LAC mistake for a conservative kid?

Parents Forum
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<p>Getting back to the OP, I think the dichotomy should be expressed as leftist vs. open-minded, not liberal vs. conservative. I’ve tried to raise this issue a few times before (see the Macalester board, for example) and it’s amazing how the leftists on this board just don’t get it. In our case, we never asked for tips on conservative colleges, only colleges where different points of view are accepted, even encouraged.</p>

<p>In short, the leftists can’t conceive of such a place. They seem to think that the only thing you can do when you hear something you disagree with is to shout it down. So obviously we want a conservative college.</p>

<p>And getting back to the OP question, the answer is NO. Not if he wants to learn poetry in a poetry class, anatomy in an anatomy class, and have his point of view respected.</p>

<p>BTW, we just toured Pomona, with an open mind of course. Within a five minute conversation, one of the student guides said two unbelievably stupid things about politics - she’s a political science major. She has clearly not learned to think critically during her time at Pomona. Can she spout the party line? No doubt about it. But I doubt that her thinking has improved a bit since she left high school.</p>

<p>I advice you to consider the larger universities. Good luck.</p>

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<p>I found out recently that the LAC my son graduated from last year had William Ayers as a visiting professor a few years back. As much as I am grateful for the excellent education he received and the amazing students he had as classmates and the wonderful opportunities he had, if I had known that in advance we would have chosen another school. I am still not over it.</p>

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<p>Gay ppl are american citizens, so by virtue they have all the same protection under the law so what are people complaining about.</p>

<p>I assume you haven’t taken American government yet- while it is illegal under federal statues, to discriminate by religion, age or race, it is not illegal to discriminate by sexual orientation.</p>

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<p>i don’t get it. A hundred and eighty posts during which conservatives introduced many (if not most) of the topics and what I’m hearing is that you guys still feel like no one listens to you! :)</p>

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<p>haha, johnwesley. this thread is fun;-)</p>

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<p>Since we are mentioning specific schools, I took almost 10 humanities classes at MIT and the profs never pushed or proselytized their political views. In retrospect, there were some times where religion and politics may have been discussed when relevant but that is not what this thread is about. For example, in anthropology I remember watching a movie about transgender people and in lit. class the prof mentioned that Catholicism was more incompatible with intellectualism with respect to Protestantism in the late 1700’s, which was relevant because we were reading literature from that time period. It certainly didn’t bother me or anyone else. Of course, I’m not a social conservative. And more importantly, they weren’t going off on a rant; it was relevant to the subject matter.</p>

<p>Incidentally, there was a mock election in 2000 at MIT between all the major candidates, and Republican John McCain won over Al Gore and George W. Bush. So I think it’s fair to say that MIT is a fairly centrist place that may in fact lean a bit right. This would oppose numerous posts that any elite institution has an overwhelming majority of liberals because liberals are by definition more intellectual. (And by extension, the majority of liberal positions are inherently more logical so any intellectual would naturally end up being a liberal.) I think the student bodies at Duke and Northwestern a probably pretty centrist, too.</p>

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<p>emeraldkity4; I assume you FAILED American Government. Have you never heard of a Hate Crime? Have you even heard of the Mathew Shepherd case? Discriminating against sexual orientation has been prosecuted.</p>

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<p>Actually afadad, I have never TAKEN american government.</p>

<p>While I recognize that various states can pass ( and have) legislation barring discrimination- that fact remains that the law of the land makes it legal to discriminate against taxpayers who identify as GLBT in housing, employment and health care.</p>

<p>( and just as the death penalty doesn’t seem much of a deterrent, is it much solace to Matthew Shepard or his parents that his name is so familiar to us? )</p>

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<p>getting back to OP, I stand by my earlier point that someone who still has several years to go before graduating high school, is likely to grow quite a bit in his perspective and focusing too much on perceptions of profs or students at specific colleges will take energy away from supporting his education in high school.</p>

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<p>Afadad, you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. There is no federal hate crimes law protecting LGBT people. There is no federal law protecting LGBT people against discrimination in employment, housing, or public accommodations. (That’s what ENDA would accomplish with respect to employment discrimination, if it ever becomes law. And if it includes protection for trans people, which is very much up in the air.) Some states and cities have their own laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination in employment and/or housing and/or public accommodations. Not even close to all states. Even fewer jurisdictions prohibit discrimination against trans people.</p>

<p>It is also, for the most part, entirely OK for health insurers to discriminate against LGBT people (particularly trans people) in terms of exclusions from coverage for necessary medical treatment. </p>

<p>Please don’t insult other members while displaying your ignorance. You only succeed in embarrassing yourself.</p>

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<p>Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Yes, I know you said that it’s a generalization. It’s still making me laugh, because the people I know who burst blood vessels when talking politics are several conservative friends. </p>

<p>Surely I’m not the only parent of whatever political stripe who feels it’s my duty to play devil’s advocate at the dinner table? The spouse and I will take whatever our kids say, and argue the other side.</p>

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<p>HeartArt,</p>

<p>Get over yourself. William Ayers was a political activist and nothing more. He was simply making a statement - he never intended to hurt anyone.</p>

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<p>OP - might Davidson College - a well respected LAC but not Northeast and much more conservative in nature - be something to consider?</p>

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<p>“Get over yourself. William Ayers was a political activist and nothing more. He was simply making a statement - he never intended to hurt anyone.”</p>

<p>I hope this was a joke…because if not, that might be the dumbest post I’ve ever read on a message board.</p>

195

<p>Greetings OP! First I have to admit that I skipped over the last few pages, interesting though the philosophical and political discussions have been. So please excuse if I repeat others’ suggestions.</p>

<p>I wanted to return to the nitty gritty a bit…</p>

<p>First, I’m a liberal professor who teaches in a fairly centrist environment. I always tell my students they don’t have to agree with me when we have “political” discussions (which isn’t too often). And some of my favorite exchanges have been with my more conservative students. I think my pedagogical stance is fairly typical at my institution, and probably at most institutions. We don’t have ANY physics teachers that teach social activism in class (something recently discussed in a NYT op-ed on academic freedom).</p>

<p>I agree with all of the posters re: the importance of students expanding their horizons, whatever that might mean for them. But I likewise don’t think it’s much fun to be the odd man/woman out. So your S probably shouldn’t consider places like Wesleyan, Bard, Wheaton (MA), Sarah Lawrence, etc. </p>

<p>Catholic colleges in the NE are definitely worth a look. (Note that some are more conservative and/or more Catholic than others.) A combo of Holy Cross, Boston College, Providence, Villanova, Merrimack, Stonehill, St. Michael’s (Vt), St. Anselm would be a good starting point for him, depending on his stats.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>I like your list…thanks for the input</p>

197

<p>

You don’t build bombs for any other reason. Especially ones with nails in them.</p>

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<p>YankeeBelle (and others): The statement in my post “Organizations that do not permit full participation by homosexuals who are out are not welcome, period” was intended to summarize Harvard’s and Yale’s positions, not necessarily to express my own. Personally, I am ambivalent about ROTC on campus – there are huge benefits, but I understand the power of the anti-discrimination issue.</p>

<p>Someone else mentioned the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts have all kinds of problems because of their policy on homosexuality. Here in Philadelphia, the city has stopped providing them with rent-free use of a public building because of it, and I think the local United Way kicked them out of its campaign. Again, I feel really ambivalent about that. In general, the Boy Scouts is a great organization, but I find its policy deeply offensive.</p>

<p>Transitional times are always tough. You don’t get change on social discrimination unless people start to push back on it, but that always creates the problem of overemphasizing one problem at the expense of all kinds of other good things an institution may do. If the Boy Scouts or the Army still segregated on the basis of race, as they both once did, I doubt many of us would question that they ought to be treated as pariahs for that.</p>

<p>Anyway, for you conservatives, what exactly is your response to the following position?: “As an educational institution, the University has a deep commitment to equal educational opportunity for all of its students, and for creating and maintaining an atmosphere where students are free to explore their own identities and to express their ideas freely without reprisal. For that reason, the University does not endorse, and does not allow University facilities to be used, by any organization that excludes a meaningful category of our students from participation, or that restricts students’ self-expression in a meaningful way. The University also recognize students’ right to associate with others, even when those associations may be, in part, inimical to the University’s principles described above. It does not prohibit or punish such associations, but insists that they be sustained without University support.” I think that’s pretty close to what the Yale etc. policy is.</p>

<p>And, Dbate, what I meant by living gay rights on a day-to-day basis is not just that people live their lives as out homosexuals. It’s that they feel entitled to get offended if someone denigrates them for that, and to call on social support from the rest of the community for that position – just as African-Americans can feel offended if someone says they are inferior to people of un-color, and they can call on community support to denounce that.</p>

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<p>Jeepers, we’re back to William Ayers? It would be nice if some of you folks who are still interested in him would acknowledge that a few months ago you perhaps overestimated his relationship with our now-President. Anyway, zoosermom, that nail-bomb troubles me, too, and I have never understood why those people were building it – it was very uncharacteristic of them. But when they were building it, Ayers was on the other side of the country and had been mostly out of communication with them for a few months. There’s no evidence he was involved in that.</p>

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<p>Hi again.</p>

<p>I thought of two more good schools that should probably be on that list: Trinity and Fairfield, both in CT.</p>

<p>As I noted earlier, you can narrow down the list depending on his stats. But also, depending on his interests. For example, if he is interested in business or engineering some of these schools would make more sense than others.</p>