Teachers' Dispositions

In a thinly veiled program to blatantly discriminate against future teachers based upon their personal conservatism, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) specifies that prospective teachers should be judged by their "knowledge, skills, and dispositions." Although seeming harmless, the dispositions sought in evaluating future teachers are strong prerequisite beliefs in social liberalism. Those that believe otherwise are denied admission or, if already enrolled, academic advancement.

In USNews.com, John Leo writes:

NCATE vehemently denies that it is imposing groupthink, but the ed schools, essentially a liberal monoculture, use dispositions theory to require support for diversity and a culturally left agenda, including opposition to what the schools sometimes call "institutional racism, classism, and heterosexism."

Students are strongly pressured to conform with dissent considered dangerous. In one example at the Brooklyn College School of Education, five students filed written complaints regarding overt leftism in the classroom and received no formal reply. Instead:

One was told to leave the school and take an equivalent course at a community college. Two of the complaining students were then accused of plagiarism and marked down one letter grade. The two were refused permission to bring a witness, a tape recorder, or a lawyer to meet with a dean to discuss the matter.

K. C. Johnson, a history professor at the school who defended the dissenting students, became a target himself. After writing an article in Inside Higher Ed attacking dispositions theory as a form of mind control, Johnson faced a possible investigation by a faculty Integrity Committee.

Only after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) got involved did the college disavow a secret investigation.

Read John Leo's piece for more examples and discussion. Also check out Betsy's Page for her thoughts on dispositions.

My reaction to the issue is a total lack of surprise. I've seen it during my own experience in college. There is more than sufficient empirical evidence attesting to the fact that academia is infested with mind-numbed leftists and it sure did not get that way by allowing dissent in the classroom. Academia needs the bright light of truth directed upon it.