Reaction Paper 2
Groupthink in the educational setting is a real serious issue. Academia has long been accused of it. The article “Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual” by Mark Bauerlein is an excellent piece in describing the existence of groupthink in the educational arena and communicating its effects to the reader. I selected this article as it directly impacts me as a student but more importantly the article brought up something relevant in life, that groupthink narrows our minds. The whole concept of higher education is to broaden our minds and to teach us to think critically. This article did a nice job describing how groupthink has taken root in our colleges and universities and …show more content…
It indicated a strong existence of Democratic or Green Party participants, 9 out of 10 instructors. If that is the case then there is inequality of diversity in educators. In order to have diversity in our educational system the ratio of liberal to conservative needs to be more balanced. Unfortunately there has been well-publicized discrimination against conservative professors. In researching this topic beyond this article, I found website after website of how conservative professors are the endangered species. Nothing could be more frightening. It has become a case where there is no freedom. This particular conflict is hurting our educational system and it is doing so much damage to our universities in the eyes of the world and our community that we face a problem of failing our young minds. The humanities are an example of a group that clashes with the views of the majority of Americans. This constant struggle could set us back to the point that it would take us many, many years to recover. Our professors all over the country who are professing to be on the right are feeling disenfranchised and that affects the students in the broad scope of things. Are the students learning to be critical thinkers and are they learning objectivity? No, they are not; they are only …show more content…
There must be balance, that a one-sided campus of either liberals or conservatives is bad for everyone. And the most relative quote of the whole article is that groupthink is anti-intellectual; it narrows one’s mind. How does this happen? According to the article, social science and humanities are the academics that shun conservative traditions and values and it is reflected in the curriculum of the two. So if the curricula and the hiring practice in these departments are liberal, conservatives are discouraged from pursuing academic careers in these areas. This happens mainly because of the subtle biases of the department. This becomes an indirect filtering process that starts in graduate school and keeps on through tenure and beyond. It is very clear that conservatives have a narrower chance for advancement, as any implication in the application process of a conservative view will halt the chances of upward mobility in