Five Myths about Liberal Academia (Washington Post, February 2011
By Matthew Woessner, April Kelly-Woessner and Stanley Rothman
Friday, February 25, 2011; 12:00 PMDo red-blooded, hard-working Americans pay thousands of dollars each year to send their children to college, only to have those kids turned into pot-smoking Obamacare-lovers by a pack of communist hippies? This stereotype -- professors as brainwashing left-wing ideologues -- has dogged academia at least since the Vietnam War era. But our nation's vilified professoriate isn't composed of just Marxists and Whole Foods shoppers. Let's upend five popular misconceptions about the people educating the next generation.
[the rest of the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022503169.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
[the rest of the article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/25/AR2011022503169.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
This is further evidence that academic freedom, contrary to widespread belief, is not a "liberal" issue but an academic issue that cuts across all political orientations. If academe is disproportionally populated by liberals, it is because individuals with doctorates and a conservative orientation are less willing to be underpaid and more likely to go into the private sector where pay is double or triple than on campus. But that's the decision of the free-market faithful, not bias in academia against conservatives.
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