March 31, 2026
For a long, long time young people have been encouraged to go to college. There, they could study and learn the important aspects of the career field they wanted to work in, and have four or more years of being in a wonderful positive learning atmosphere. Studying at the college level fostered personal growth, critical thinking, self-discipline, independence, important new and lasting relationships, and prepared graduates to earn more income than otherwise would be likely.
All of this led to a higher quality of life. In other words, it helped one become an adult with many important assets that otherwise might not be gained.
However, in more recent years, some changes have occurred that make college less of a possibility due to the very high costs, and due to other aspects, which many believe make it less desirable.
Many of us remember the campus and classrooms being places with differing ideas, and an attitude that supported the concept of being exposed to many different ideas. The only concepts that were addressed in class were those relevant to the particular subject, and were known and accepted theories and facts.
At many, perhaps most, colleges and universities today, that atmosphere has changed substantially. Some ideas are epted, while others are strongly discouraged.
The results of this change in academic attitude can be seen in areas such as news journalism, education at all levels, some legal areas, as well as other professions where things are now very different.
There are many who will deny that this trend exists, particularly those who practice it, and those who agree with that malpractice. And there are others who will defend this very different atmosphere, saying they are doing what must be done.
Jonathon Turley is a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School, a practicing attorney, legal analyst, respected legal authority, and author. In his job as a law professor, he has seen close up what is occurring today. In his book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, he addresses the changed atmosphere at colleges and universities.
In the chapter titled “Academic Orthodoxy and the Restoration of Free Speech in Higher Education” he first talks about “academics” and the “academy,” noting that today professors “often refer to ourselves as ‘academics’ and our profession as the ‘academy.’”
Dating back to 387 BCE, the “academus,” as it was known at the time, “would become the model for unbridled intellectual pursuit: the search for knowledge and understanding essential to human development. The most important element was protection for free inquiry. It provided a safe space where forbidden thoughts or ideas could be explored without fear.”
He also noted that the greatest danger to those “protections” was from within, and that same danger exists today. “We have watched as professors are targeted for expressing dissenting views on subjects ranging from systemic racism to police abuse to gender identification to climate change.” And he says that in such cases some professors even work to get the non-conformists among them suspended.
“Even law professors have supported shouting down speakers and barring others from campuses entirely because of their opposing views.”
“The extent of speech curtailment depends on the level of tolerance for opposing views at any given school. That level of tolerance appears to be dropping across the country.
“For academics, what was once a protected space for viewpoint diversity has become a place for enforced orthodoxy. Those who are accused of ‘harmful’ speech can be stripped of every cherished aspect of an intellectual life, including their academic positions.”
Professors who disagree with the prevailing concepts were once content to just be quiet, Turley explained. But today, that isn’t enough. Now, they must confess their shortcomings and pledge to repent.
Since Turley’s great book is about free speech, he doesn’t address how this attitude affects the day-to-day presentation of information in the classroom and student graduates that result from it.
With free speech and an atmosphere of competing ideas now dead on many campuses, is it any wonder that students are no longer presented an objective course of study, but instead receive an ideologically designed substitute?
Not surprisingly, the prevailing concepts among college academics are leftist favorites, such as DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), critical race theory, unfettered abortion, and the like.
In such an atmosphere the political neutrality and adherence to traditional methods considered necessary in some majors are no longer imperative, and integrity and professionalism are no longer important attributes for graduates.
There are still some unbiased news journalists and politically neutral news organizations, judges and prosecutors who adhere to the ideas of applying the laws equally and punishing criminals, teachers and schools that teach the traditional and approved curricula, and those who maintain the traditions in our culture that have built and maintained the United States of America into a unique and wonderful nation.
But seeking a college degree today in a respected and sought-after major can no longer be trusted to meet the high standards of days gone by. What one receives is too often a politically engineered replacement for an important and formerly respected field of study.
