The University of Alabama College of Re-Education

In light of the University of Alabama's pending request for significant increases in tuition, this seems like a good time to mention a few of the ways in which UA spends (or rather, mis-spends) the vast sums of money it receives from students, parents, and the state's taxpayers.

First off, let's consider the College of Education. Back in February, the American Enterprise Institute's Frederick M. Hess wrote a column for the Washington Post (registration required...you might try this link instead) in which he noted the following about the UA College of Education:

For those who have been troubled by the tendency of universities to adopt campus speech codes, a worrisome new fad is rearing its head in the nation's schools of education. Stirred by professional opinion and accreditation pressures, teachers colleges have begun to regulate the dispositions and beliefs of those who would teach in our nation's classrooms.

At the University of Alabama, the College of Education explains that it is "committed to preparing individuals to promote social justice, to be change agents, and to recognize individual and institutionalized racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism." To promote its agenda, part of the program's self-proclaimed mission is to train teachers to "develop anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-sexist . . . alliances."

George Will mentioned the same thing in a column he wrote back in January:

In 2002 the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education declared that a "professional disposition" is "guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice." Regarding that last, the Chronicle reports that the University of Alabama's College of Education proclaims itself "committed to preparing individuals to"—what? "Read, write and reason"? No, "to promote social justice, to be change agents, and to recognize individual and institutionalized racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism," and to "break silences" about those things and "develop anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-sexist community [sic] and alliances."

Funny...I always thought that Colleges of Education existed to teach prospective teachers how to teach. I guess I'm behind the times. If anyone thinks that the University of Alabama has somehow managed to buck the latest campus trend of actively promoting a leftist agenda and disguising it as scholarship, think again.

Here's the full UA COE statement that Will and Hess referred to, straight from the UA College of Education web site. Read it and weep:

The College of Education is committed to honoring diversity, respecting difference, and promoting social justice. Many problems and issues confronting professionals lie beyond the classroom or clinic. An understanding of the larger social, political, cultural, and economic influences and reflecting upon this complexity is necessary. Inquiring about the knowledge base(s) for practice requires seeking the participation from other knowledge communities and sharing power in decisions that affect them. The College acknowledges and celebrates the diversity that exists in educational settings and considers it as particular source of strength and possibility rather than an obstruction to normal practice (Banks, 1993; Dilworth, 1992; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Valencia, 1997).

The College of Education regards color-blind approaches to educational service that ignore the race, gender, sexuality, disability, and class of students as inadequate for addressing contemporary inequities (Giroux, 1994; Kivel, 1996; Linn, 1993) and recognizes several levels at which it prepares its students to celebrate diversity, respect difference, and promote social justice. The College of Education conceptualizes the promotion of social justice in an education setting as an issue of prejudice reduction and equitable service to individuals (Banks, 1993) with attention to the social and historical roots of cultural difference and emphases on empowering members of marginalized communities in decision making.

The College of Education is committed to preparing individuals to promote social justice, to be change agents, and to recognize individual and institutionalized racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism (Abelove, 1993; Fine, 1993; Fordham, 1996; Post, 1998). It includes educating individuals to break silences about these issues, propose solutions, provide leadership, and develop anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-sexist community and alliances.

I'm an alumnus of the University of Alabama, and I love it dearly, but until this kind of political propagandizing comes to an end, I say: don't give the University another dime. The people of Alabama don't go to work everyday so that their tax dollars can be spent teaching future educators how to "promote social justice." If UA faculty and administrators honestly believe that the production and promotion of this drivel is a part of their job descriptions, then perhaps they should seek employment elsewhere. I hear the Alabama Democratic Party is taking applications.