Don't have much time today. We're on our way out of town for the holiday weekend and I had to pop in between packing the suitcase and folding laundry to give you this food for thought:
A guy from India called in on the radio show I was listening to this morning as I was getting dressed. The talk show hosts were discussing odds and ends and mentioned a study about liberal professors which made my ears perk up. The guy was apparently well educated, despite his thick Hindi accent. He told the talk radio news hosts that he went to Engineering school back in India and had hours and hours of classes on the language of Engineering - computer programs and such. Then he comes here and ends up having to hire engineers that are fresh out of US colleges. What he finds is that they haven't even taken the classes they need to be able to perform their jobs after years of college and getting a degree in Engineering. He made the interesting comment that the curriculum in America is defective. His words made me laugh, "changing the curriculum is like pulling out adult teeth without anesthesia".
So the college education we think we are giving our kids may or may not turn out to be academically sound for their future? Fancy that.
The radio talk show hosts had originally made the point that kids who go off to college today are being molded by their professors. They discussed a study done on college professors about their belief system/political ideology. They said that most are Democrats and liberal, but the older ones are the strongest liberals and most considered themselves "activists". Sadly they said that it is the older ones who are hiring all the newer ones. And if I were hiring, I am certain that my ideology would affect my choice of who was qualified to trust young minds with... so I can only assume that most of the younger ones are on their way to becoming as liberal as their predecessors.
There's food for thought for those of you sending your bright minds off to college after a sacrificial life of homeschooling. Makes you really think hard about where to put that golden egg in the future!
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11 comments:
Wow, this was a really interesting post and definitely food for the thought. I might like to send a few of my friends here to read it. :)
Love
MJ
This really scares me, not just for my own kids, but also for the ones at my church who are in/going off to college. We invest so much time and energy into them and their futures, then a few months of being off surrounded by different ideas and they are totally changed. (we have one in particular who graduated this spring who already strange ideas he did not learn from us) The only thing I know of to do for my kids is to drill into them why we believe what we do, and how to answer the liberals who are in authority over them. Hopefully there will be some professors somewhere who are not liberal loonies.
Hi!
Thanks for the comment. I am glad you enjoyed the review.
Namarie,
Raora
Wow. That is a scary thought. So, is the new wave of the future going to be home-university-ing? Maybe it should be! Seriously! I have been thinking about starting back to school on-line to finish the degree I started in 1991...
Traci
I'm wondering if this trend is showing up at Christian universities as well. I went to a Christian university, but did take some classes at a state school as well. Believe me, there was a HUGE difference. I would hope there still is.
I think it is important that we discuss other idealogies with our children while they are home with us. Whether they face them in college, the work force, or the 6:00 news, it needs to be "old news" to them so they will not be easily swayed.
WOW! Thanks for the intersting info. I haven't thought of that much yet. It is scary. After homeschooling my children and caring so much about their education, it will be scary to send them off to college. Isn't there a home-college yet?
I hope you are having a great time while out-of-town for the holiday!
Stop by my blog to visit sometime! (Leave a comment so I know you were there!)
SchoolinRHome
www.homeschoolblogger.com/SchoolinRHome
Hey Joc. ;) Yes - you and your sis have some big decisions for the future since you are graduated/graduating soon! :)
Kelli - Yes, it is scary, but we have good choices and online options. There are also really Christian colleges that hire ONLY conservative professors as well (they are probably really pricey, though). Patrick Henry College is one of them.
Hi Raora! :) Thanks for popping in.
Traci - Yeah, I think there are a lot of homeschoolers already doing U at home. :) We are considering it depending on whether the kids are able to do online courses before graduation with success.
Rhonda - I KNOW it is a problem in some Christian Universities also. Kevin attended a Baptist College for a class in Old Testament Survey. His teacher gave logical reasons for the reasons why Genesis CAN'T be taken literally and explained away miracles. He also was a "gap" believer and evolutionist. It pays to know your professor's beliefs before sending your kids off to the wolves.
schoolinRhome - Yes, homeschool is a huge sacrafice financially and a big stress on mom's shoulders for so many years. It is all worth it - but my heart would be broken if my kids didn't end up with the same worldview in the end. I can just rely on "train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it"... and keep praying that our choices are the best ones according to His plan for us.
We are having fun. :) I made my corn salad and Kev made Guacamole and we are at Grandma's pool party! Hope the rain doesn't spoil the fireworks tonight.
AWESOME POST!!
Why do we still expect it to be "higher education"??
The government K-12 schools have about maxed out all the excuses and ways to improve on the system, and they have barely achieved education. Can we really expect them to send these children to a level of college much higher?
We in America are, as usual, deceiving ourselves. We live in the greatest nation on earth, enjoy the most freedoms, live in the biggest luxuries, and we are still deceiving ourselves into believing that we are the BEST at everything.
Other countries look at America and laugh. I think education is one of those areas that they are justified in doing so. The NEA and legislators, school boards, etc. are a bunch of chickens running around with their "ideas" to improve education. Problem is, they are running around as chickens with their heads cut off.
I have no faith in higher education either. Not public, not religious. If our children need a higher learning as deemed by God for their lives (you know, ALL children don't need a college education. Some people do have to work at Wendy's or collect the garbage.), well, they will get the particular higher classes necessary.
Kinda' sounds like our government though... you have to take the Bills that pass with the GREAT laws and all the fat they tack on too.
Hope you have an EXCELLENT!! weekend!! Love you~
J
This is interesting. I have always noticed that even though I was a grade behind most of my friends, I was either right with them or I was ahead. That is sad though that the academics in the public schools are so bad.
Speaking of college/graduating, thank you for the sweet words you had to say about me!
Love you, Sprittibee!
Amanda
http://superangelsblog.com
I work in a public school. Almost every teacher at our school and our administrators are conservative. I've always worked at public colleges where the same thing was true. It's a fairly silly assumption to believe that every teacher is a liberal. As for the education achieved at our colleges, that depends a great deal on the college you attend. Also, someone from India might expect different criteria from the same degree. This post (and the comments) are overgeneralizations.
Thanks for sharing this! A very powerful anecdote...
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