I love Fox News. Not because I am wildly entertained or believe in everything they tout. Tucker Carlson, who I religiously watch, is full of crap half the time. I watch them because I always great books to read. And I have just finished one on Audible. The book is The Diversity Delusion by Heather MacDonald.

In a nutshell, the book is about how our education system sacrificed education of our youth for the need to put diversity into the curriculem. Instead of making a priority of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Dante, the Bible, St. Thomas Aquines, Freud, Chaucer, Bronte amongst thousands of others, our schools have decided to that the need for diversity (between races, religions and gender identity) far outweighs the need for art, especially when it comes to the promotion of Western Civilization.

This book really had an impact on me. Not because of the the seven hours of information (I knew a lot of that already) but because of the thirty minutes of analysis.

The book was broken into three parts. The first part was about how are students are behaving today. This goes over the snowflake generation. How our youth, especially the millineals and later generations, fight the discussions over anything they decide not to believe in. It starts with what happen right after my generation was in college and high school. Though the education system was alreay liberal, I could still argue with my instructors when I did not agree (though, being immature, I lost mostof the time) without any fear of repracussions. But, as the teachers got older and were replaced with far more radical teachers and as the lower grade levels were being indoctrinated into the school system, the conservative or inquisitive began to suffer retaliation.

This part goes through some extreme examples of the snowflakes fighting “the man.” It shows how nothing was off the table, how careers of great teachers were ruined and how our children just became more demanding and never learned how to deal with life. It also showed how diversity manipulated major do that something like Lesbian Dance Theory would become a legitimate major as opposed to math and science.

The second part of the book dealt with how the colleges dealt with this metamorphisis with the new generations of the college students.

They didn’t. In fact, they enabled behavior.

Teachers, who had become a minority compared to most administrations, were disciplined, fired or force to quit whenever  they said something that offended the snowflakes. Students would protest and even become violent when conservative speakers would show up to campus. Faculty was required to go the diversity and implicit bias training.

The final part of the book dealt with the ever-expanding administations which required diversity committees, investigative committees searching and investigating bias, racism and sexual harassment and assault (I always thought the last was suppose to involve law enforcement but nope). The additional administration for these useless departments cost the state billions of dollars they did not have.

And with all this waste, who suffered? Teachers must now measure their curriculum for fear of hurting feelings. The students lose the education they need to have a critical mind that will give them the ability to see many points of view  and question the reasons for those view .

But the worst loss for the students is the hiding of art because it may make some students uncomfortable or the artist might be the wrong race or gender. Artists like Plato, Aristotle, Twain, Mozart and Beethoven are rejected because of their race and are replaced African American history, gender studies and diversity education. The history of Western Civilization and being replaced and forgotten with our students learning how bad it is. Is it a wonder most Harvard students can’t pass the standard citizen test or recite the Pledge of Allegiance?

But, worse, it is not only the soft sciences that are being attacked but the hard sciences such as math, biology, chemistry and physics. The hard sciences require aptitude. I can never be a mathematician because I am just not good enough in math. There’s nothing wrong with it, I’m just nut great in math. The problem the social justice warriors are seeing is there are not enough blacks, women and transgenders in the hard sciences. So, the colleges, in order to be diverse, are lowering their standards for minorities so that more of them can be in these programs. Forget that most who are accepted based on these lower standards usually do not make it through the programs and that another minority, Asians, are losing spots to other minorities. Forget that some of the hard sciences, like medicine, require the competition for the best because these people will be operating on people in the future.

It’s just disgusting.

The last two chapters in the book I have mentioned already. They had the most impact and were also the shortest.

All the arguments McDonald made I have heard before. But her last argument was the best. Our student lose. Our young people, the ones who are going to lead our country will know nothing about it. They won’t know about the telios of Greek reason. They will not know about the moral purpose of Judeo Christian philosophy. They will not know the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas that brought the two philosophies together. They will not be able to critically read Neitsche, Marx, the Constitution or The Federalist Papers. They won’t know the beauty of Bach, The Beatles, Elvis, DaVinci, Picaso or Van Gogh because they are white and not worth celebrating.

It’s sad. It’s also reason we need to be far more involved in our children’s educations. We cannot trust the government to raise our kids for us not matter how convenient it will be.

 

Criticism

I have read several books about how the minds of our children are being molded because parents have entrusted the public school system to teach their children. This book should be the second in a two volume series.

There is a book called The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. This book, though not as entertaining as McDonald’s book, shows the economic motivations of colleges. They believe colleges have become nothing more than for-profit corporations and students have become customers. And, you know what corporations say about the customers: the customer is always right. Behavior like this is, not only acceptable, but encouraged and seen as a growing, independent mind. Watch:

This amazing scene at at Yale University and the professor being threatened and yelled at is a tenured professor who has dozens of published studies. And this renowned Sociology professor, along with his wife who is also a teacher at Yale, are being threatened and yelled at by these snot-nosed teenagers because he sent an E-mail to the students stating that the students should be able to wear any Halloween costume that they want.

Let me repeat this: These are Yale students yelling at a tenured Yale professor because he sent an E-mail saying students should wear whatever Halloween costume they want!

Not only were these students not disciplined, the professors were threatened and almost forced to quit. It was only because of the publicity that this show got that gave the professors the bravery to continue on. Even the Left thought that this was a really poor and immature showing by the children. Bill Mahr, far from a Conservative, blasted these kids.

But this is what the system has supported and tolerates. Schools do not discipline their students anymore whether it be for disciplinary problems or bad grades. It is not not “if” I get my degree, it’s “when.” There are no articles of decorum. Do you think I would be able to talk to one of my professors like that at Cal State Northridge?

Anyway, back to The Diversity Dellusion. MacDonald’s book is far more entertaining and, honestly, sad than The Coddling of the American Mind. Unlike the former, Coddling rips on the structure and greed of the universities. It really does a good job analyzing how universities have changed and the expectation of the students that attend them. But it does not really do a deep dive on how the students are permanently affected.

MAcDonald’s book goes at the actions the universities execute and how our children are affected. MacDonald’s book is also written by a journalist not academics. So the writing, though less informational, is far more compelling and readable.

Both books are valuable to understanding the educational system and should be read together. The books together will give the readers a great look at the state of our universities.