Academic Whining
Here in the Atlanta area, one of our local news stations does a
one-minute commentary segment called “Just A Minute”, which usually has the
same collection of media personalities rambling on about something either in
the news or just something on their mind.
Some of them have a jovial and comical tone to their voices. Others just appear to be whining for the sake
of whining.
Recently, one of their personalities decided to use that minute to whine
about the selection of guest speakers for college graduations. I won’t say who she is to “spare” her from
feeing “shamed”, but her whine is that colleges have been inviting a whole
plethora of liberal celebrities from actors and authors to political
figures. Where, she asks, are all of the
conservative speakers? Why, she asks, is
academia so hateful towards conservative speakers?
This is typical tripe from conservative minds. They play the “poor persecuted victim” card
at every opportunity when they’re not dominating the subject. They carry a ready-made “persecution” banner
just like shyster lawyers carry arm slings and neck braces so they could claim
“whiplash” whenever they bump into someone.
And it’s all an act to validate their past actions and to justify their
future ones. It’s simply bully
projection.
I’ll presume that the whining media personality doesn’t know a thing
about college graduations or the reason why there are guest speakers. Having a bachelor’s degree from one of the
best liberal arts colleges in the nation, I obviously went through the
graduation ceremony. They’re long and
boring as hell. It’s a lot of ceremony
and sitting around or standing in line wondering just how long the process will
drag on.
Graduation ceremonies really aren’t made for the students. They are made for the college faculty and
administrators. They get to wear the
fanciest caps and gowns, and you can see the pride on their faces. And most of the ceremony is about them and
what they’ve done. They are telling the
world “Look at all the people that we’ve educated!”
The only thing that really brightens the ceremony other than the end is
the commencement speaker. And that’s
because the purpose of the commencement speaker is for publicity. They’re there to bring attention to the
school. The school gets to brag about
who they were able to invite, and, if the celebrity is noteworthy enough, the
media will highlight what that speaker says in one or two sentences, which is
free publicity in and of itself.
Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s talk about the so-called “problem”.
First, I seriously doubt that conservatives got “snubbed” from every
college graduation ceremony. You mean to
tell me that every single college and university, even the ultra-conservative
ones like Bob Jones University and Liberty University (which, by
the way, many a Supreme Court clerk came from), decided to snub
conservative speakers? I call
shenanigans on that claim!
I would dare suspect that the real complaint is not about colleges not
inviting conservative speakers, but that the air-fluffed, ego-driven media is
not reporting about conservative speakers at certain colleges and universities.
But, for the sake of their delusion, let’s just say that media bias was
not involved. Let’s also suppose, for
the sake of that same delusion, that there really is a deliberate snubbing of
conservative and neo-conservative figures from colleges and universities all
across America.
Should anyone really be surprised at this, given the hostility that the
conservatives and neo-conservatives have shown towards the institutions of
higher education and towards education itself?
How many years have the conservatives and neo-conservatives been
attacking education, and specifically attacking academia? How many times have conservatives bashed academia
as being bastions of ignorance? How many
times have the college students been accused by conservatives and
neo-conservatives of being petty and self-centered and not having a single clue
as to how the real world operates? How
many times have conservatives and neo-conservatives attacked educators in the
media and demanded they be held to performance standards that they would never
hold themselves to?
When educators try to fix things, conservatives and neo-conservatives are
the first to scream foul. Their more
recent crusade involves Common Core standards; the very kind of standardized
testing that conservatives and neo-conservative required under their own “No Child Left
Behind” law. But, then again, that
was back when they controlled the White House and Congress, isn’t it? As soon as they were out of power, it became
yet another “threat” that they needed to stop at all costs. And, believe me, I have seen plenty a campaign
flier from career politicians and their wannabe challengers all pledging to “stop
Common Core” like it was a terrorist cell.
Between that and the efforts to defund public education and move kids to private
charter schools and home schooling, not to mention the continual campaign to
crucify science to save the conservative egos (not to
mention their campaign wallets) from climate change, it’s easy for
one to conclude that conservatives and neo-conservatives have the same regard
for educational institutions as fictional Faber University did for “Delta House”.
Given that, why should any faculty member or administrator of colleges
even consider “rewarding” those conservative and neo-conservatives with the
opportunity to be a commencement speaker?
Let’s get brutally honest here... you have a right as an American citizen
to question and challenge how our children are being prepared for the real
world, especially when our tax monies are involved. But that right does not entitle you or your
conservative and neo-conservative personalities an automatic platform in the
very educational institutions that you’re questioning and challenging. You don’t cajole educators and
administrators, threaten to take away their finances, demand that they adhere
to whatever crazy theory you may have about the world, and then expect them to
invite you or your ideological champions to their graduation ceremonies.
There’s a little thing called “cause and effect”. I’m sure the conservatives and
neo-conservatives have heard about it.
They use it when they try to hold others to account for their
actions. Well, it also applies to you.
Remember that graduation ceremonies are really there for the school
administrators and faculty. This is
their time, and they invite those that best reflect their institutions. In that regard, it appears that they have a
better grasp of that particular reality than do their critics.
Perhaps it’s best to simply regard this as a “teachable moment”. After all, it’s never too late to learn
things.
No comments:
Post a Comment