Can Our Universities Be Saved From Radical-Left Ideologies?
By Michael Brown/Askdrbrown.org June 05, 2017No, we're talking about a systematic dumbing down and radicalizing of our campuses.
What great advice from a commencement speaker.
Typical of the radicalizing of our schools were these comments from Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an assistant professor in African American studies at Princeton. Speaking at the graduation service for Hamilton College in Massachusetts, she referred to President Trump as "a racist, sexist megalomaniac."
Regarding his policies, she said, "It is not enough just to be outraged. Injustice has to actually be defied."
As for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he "embraces and promulgates policies that have already proven to have had a devastating impact on black families and communities."
It wouldn't surprise me if most of the graduates didn't consider her comments to be controversial at all. She was probably preaching to the choir.
This is the pattern at campuses across our country. As Katrina Trinko pointed out at the Daily Signal, "According to a new survey from Young America's Foundation, top colleges invited 45 liberal commencement speakers this year ... and a measly four conservatives."
That's more than a 10 to 1 ratio. This is shocking but not surprising.
Among those four conservatives was Vice President Mike Pence, speaking at Notre Dame University.
Contrast this with the founding of some of our greatest universities, something I discuss in detail in my forthcoming book Saving a Sick America: A Prescription for Moral and Cultural Transformation. To give the smallest sampling here, Harvard University was founded in 1636 as Harvard College.
Princeton University was founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey. The school's motto was "Under God's Power She Flourishes."
Columbia University, was founded as King's College in 1754 by a royal charter of King George II. It had as its goals to "enlarge the Mind, improve the Understanding, polish the whole Man, and qualify them to support the brightest Characters in all the elevated stations in life."
As for commencement addresses, Cacey N. Nep at Politico wrote, "At Harvard's first commencement in 1642, every single member of the graduating class gave an address in Greek, Hebrew or Latin.
Chew on that for a moment. Every graduate at Harvard in 1642 "gave an address in Greek, Hebrew or Latin." And you can be sure that the faculty, if not every grad, understood every word of every speaker.
To repeat, then, my initial question: Can our universities be saved?
I'm not talking about restoring many of them to their deeply Christian roots. I'm talking about restoring them as bastions of education, not leftist indoctrination. Is it too late?
One of the chapters in Saving a Sick America is titled, "Reclaiming Our Schools and Learning How to Think Again." In that chapter, I caution parents against sending their kids off to secular universities without clear purpose and preparation.
I also call for:
The challenge is certainly great, but we really have no other choice.
Over 40 years ago, Larry Norman, a pioneer Christian rock musician asked the question, "Why should the devil have all the good music?"
Today, I'm asking the question, "Why should the left have (almost) all the good schools?"