Chuck Norris, of all people, is trying to bring his chops (karate chops, that is) to the right-wing campaign to smear higher education as a dojo of liberal bias, using the time honored technique of quoting Thomas Jefferson to bolster the specious jujitsu of his rhetoric:
On December 27, 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote William Roscoe about his vision for the University of Virginia (chartered in 1819), "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error as long as reason is left free to combat it."
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What happens when the political and public educational pendulum swings from concern for the tyranny of sectarianism in Jefferson's day to secularism in ours?
Hmm... I wonder what Jefferson would have to say about the evils of secular education?
Well, for starters:
In 1820 as he described his plans for the University of Virginia to his former private secretary, William Short, Jefferson acknowledged that his plan for the first truly secular university would have opposition: weak opposition (in his view) from the College of William and Mary, but strong opposition from "the priests of the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind its improvement is ominous." (Edwin S. Gaustad, Faith of Our Fathers: Religion and the New Nation, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987, p. 48. The letter to Short was dated 13 April 1820.)
Don't mince words, TJ! Tell us what you really think!
A professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution [the University of Virginia]. (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Cooper, October 7, 1814. From Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich, eds., The Harper Book of American Quotations, New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 492.)
If we can't count on Walker, Texas Ranger to quote our third president and one of the greatest proponents of a public and secular education in context, then what other errors lie within?
One of the primary ways these educative platforms are propagated is by recruiting and retaining faculty members who reflect and teach them. For example, citing from the polling firm of Luntz Research, Dr. Black notes that the 57 percent of faculty members represented in our most esteemed universities are Democrats (only 3 percent Republican) and 64 percent identify themselves as liberal (only 6 percent conservative). Moreover, 71 percent of them disagree that "news coverage of political and social issues reflects a liberal bias in the news media." And the No.1 answer they gave to the question, "Who has been the best president in the past 40 years?" was Bill Clinton (only 4 percent said Ronald Reagan)
At the risk of sounding like a broken record: the privately held political views and out-of-class political activities of faculty members are not proof that they are using their classrooms as political soapboxes. It's really simple. I know those fun facts (polled by Frank Luntz, no less) make great talking points, but they're completely meaningless in terms of assessing any problem. But Chuck is a master of kung fu, not of logic, so perhaps I should cut him a little slack.
The impact of secular progressive influence is being experienced by students across this land, tens of thousands of who have already cried out with complaints of academic inequity. A sampling of hundreds of student grievances from across the academic spectrum can even be found on websites like the Students for Academic Freedom and NoIndoctrination.org.
"Tens of thousands" of students have "cried out" about political bias? And you're basing this on a "sampling of hundreds" of anonymously filed, unsubstantiated, single-sourced complaints gathered at websites with a clear political agenda? We deserve better, Chuck. Show us the tens of thousands of complaints or admit that you and your sources are overstating the problem a smidgen.
While I fully realize there are some great conservative people on the staffs of many higher learning campuses, I know virtually all of them would concur that a liberal bias in our academic curricula and system is overwhelmingly dominant and ubiquitous.
And I suppose Chuck "knows virtually all" conservative faculty members would agree with him due to some mystical mind-reading knowledge he acquired during his martial arts training. I'd like some names - "virtually all" of them - to back this up, please.
It will come as no surprise that Norris recommends that his readers push for an Academic Bill of Rights at some level of governance in order to combat the alleged ill-effects of rampant secularism in our public institutions of higher education. Perhaps Jefferson might have something to say about the government meddling in education?
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 363).
cross-posted from Free Exchange on Campus