professor-told me that you have to be careful not to get too much education, because you could lose your foundation, your core values."
"If you get a bachelors," the seasoned student reassured, "you'll probably be okay. But my professor said that when you get a master's, and definitely if you go beyond that, you can lose your values. He said that college students have to be watchful because if you get too much education, you could turn LIBERAL. He's seen it happen to a lot of good Christians."
This is from an article by
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst that desribes what will happen if radical "conservatives" have their way with our univeristy system. They are concerned that students will be exposed to "non-biblical ideas".
This same professor "said that if you're ever taught anything that sounds questionable, you should talk about it with your minister to see if it's right." He also said "when you get a Master's, and definitely if you go beyond that, you can lose your values."
Is it really a bad thing to get too much of an education? Will it really hurt your core values or strenghten them? If an education can't strenghten these values then are they really worth having once you become educated?
The fear is that college students will have exposure to "non-biblical ideas". But, does anybody remember The Inquisition perpatrated by the Catholic Church? This was prosecuted because scientists like Copernicus had to balls to question dogma with scientific research. If we didn't grow out of that mind-set then would this country even exist? If so, would we have advanced as far as we have such that this country has become a world player in the global economy, science and reseach? Would our lives would be so much better?
Now, I am not knocking the Catholic Church. I have a very strong Catholic faith, but I am also glad that they were forced to abandon that policy and "saw the light".
It would appear to me that there are radical professors in the university system from both sides of the political divide. This article illustrates one from the right. What is really needed is professionalism.
I teach a class at a local university called "Reasearch and Technology". It is a two hundred level course, but it is dominated by freshmen. The primary purpose of the class is to force students to look at all sides of an issue then write a persuasive research paper on a topic and support their position after addressing both sides of the issue.
I pride myself on my even-handedness in class. I have failed students who took a position that is the same as mine and I have passed those who have taken positions opposite to mine. In fact I gave one of them an 'A' this past semester.
If we actively encourage students to not get a Masters or a Ph.D won't we just be slitting the throat of our economy and our country?
BTW, if the professor in this story is so against getting a Masters or a Ph.D then what degree does he have?