Academic Bill of Restrictions Sample Op-Ed

For me, learning at school is all about the free exchange of ideas. I like dialogue and debate in the classroom - people share new ideas, figure things out, propose new theories. I pay for a college education that challenges me and gives them the freedom to say, think and debate anything and everything.

That's why I'm fed up with people like David Horowitz and his cronies that only want to hear what they preach - even in the classroom. Their latest censorship proposal, the so called "Academic Bill of Rights", tries to restrict the any learning on campus - unless it's learning about something that David Horowitz agrees with.

I don't know about you, but I don't need some nanny to tell me what I should or shouldn't learn - I can figure it out for myself. Horowitz's Bill of Restrictions is based on the assumption that students can't think for themselves, or worse, it assumes that we should only learn things that everyone agrees with - 1+1=2, e=mc² -- which is fine if you want to be a robot, but I want to be a student, and I want to learn.

Most of us students are smarter than Horowitz gives us credit for. A few comments about politics aren't going to stop me from understanding organic chemistry and, by the way, I'm not so weak willed that an atheist English professor will get me to leave my religion. Instead of protecting students, ABOR restricts our ability to learn by try to restrict people from talking about anything important.

OK, you might say, surely there's some problem - why is Horowitz so upset? Well, he's mostly upset because some people in academia just don't buy every one of his arguments. It seems like his student followers are looking for the same thing - endorsements of their own opinions, no matter how wacky or extreme. Here's an example:

"[the professor] Talked about flags as symbols of states and argued that new Iraqi flag was not a result of a transparent and fair process. Argued AS FACT that new flag had similar colors to Israeli flag and that this could be problematic. Claimed AS FACT that other Arab societies had red, green and black in their flags. Very biased. Had no visual proof of this."

Enough said.

The Academic Bill of Restrictions is not about protecting conservative students from indoctrination or stopping a professor from giving a lower grade because of someone's politics. Rather, it's about silencing debate and removing politics from the classroom. It's about sacrificing our education in favor of Mr. Horowitz's political agenda. And while I know Horowitz hates to hear this - no one needs his protection, we're fine as we are. Thanks, though.