What a bargain: At a cost of a mere $100,000 or so, a northeastern college can take your child and transform him into a delicate flower incapable of handling opinions at odds with his own. It can close his mind and vacuum-seal it against opposing views. And it can, as a bonus, perhaps make him rude and incorrigible...
Hmmm. Now that you put it that way...
As Mr. Lowry points out, a few professors are behaving just as badly as the grandstanding students. Which hardly recommends them as teachers...
(hat tip: The Paragraph Farmer)
I would mention that I doubt that commencement crowds are always as idiotic and up-in-arms as portrayed in the media, which might (possibly, sometimes) be emphasizing or even exaggerating whatever leftist outrage is on display at this year's ceremonies, at least those featuring anything but far-left speakers. (No! Some people in the press playing up loud and/or otherwise dramatic disapproval of conservatives, moderates, and/or traditional values? Since when?) Compare, for instance, the newspaper article and the video from the commencement at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota ("At St. Thomas, a sour ending," by Paul Tosto, Pioneer Press, May 23, 2006. Video link provided with the article.)
Related: Joseph Knippenberg is discussing this issue over at No Left Turns. He's asking readers what they think of the St. Thomas commencement speech and the reaction to it, amongst other things.
I guess I'm showing my age, but what the press loved to cover back in my college days were streakers. From the media coverage, you could be excused for thinking there were people running around sans clothes just all over the place, with no graduation complete without at least one. (Actually, we did have a streaker at our school. But not at graduation, that I recall. We thought streakers were silly, grandstanding fools, but basically harmless. At any rate, it was hard to take them seriously. It was funny, though -- back in my day, if a guy ran around making a spectacle of himself like that, it seriously cut back on the number of good girls available for dates from then on out. Back in my day, more of us girls had a little self-respect, thanks, at least where I went to school...)
Previous related post: John McCain's New School commencement speech
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