"Liberal education" has become in many instances funding for indoctrination.

by Richard Upchurch- Although put forth as humor or hyperbole, State Sen Kerry Roberts' suggestion that funding "liberal education" has become in many instances funding for indoctrination of college students in leftist ideas and values rings true, in that it confirms the impressions and observations of many conservative or moderate parents who fear that their children are being indoctrinated rather than educated. 

Obviously the radicalized youth of the '60's and 70's have taken their places in our society, including positions as faculty, administrators and board members of many of our colleges and universities.  I believe there is validity in these parents' concerns. 

As Bob Dylan's classic song said, the times they are a-changin', indeed. Just as the word "liberal"may carry the new meaning of freedom from anything that hurts or offend us rather than its old meaning of freedom to understand and to act, so there has emerged a sharp divide in ideas of what liberal education is. The newer idea of liberalism, and of liberal education, is that knowledge and skills are valuable primarily as helping us to change the world in ways thought to eliminate inequality and injustice. The older idea of liberalism, and also of liberal education, is that the young should be "led out" (this being the derivation of the word "education") from some of the limitations of their particular time and place by learning the variety and richness of human experience through all of history, by reading and learning to discuss the best of what has been thought, discovered, imagined and passed along to our own generation.

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