Protecting Students from Ideas

Via Christian Grantham, the Ohio GOP is trying to pass a state law that would punish university professors who "persistently introduc[e] controversial matter into the classroom or coursework that has no relation to their subject of study."

Very interesting. While this article interviews faculty and students at an Ohio university and finds various opinions on the role of personal beliefs in the classroom, in the final grafs it gets down to the heart and soul of the reasons for trying to stifle discussions:

The state senator who introduced S.B. 24, Larry A. Mumper, argued in a Jan. 27 Columbus Dispatch article that many professors undermine their students' values because "80 percent or so of them (professors) are Democrats, liberals or socialists or card-carrying Communists..." who are attempting to brainwash students.

In the Dispatch article, Mumper, R-Marion, added, "These are young minds that haven't had a chance to form their own opinions. Our colleges and universities are still filled with some of the '60s and '70s profs that were the anti-American group."

Mm hmm. In other words, our kids are too stupid to ward off the nefarious influence of these America-hating communist academics.

I have an idea, Ohio: close your institutions of higher learning. If they are the comprehensive anti-American brainwashing factories that Mr. Mumper asserts, then they represent a threat to national security. DHS should be notified and the faculties and administrations of Ohio's colleges and universities should be carefully screened to determine where their true loyalties lie. Those whose only goal in "teaching" is to create a new generation of America-hating, 9/11 loving terrorists should of course be prosecuted.

Once the de-America-hating-liberalification process is complete, you can reopen your schools under the banner, "New, improved, and 100% brainwashing free!"

Right?