Sometimes, in the name of
equality, I ask my Kennesaw State University students if we should democratically
decide what to study. They are generally
unsure. Many realize that they do not
know enough about the subject matter to determine what is important.
I then make it known, in no
uncertain terms, that my classroom is not a democracy. While I have an obligation to respect my
student’s rights and dignity, were I to abstain from making curriculum choices,
I would be abdicating my responsibility as a professor.
Some of my colleagues,
however, are fond of bragging that they learn more from their students than the
other way around. When I hear this I am
always tempted to reply that is this is so, they should be paying them.
It took me many years of
study and a great deal of effort to amass the knowledge that I today share with
my classes. Moreover, not everyone has
the ability, or the motivation, to impart, this information.
But now we are witnessing
the spectacle of college students, starting with the University of Missouri,
insisting that they should be in charge of setting the standards. They are threatening to close down their
schools unless their grievances are satisfactorily addressed.
We are likewise observing
educators collapse at the onset of such demonstrations. Rather than instruct their students on the
virtues of tolerance, they have apologized and/or resigned. The display is chilling.
Are the “inmates” capable of
running the asylum? Do they know what
they should be learning? Have they demonstrated
that they are such capable learners they can be self-taught? To judge by the arrogance of their ignorance,
this is doubtful.
Many of these students are now
demanding free tuition and total relief from college loans. But more than this, they are promoting free food
and housing for everyone. Indeed, these
are described as “rights.” Our rich
country, we are told, has the wherewithal, and therefore the duty, to provide
them.
And where are the resources
to come from? The one per-centers must obviously
disgorge their ill-gotten gains. They
must essentially have their surplus property confiscated. What is more, they will acquiesce this
without putting up a fight. Nor will
this reduce the capital they invest in their businesses.
The students also want to be
protected from any language that they find offensive. Merely to be told, as they were at Yale, that
they should allow others to choose their Halloween costumes elicits
foul-mouthed tirades.
Colleges first, but then
presumably the rest of the world, must be converted into safe zones where it is
guaranteed that nothing untoward will ever be said. The First Amendment be damned—only
politically correct sentiments ought ever be expressed.
This is a joke that even
comedians are beginning to mock.
Nonetheless the demonstrators are serious. They are convinced that they possess a superior
wisdom, which they must forcibly convey to others. This is a moral burden that they dare not
shirk.
The truth is that it is the
legacy of progressivism run amok. As
liberal policies continue to fail in virtually every direction, those nurtured
at their bosom grow desperate. Rather
than acknowledge that they might be mistaken, they hysterically demand more of
what they previously sought.
Liberals are fond of
condemning conservatives as extremists.
The reality is that they are the extremists who are becoming ever more
extreme as their shortcomings are revealed.
Just listen to how much “free stuff” the Democratic presidential candidates
are currently promising.
Actual grown-ups learn valuable
lessons. Among these are that life is
not free and some things invariably go wrong.
Furthermore, part of achieving adulthood is discovering how to cope with
such difficulties—without demanding that others safeguard us at every turn.
Our colleges should be
teaching these facts, rather than a frothy optimism. Not just snowflake students, but their pious professors
and jellyfish administrators, could benefit from a strong dose of realism.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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