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Are students in higher education currently facing different and conflicting ideas? That goes to humanities students, specially. It seems like when it comes to w

Are students in higher education currently facing different and conflicting ideas? That goes to humanities students, specially. It seems like when it comes to worldviews universities are almost monocultural, or maybe it's just a regional thing here?

throwawaysea 6y ago
Students in American and European universities are definitely not facing different and conflicting ideas. More often than not, expressing different and conflicting ideas will make you a social pariah, or even get you fired if you’re the instructor trying to truly make your students well rounded. In fact it is often those very same students that file petitions and participate in protests to get professors fired when they face an idea that they don’t agree with. There is only one set of ideas that truly experiences freedom of thought and inquiry in the humanities in Western universities, and that’s the progressive far left worldview. This cultural bias skews the humanities far more than it does STEM. You can see it institutionalized in the *-studies majors (e.g. ethnic studies), which have relatively little academic rigor. And because the humanities are so often skewed, I disagree with the notion that it makes students well rounded. Without room for conflicting views, critical inquiry, and freedom of thought, the humanities seem to have devolved into a propaganda machine that teaches just this worldview. It is a ubiquitous enough problem that entire news outlets have been created to track the disturbing saga of college monoculture in America: https://www.thecollegefix.com/ https://www.thecollegefix.com/
- antepodius 6y ago
  Man, he was asking a rhetorical question. You're (most likely) preaching to the choir.
  - mcguire 6y ago
    I don't know about preaching to the choir (I don't buy it, anyway), but "There is only one set of ideas that truly experiences freedom of thought and inquiry in the humanities in Western universities, and that’s the progressive far left worldview." has been the complaint since before I was born (which was a long time ago) and "what are they teaching kids these days" has probably been the complaint since universities were first founded.
mcguire 6y ago
Yes. Oh, it may not contain ideas you particularly favor, but that's kind of the point. For example: UT Austin English (Humanities, no?) major requirements (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/undergraduate-program/major-requirements.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/undergraduate-program...) and spring 2020 courses (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/courses/index.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/courses/index.php). Or maybe UT Austin Philosophy requirements (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/undergraduate/The%20Major.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/undergraduate/The%...) and spring 2020 courses (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/courses/index.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/courses/index.php). (Hey! Philosophy is still teaching 313 Symbolic Logic!) (Aww. Bob Mugerauer isn't teaching Contemporary Moral Problems. He's probably retired. But he was great; he looked like Captain Kangaroo. Dan Bonevac is teaching intro from his World Philosophy text. Cool.) Anyway, most of undergraduate humanities are surveys of various sorts, with the specific goals of getting students to present arguments coherently. (Hey! Computer Science is no longer requiring PHL 313K, or automata theory. They're dead to me now.)

throwawaysea 6y ago

Students in American and European universities are definitely not facing different and conflicting ideas. More often than not, expressing different and conflicting ideas will make you a social pariah, or even get you fired if you’re the instructor trying to truly make your students well rounded. In fact it is often those very same students that file petitions and participate in protests to get professors fired when they face an idea that they don’t agree with. There is only one set of ideas that truly experiences freedom of thought and inquiry in the humanities in Western universities, and that’s the progressive far left worldview. This cultural bias skews the humanities far more than it does STEM. You can see it institutionalized in the *-studies majors (e.g. ethnic studies), which have relatively little academic rigor. And because the humanities are so often skewed, I disagree with the notion that it makes students well rounded. Without room for conflicting views, critical inquiry, and freedom of thought, the humanities seem to have devolved into a propaganda machine that teaches just this worldview. It is a ubiquitous enough problem that entire news outlets have been created to track the disturbing saga of college monoculture in America: https://www.thecollegefix.com/ https://www.thecollegefix.com/

antepodius 6y ago
Man, he was asking a rhetorical question. You're (most likely) preaching to the choir.
- mcguire 6y ago
  I don't know about preaching to the choir (I don't buy it, anyway), but "There is only one set of ideas that truly experiences freedom of thought and inquiry in the humanities in Western universities, and that’s the progressive far left worldview." has been the complaint since before I was born (which was a long time ago) and "what are they teaching kids these days" has probably been the complaint since universities were first founded.

mcguire 6y ago

Yes. Oh, it may not contain ideas you particularly favor, but that's kind of the point. For example: UT Austin English (Humanities, no?) major requirements (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/undergraduate-program/major-requirements.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/undergraduate-program...) and spring 2020 courses (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/courses/index.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/english/courses/index.php). Or maybe UT Austin Philosophy requirements (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/undergraduate/The%20Major.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/undergraduate/The%...) and spring 2020 courses (https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/courses/index.php https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/philosophy/courses/index.php). (Hey! Philosophy is still teaching 313 Symbolic Logic!) (Aww. Bob Mugerauer isn't teaching Contemporary Moral Problems. He's probably retired. But he was great; he looked like Captain Kangaroo. Dan Bonevac is teaching intro from his World Philosophy text. Cool.) Anyway, most of undergraduate humanities are surveys of various sorts, with the specific goals of getting students to present arguments coherently. (Hey! Computer Science is no longer requiring PHL 313K, or automata theory. They're dead to me now.)