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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 year

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By: Ryan Hall

Published: Dec 13, 2022

Earlier this year, I was fired by Western Kentucky University after I canceled my classes to protest the bias and politicization happening on campus and in the classroom.

In the last year, students had repeatedly admitted to me that they simply ape their professors' politics to get through their coursework, and to avoid confrontation or grading bias. They also told me that they put little time into general education classes—particularly the humanities—because they felt that the faculty politicized their course material. In the Fall 2021 semester, a lengthy discussion with a perceptive undergraduate student highlighted the danger of universities promoting partisan ideas and politics. He pointed out that many students resent the biased teaching they were getting, and increasingly see the humanities and general education as not simply irrelevant but dishonest. Often, students aren't critiquing or grappling with ideas at all because rank partiality turns them away.

This claim troubles me profoundly, and I wish I could say I haven't witnessed its truth. But the reality is that many students feel that the university doesn't open their minds; instead, it shuts their mouths.

A 2020 study shows that, by a tremendous margin, students of all political persuasions report that college faculty express more liberal views in class. 64% of "very liberal" students reported being in a course that espoused liberal perspectives "frequently" or "all of the time." Only 6% of the "very liberal" reported hearing conservative messaging frequently. These numbers are consistent with the other end of the spectrum, as 63% of the "very conservative" responders reported frequently hearing liberal messaging and only 12% heard from the right regularly.

In the same study, 85% of "very conservative" students in arts, humanities, and religion majors felt that they are not simply hearing the messages but feeling "pressured"—with all of the term's ugly, unethical connotations. And while the liberal bent of the humanities isn't news, the data also shows that "very conservative" students in health-related majors feel that same ideological pressure 65% of the time. Nearly 30% of "conservative students" in the health majors also report feeling pressured. These numbers suggest that faculty aren't just failing to maintain neutrality—they are actively proselytizing.

Other anecdotes from my recent classroom experiences suggest these numbers aren't anomalies. In many instances, my meetings with students turned to the challenges of navigating a highly politicized campus. A liberal, Christian drama student suggested her faith was tested from time to time by her aggressively woke professors and classmates. A nursing major recounted being denied a position in nursing school and feeling as if the essay requirement on diversity was ultimately to blame. A middle-aged former soldier returned to college only to find that, despite his service, he was regarded as an oppressor and regularly reminded of such. A management major of African descent was frustrated with their professors’ assumptions that everyone black was on board with identity politics.

I myself had begun to grow increasingly concerned with the consistent push of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) emails and the clear indications of partisanship all around me: colleagues who scoffed at dissenting scholars like John McWhorter and Jonathan Haidt; syllabi declaring that the Middle Ages were, indeed, "queer"; signs in the halls with references to racial justice and messaging referring to "antiracist work"; a barrage of "training" and daily emails from newly minted DEI sinecures. In one instance, the university’s DEI Team urged faculty to: "kick off your new year with the goal of gaining/creating a greater understanding of the intersections of race, power, privilege, supremacy, oppression, and equity." Such emails are now commonplace. It doesn't take much to see the overreach, and the students see it clearly.

Much of this is why many Americans are losing faith in the value of higher education. A 2019 Pew poll found that only half of Americans believe college is a positive for our nation. Nearly 40% believe colleges and universities actually have a negative effect. A 2021 Ipsos poll showed that white Republicans feel the least comfortable on our campuses—about which so-called "inclusion" advocates seem to care little. As the Overton Window has shifted leftward on campus these last years, Americans of all political backgrounds are questioning the use and cost of universities. Indeed, this was a trend before identity politics ascended as the raison d'être of academia, but it would be naïve to suggest that the recent shifts on American campuses aren't in part to blame for crashing enrollments and negative attitudes.

I hate that I must state this to forestall the obvious labels many will attach to me, but I am a liberal. I've never voted for a conservative in my life. On the contrary, I've spent a good deal of time rallying against them. I've donated significant time, money, and energy to liberal candidates and causes. Throughout my career, I have also embraced diversity and inclusion (as defined before our current zeitgeist). I was part of an international education company that recruited students from around the globe and placed them in schools in the U.S. and Canada. My work is responsible for the education of thousands of black, brown, Asian, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Atheist students from all over the globe. I have hired African American, Hispanic, and Asian Americans. I have fired many white people.

But I have always believed that one must be mindful of how tribalism can lead you to believe and do things that violate your principles. The recent shifts on our campuses have abandoned core liberal principles. I see racism being lauded as equality, and former defenders of free speech are now among the most censorious. “Liberal” means something wholly different to the latest batch of college administrators and education school graduates who have quickly declared new, hardly-examined rules by which we must all live.

The final incitement for my class cancellations was a meeting with the English department head, which I had requested to question the department’s messaging and address the student concerns. The department head confirmed that the department crafted public messages to support Ibram X. Kendi and other ideologically-aligned writers’ ideas, and that individuals in the department wanted to go beyond a simple affirmation that black lives matter and show support for the politics and political aspirations of the Black Lives Matter movement. The message ensures that the department will do "transformative anti-racist work," and the department head affirmed that this concept was intentionally selected as a call to action.

The confirmation that the university was endorsing these specific philosophies meant I couldn't continue to put my back into my lectures. I canceled my classes and agreed to a meeting with the dean. During that meeting, the university representatives assured me that the DEI messaging was general and neutral and that the Black Lives Matter statement in no way meant the people in the department supported these ideas. They told me that no meeting notes existed to document how the department crafted the messages, and none of the representatives could explain the process.

I asked how the university could, under the flag of "diversity," have possibly allowed one of the departments to link to a page collecting bail money for the same organization that recently bailed out Black Lives Matter member Quintez Brown after his attempted murder of a Jewish political candidate in Louisville, Kentucky? I implored them to closely look at the philosophies and actions the university was promoting in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion. After all, the WKU DEI plan acknowledges that there is "animus towards individuals holding viewpoints deemed socially or politically conservative." The evidence suggests that liberal positions have moved further to the left, arguably leaving a greater number falling into what academia deems “conservative,” and thus a target of this animus. I suggested that, in the emotional and dynamic period we've recently lived through, perhaps there had been some overreach.

I asked to see some movement on these issues before returning to my classroom.

The university fired me instead.

What motivated me to challenge the university, risk a two-decade-long academic career, and pen this very essay was a defense of classical liberalism—a defense of free speech and the principles of the Civil Rights Movement. I am asking universities to wake up to the fact that many students are uncomfortable and are not getting what they came to college to receive. Rather than finding campuses a place of analysis and debate, enlightenment and erudition, many students find themselves subject to shaming and inquisition. They find themselves treated not as sparks of knowledge ready to burst into flame, but rather as vessels to be filled with whatever political ideology motivates their professoriate.

The current path will not restore Americans' faith in higher education. To save it, we must speak up.

When institutions abandon the search for knowledge and truth in favor of proselytizing.

#Ryan Hall #corruption of education #higher education #ideological capture #ideological corruption #diversity equity and inclusion #diversity #equity #inclusion #Western Kentucky University #woke activism #woke #wokeism #cult of woke #wokeness as religion #virtue points #religion is a mental illness

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kevinnance · 1 year

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(Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green)

#Bowling Green #Western Kentucky University #architecture #classical columns #photographers on tumblr

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pigsofwku · 1 year

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Some pins I got.

And a sticker.

#december 10th 2022 #pin #button #aesthetic #wednesday #wednesday addams #wku #western kentucky university #big red #chihuahua #frog #dont talk to me or my son ever again #sticker #vinyl sticker

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4everbrookemarie · 6 months

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Black Girl Magic! I love us for real real!!!

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acsn-network · 7 months

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#2023/2024 ncaaf season preview #conference usa #coastal carolina #jacksonville state #james madison #liberty #middle tennessee #sam houston state #utep football #western kentucky university

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springhayes · 9 months

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This is where that piece of trash wanted to see me and I think that I know how she got murdered but I don’t care

John why are they always trying to say that Stephanie and you were going to be a thing?

I said, gonna be a thing

Isn’t that so petty when you know that I walk circles around that piece of trash everybody knows that even the nurse in Bowling Green

So you decided to throw away a good friend for a paedophile because she had a BS degree

And how many penises did she suck?

Exactly you told on her they all did and she knows that I know this

Stephanie, you are supposed to be caught when you suck a dick for a grade and I have never done that in my whole life

So what is that degree worth? Stephanie you’re incompetent

Although that’s mark’s pathetic excuse because Mark wants to say that he’s not that guilty

I’m using the word incompetent but to be honest with you Mark should have realized by now he’s going to be killed it’s not that you hurt any of those patients out of incompetence you’re just a piece of trash but maybe you really are that stupid Mark just like the way that you couldn’t even get me to the front door of the place I needed to go because you’re retarded

Mark and Stephanie can’t have a high quality of life knowing that they are going to be murdered and that there’s no way around it

And there’s not a way around it too many people already know

Even if these doctors should let me die, you’re still gonna be killed

No Z.

And I promise you generation Z if I catch that shit from any of you directly it’s gonna be really fucking bad because you’re still kids and I can fuck you up in the head and if you hurt my technology, I will

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gamma-xi-delta · 2 years

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youtube

WKU Alpha Xi Delta Recruitment Video 2022

Published by Alpha Xi Delta WKU

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readyforevolution · 4 months

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JACK DANIELS HOLSCLAW (1918-1998)

Tuskegee Airman Jack Daniels Holsclaw was born in Spokane, Washington, on March 21, 1918. His father, Charles, was a clerk in a downtown store, and his mother, Nell, was a manager at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. Holsclaw attended North Central High School in Spokane, where he excelled both academically and athletically. When he was 15, he became the first black person in Spokane to earn the Eagle Scout badge.

Holsclaw entered Whitworth College in 1935 but transferred to Washington State College (now Washington State University) in 1936 to play baseball. Beginning in his junior year, he played center field and helped the Cougars finish as co-champions of the Northern Division, Pacific Coast Conference. He was the second African American earn a varsity letter in baseball at the college.

In 1939, Holsclaw transferred to a chiropractic program at Western States College in Portland, Oregon, where he met his wife, Bernice Williams. They had one son, Glen. Holsclaw completed the chiropractic program in 1942 and passed the Oregon state board examination.

While there, he enrolled in a government sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program at Multnomah College and earned his pilot’s license. On October 5, 1942, he enlisted in the army as a private and entered flight school, training at Tuskegee Army Airfield, Alabama. After completing his training, he received his wings and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on July 28, 1943. Lieutenant Holsclaw received advanced training at Selfridge Field near Detroit, Michigan before his squadron was shipped to Italy in December 1943.

Lieutenant Holsclaw flew in the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332d Fighter Group, an all-black pursuit squadron. Holsclaw named his favorite P-51 “Bernice Baby” in honor of his wife. The 332d Fighter Group had distinctive red tails giving them the nickname “Red Tails.” The 332d Fighter Group escorted bombers on their runs over enemy territory, shielding them from German fighters. To the bomber crews that were protected by them they were the “Red Tail Angels.”

On July 18, 1944, in an aerial battle over Italy, Holsclaw shot down two German fighters. For this action he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. By December 1944, Holsclaw had completed 68 combat missions, nearing the limit of 70, when he became Assistant Operations Officer, an important administrative position that included aerial mission planning. In January 1945, Holsclaw was promoted to captain.

Captain Holsclaw returned to the United States in June 1945 to serve as assistant base operations officer at Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky. He served as an Air Force ROTC instructor at Tuskegee Institute and then Tennessee State College.

From 1954 to 1957, Holsclaw was assigned to Japan, and from May 1962 to the end of 1964, he served as chief of the training division, Sixth Air Force Reserve Region at Hamilton Air Force Base, California. He directed the preparation of two textbooks to guide incoming air force personnel. Holsclaw retired from the Air Force on December 31, 1964 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

From 1965 to 1973 Holsclaw served as a manager in the Marin County Housing Authority, California. In 1973, he and Bernice returned to Washington where Holsclaw joined the staff at the People’s National Bank in Bellevue. He remained there until his second retirement in 1983. He and Bernice took up residence in Arizona, where Jack Holsclaw died on April 7, 1998, at the age of 80.

In August 2019, the Jonas Babcock Chapter, NSDAR, dedicated a historical marker in the memory of Lt. Col. Holsclaw at the site of his childhood home in Spokane.

#jack holsclaw #blacktumblr #black history #black liberation #african history

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athleticperfection1 · 9 months

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Western Kentucky Soccer

#Western Kentucky University #Western Kentucky Hilltoppers #soccer girls #college soccer #athlete #female athletes #college athlete #college girl

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college-girls-blog · 1 year

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Kenlee Newcom

Western Kentucky University (WKU)

#Kenlee Newcom #Kenlee #Newcom #Western Kentucky University #WKU #blonde #selfie #dress #red dress

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coochiequeens · 5 months

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I'm usually opposed to the death penalty but this guy should face a firing squad.

By Anna Slatz December 5, 2023

CONTENT NOTICE: This article contains a graphic description of child sexual abuse involving an infant. Reader discretion is appreciated.

A trans-identified male in McCracken County, Kentucky is facing charges of child sexual abuse after reportedly molesting a baby in his care. Maria Childres, 25, had been employed as a daycare worker in Paducah, Kentucky when the abuse is said to have occurred.

Childres was arrested in February of this year after the Department of Community Based Services (DCBS) received an anonymous tip detailing an alleged incident of abuse that had occurred in November of 2022. The tip, reportedly written by one of Childres’ co-workers, accused him of making inappropriate comments towards an infant while changing the child’s diaper, and touching the baby inappropriately.

Maria Childres. Photo Source: FACEBOOK

Following the receipt of the DCBS report, Paducah Police went down to Explore Learning Academy, Childres’ place of employment, to investigate. They spoke with a witness who corroborated the details of the anonymous report, and spoke with the director of the Academy, who appeared to have been aware of Childers’ behavior with the baby. Despite knowing what had occurred, the director had only given him a “write up.”

Reduxx has obtained the citation from the Paducah Police Department detailing the complaint, in which Childres is referred to using “she/her” pronouns despite his legal sex being male.

According to the citation, Childres was confronted by another co-worker while he was changing the infant, who was concerned he was hurting her while wiping her genital area.

In response, Childres reportedly said “that was her clit area and she likes it. It just made her day.”

The witness police spoke with also stated that she saw Childres rub the baby’s vaginal area with his fingers while making the sickening remark.

Courtesy Paducah Police Department.

After being taken to the police station for questioning, Childres initially claimed he had not changed the infant’s diaper at all. He later admitted to having done so after an officer presented him with evidence in the form of a text that he had sent to the daycare’s director confirming the baby’s diaper had been changed.

Childres maintained that he had not made inappropriate comments or touched the baby sexually, and that he “often says things that are taken out of context.”

Childres was charged with first-degree sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 12, and has been housed in the McCracken County Jail since. There has been some confusion over the spelling of his last name, with the courts, police, and his social feeds having different spellings alternating between “Childers” and “Childres.” The Kentucky Court of Justice has the name spelled “Childres.”

According to his now-delated Facebook, Childres claims to have studied child development at The University of Arizona Global Campus, an online college which has come under accreditation concerns in recent years. A separate Facebook account also belonging to Childres has his gender listed as “female.”

After speaking with a clerk at the McCracken County Court of Justice, Reduxx has confirmed that Childres has privately retained a prominent transgender lawyer to defend him during upcoming hearings.

Leach holding the transgender pride flag.

Madison Leach, a male who began identifying as a “woman” six years ago, was the first openly transgender candidate to seek public office in western Kentucky when he ran as a Democrat for the Calloway County attorney seat. Leach recently decided to leave Kentucky over Senate Bill 150, which would make it optional for public school teachers to use a student’s preferred pronouns.

“This is kind of the cherry on top for me. The quality of life in New York is going to be better for me, and I think that a lot of parents of trans youth or other trans people are debating this in their head,” Leach said in March, stating that he was intending to eventually move his practice to New York.

Childres is scheduled for a pretrial conference this week, at which point he and Leach will enter a plea or negotiate a potential resolution with the prosecutors.

#usa #Kentucky #McCracken County #Paducah #Maria Childres is an abusive male #Department of Community Based Services (DCBS)#Dude hasn't even legally changed his sex and the pigs still call him her #NotOurCrimes

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kevinnance · 1 year

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(Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green)

#Bowling Green #Western Kentucky University #classroom #photography #photographers on tumblr

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shewhoworshipscarlin · 3 months

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Thomas Fountain Blue

Thomas Fountain Blue, the first African American to head a public library in the United States, was also a civic, educational, and religious leader. Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia, on March 6, 1866, to Noah Blue, a carpenter, and Henry Ann Crawley Blue. They were parents of two other children, Alice Blue and Charles Blue.

Blue enrolled in Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, in 1885 and graduated in 1888. In 1894, he enrolled in Richmond Theological Seminary (now Virginia Union University) in Richmond, Virginia, finishing in 1898 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. One week later, when the United States declared war on Spain after the sinking of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba, touching off the Spanish-American War, Blue joined the Sixth Virginia Volunteers battalion comprising African American soldiers and was stationed first in Camp Poland in Tennessee and later at Camp Haskell in Georgia.

In 1905, Blue was selected to lead the Western Branch Library of the Louisville Free Public Library on South 10th and Chestnut Street, the first Carnegie Library in the nation to serve African American patrons with an exclusively African American staff. The facility cost $31,024.31 to build and when completed had over 4,000 books and 53 periodicals.

In 1914, Blue opened Louisville’s second Carnegie Library for African Americans, the Eastern Branch Library. During World War I, Blue was drafted, left the branch, and was appointed the Education Secretary at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, one of sixteen national Army training camps created across the nation. Blue worked with Black troops who mostly had supporting and laboring roles in the United States.

After the war ended in 1918, Blue returned to Louisville, and a year later, in 1919, he was named head of the “Colored Department” for the city’s public library system and supervised eight African American assistants. The Colored Department was the first in the United States to have a staff which served multiple Black library branches.

In 1922, Blue was a presenter at the American Library Association Conference in Detroit, Michigan, where he gave a paper titled, “Training Class at the Western Colored Branch,” and led the subsequent discussion with the Negro Roundtable composed of other African American Library staffers from across the nation.

On June 18, 1925, Blue married Cornelia Phillips Johnson from Columbia, Tennessee, and they parented two children, Thomas Fountain Blue, Jr., and Charles Blue (named after his younger brother). Two years later, in 1927, Blue founded the Negro Library Conference and conducted its first meeting at Hampton Institute.

Later becoming a minister, Reverend Thomas Fountain Blue—who held membership in the American Library Association, the Special Committee of Colored Ministers of Louisville on Matters Interracial, and was a charter member of the Louisville Chapter of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—died on November 10, 1935, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 69.

At the 2003 joint conference of the American Library Association with the Canadian Library Association Annual Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Blue was posthumously honored when the organization passed a resolution recognizing his leadership in promoting professionalism among the staff of African American libraries across the United States. In 2022, a headstone honoring Blue and his wife, Cornelia Phillips Johnson, was placed at Eastern Cemetery in Louisville by the Frazier History Museum.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/thomas-fountain-blue-1866-1935/

#historical #black history month #library

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