Political Correctness in Marquette’s School of Education

The following just came via e-mail from a Marquette student:

I just read the post on the liberal nature of MU’s School of Education and I could not agree more. I took EDUC 008 this past semester and it could have been called “Intro to Liberal Idealism” and no one would have noticed. In that class I basically learned that white males were unable to teach any other races, that the opinion of the minority always trumps that of the white majority, and that only when vouchers are issued to “skinhead” schools as well as Christian schools will school choice be acceptable (This seriously came from an in-class video). For a program that wants so desperately to embrace diversity, the total lack of diversity of opinion is laughable.

Also, I think the “social justice” focus is a detriment to producing competent teachers. That class was such fluff that I spent literally 2 hours studying for the midterm and final combined and still got an A in the course. Because the class dealt with such idealism, there were no concepts to learn, and absolutely nothing pedagogical. This was made clear from the beginning. All that was needed was to regurgitate the liberal “socially just” nonsense they taught us.

This class made me seriously re-consider my future at MU when it comes to pursuing a teaching degree. After all, political correctness can be found much cheaper elsewhere.

While we were put off by the politically correct language in the “Institutional Report” to the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, we warned that what appears in a bureaucratic document isn’t necessarily a guide to what happens on the ground.

But, as we noted, biased rhetoric tends to legitimate biased practices. Indeed, biased rhetoric is likely to reflect the biases of the people who produce it.

One can see why leftists in education schools would want an ideological litmus test for teachers. One of the reasons they so strongly oppose school choice, of course, is that they view the public schools as a vehicle for indoctrinating future generations into what they consider to be “enlightened” and “progressive” attitudes.

Which is all the more reason for parents to favor school choice. In a competitve market for teachers, education school credentials are not very highly valued, which is all to the good.