The Power of the Classroom

In his book "One Party Classroom," David Horowitz explores the pervasive left wing bias and indoctrination found in many classrooms in American universities. My undergraduate and graduate experiences confirm this. Of the many liberal arts and social science classes that I took, a notable portion of my professors utilized the classroom to present a one sided leftist vision of social and economic phenomena. This was particularly pronounced in the school of education in which we were subject to the daily mantra of America's "racism, sexism, classism and homophobia"; quite literally I did not hear one positive thing about the United States in my two years in that program. And from Marx to Marcuse and Fromm to Freire we surveyed a pantheon of left wing writers, but barely touched upon great conservative thinkers.

What is most troubling about this is that these professors made zero effort to foster a marketplace of ideas and allow students to explore and choose from alternative arguments and explanations. There may have been some intellectually conservative professors, but none used the classroom as a platform to indoctrinate students. An institution that should have fostered bold intellectual exploration and growth encouraged the formation of narrow, intellectually anemic individuals.

When presented with this information my "progressive" associates either deny it or underplay its significance, arguing that academia is the only sector that "progressives" dominate. They could not be further from the truth. Many of my indoctrinated classmates went on the become teachers, principals, journalists, politicians and policy makers, all of whom play a large role in American social, cultural, political and economic life. And for good or for bad (depending on your vision) they have played a major role in the erosion of core American values and institutions. The role of teachers and curriculum makers cannot be understated because those who shape the cultural and moral formation of the young, control the future.

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