UNC Reading Assignment Draws Criticism Again

[NYYFan]

Last year it was a book about Islam, this year, it's political.

*snip*
The book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, is being protested by a student group, the Committee for a Better Carolina.

This year's book selection chronicles the experiences of its author, who traveled to three U.S. cities and worked low-paying jobs as a waitress, cleaning woman, nursing home assistant and Wal-Mart employee.

The student committee said that the book has a liberal bias and presents a radical perspective of the U.S. economy.

More:
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031769995374&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099

[SCDem]

1. What next!!

Now we can't read things that have a liberal bias....UNC is a great school but unfortunately it is in the South right down the road from VA and Liberty University where Falwell decides what the students should read.

[Dirty Hippie]

4. BTW

UNC has campuses all over NC. The book is assigned reading for all of them.

[Orangepeel]

2. sigh.

What a bunch of narrow minded fools! What the hell do they think that DISCUSSION is about?

Besides, somewhere on campus, I'm sure there's a professor who assigned Wealth of Nations. :eyes:

[justicebuilder]

11. You should read Wealth of Nations again

It's got a shocking liberal bias too. If it were published today Smith would be considered a crazed anticorporate Marxist. Republicans are always referring to it, but they either haven't read it or they read like Dubya - searching for handy bits to use in supporting ideas they already hold.

jb

[Orangepeel]

15. you're right. I should.

It has been a long time. As I think about it, I do remember something about regulation. Is not part of the function of the invisible hand to slap companies upside the head when they act in ways that go against the public good?

I should have used the title of something by Friedman instead, but nothing came to my mind immediately.

[DrGonzoLives]

22. They just like the word "capitalism"

They ignore everything else...you know, like free, unfettered access to the market of both goods and ideas...

[The Magistrate]

24. Well Said, Sir

Persons on the left have nothing to fear from Mr. Smith; persons on the right have generally not read his work, or they could not claim him as one of their own. The government regulation of the economy he inveighs against are those that would now be called corporate welfare: such things as subsidies and monopolies. He endorses items that would now be dubbed environmental regulation.

He argues at some length that higher wages are good for society, stating that working people are necessarily the largest portion of society, and it is nonsensical to argue that what benefits the largest proportion of a society can be injurious to the whole of it. He also favors the principle of progressive taxation, stating that those who benefit more from the social order, as the wealthy assuredly do, ought to bear a proportionately greater increment of its costs.

[Dirty Hippie]

3. Well... The sky is certainly falling

Imagine, a book that might give them college kids something to think about. I'm outraged.

Hello!!! If you don't want to be exposed to differing viewpoints, don't go to college.

Frankly, I never cared what my kid read. She can read "Treason" if she wants. Amazingly, I find that she can think for herself.

[Dhalgren]

5. That's the problem

They don't want people thinking for themselves. They are much harder to control and direct if they are too "thinky".

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Ooooh, I'm just so angry,

I can't even respond.

Such ignorance.

When I'm president, I'm gonna be calling every indivudal in groups like this and saying, "Hi - this is the president. I just want to let you know you're a loony idiot."

[DrGonzoLives]

7. But if it were a conservative bias

they wouldn't have a problem with it, of course, because we all know that those books are fair and balanced.

[Divernan]

8. Walmart - Connect the dots

Student group says Ehrenreich's book is overly critical of Wal-Mart and "WalMart does so many good things for the community."
Now check out JanMichael's post two up on the scroll from this post:
Why is Wal-mart giving $ten million to a school choice organization?"
So Walmart is doing good, big-time, for select conservative educational groups, not the whole community, and not the working people living at the edge of poverty, as depicted in Ehrenreich's book.

[oldcoot]

28. If these students think that Wal-Mart is so great,

perhaps they should consider working there after they graduate.

[classics]

9. The story headline should be..

Extremist students refuse to be educated, insist they by given only 'party approved' learning materials.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. Ah, yes!

Excellent title!

I could see the Onion using that one. Except, sadly, in this case it's real, not made up.

They really DON'T want to be educated, and want to be told what is "right" and what is "wrong", so they don't have to think.

Argh.

[OldSoldier]

23. Modern "university" = expensive trade school

I wouldn't be surprised if some university managed to convince the regional accreditation body that the result of four years on a campus that taught no humanities could be considered an "education." You'd get two sections of Business English and that would be it.

[oneighty]

12. Perhaps those students

do not wish to see what their future might be like.

180

[donsu]

13. the students must be goaded on by

non-student older adults like lobbyists for Wal-Mart, etc. Or the She Cheney that's always messing about with the universities.

[JitterbugPerfume]

14. what next ?

book burning?

[Dulcinea]

16. Horrors!

Could it be that the world's not one big conservative utopia?? Could it be that not everyone's the same?? GASP!! Imagine that!!

<sarcasm>

[the_sam]

17. The Myth of the PC University

First of all, I'll state that I don't believe there's such a thing as "political correctness". The term refers only to what once would've been called being polite and considerate. Republican strategists dreamed it up in order to divert people's attention to some non-issue.

I attend the University of Pittsburgh. I can honestly say that in my time there, I have never once witnessed an instance of "politcal correctness" gone astray. Yes, most professors are liberals. But they also generally respect freedom of thought and expression. Conservatives simply aren't the repressed minority on campuses they make themselves out to be. I suspect that if you investigated most claims of "political correctness" on campus, you'd find that reports have been exaggerated and/or taken out of context. (Writers: this would make a great topic for an article or book.)

The "PC university" claim serves the same purpose as the "liberal media" claim. That is, well-funded groups popularize the mostly false claims of a liberal bias on campus, creating the illusion that it really is a widespread phenomenon. Consequently, there's a drive to give conservatives more time and space to push their agenda -- more than they reasonably deserve.

This campaign against Ehrenreich's book is a perfect example of these tactics, the aim of which is to drive progressive thought from campus almost in entirety, just as it's been driven from the media and from Capitol Hill.

[Mithras61]

18. Ummm.... I read the book, and I failed to find

any bias at all. The book details what the life of the working poor is like and how they live on the wages being paid to them. If detailing what life is like under current minimum wage laws for the working poor is "liberal" then these folks have a lot of learning to do, since the working poor make up a HUGE segment of society.

I only hope that they get a clue before the revolution comes. That will likely be their only hope of survival.

[mbperrin]

36. Thanks for the correct comment!

I read it front to back and found just what you did - an accurate accounting of what it's like to work full time on minimum wage and still not have a decent standard of living!

It is quite nutty to claim any bias here at all.

And I should know - I was sleeping on a friend's couch ten years ago after starting all over again! Thank God for $50k in student loans - 2 degrees later, we're comfortable - not rich, but enough.

Her comments on WalMart matched what I find true of most retailers - they want you busy all the time, and there's always a mess to neaten up somewhere. And they really don't want you to do anything but what they tell you to do.

Maybe the little darlings will get a job at WalMart or Target or Taco Bell or you name it - it might just open their prissy little eyes!

[Nambe]

19. All books have the bias of the author.

If you don't like it, change classes or schools or get a job.

[Orangepeel]

21. or, dispute the author's points in the CLASS DISCUSSION!

these people need to go back to high school where they can memorize facts and bubble in answers on standardized testing forms. They aren't ready for college.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

20. i'm reading the book now and in imho it is right on the hot button of

what the common people (90%) have to deal with in the American job market of the bush economy

[study_war_no_more]

25. I am a custodian

at University of Minnesota and I also take classes part time. Its amazing what people don't understand about the working poor, except that they don't want to be in that situation.

[blondeatlast]

30. How many UNC students are LIVING it in college (Like you are

and I did). The genetically wealthy students would not have a chance against the waitresses, waiters, mechanics, custodians, and retail workers in a book discussion.


It's a shame, because this is rapidly becoming a non-fiction classic and a testament to this era.

[supernova]

26. You'll be happy to know

UNC students will be reading Nickled and Dimed anyway. Just like they read Approaching the Q'uran last year.

The legislature may control the purse strings to the UNC campuses, but by and large, they leave the teaching to the professionals.

These students won't get much more out of this than their 15 minutes of (undeserved) fame.

[FlaGranny]

27. Maybe, if they read it,

they will also get open eyes? Nah!!

[hotphlash]

29. WHAT BOOK BEST REPRESENTS THE 'OPPOSING' VIEW?

Bonfire of the Vanities?

What is the opposing view of THE QURAN:The Early Revelations? THE BIBLE? It sure is a shame these open minded UNC students don't have ANY access to the Bible.

[Orangepeel]

31. Made in America: The Sam Walton Story

;-)

[kainah]

32. Obviously, the real objection

is to anything that might get anyone to think about anything.

[Texan_Razorback]

33. A thought

I read this in a community college class and the whole class responded, very good book. Interesting that community college kids are more open to different ideas than big time university students.

[blondeatlast]

34. CC kids don't just read "Nickel and Dimed;" most of them live it.

If they were genetically wealthy, they would go to a private college or start at a university.

[lslaux]

35. The source of the objections

A full page ad objecting to the book, placed in today's Raleigh News and Observer, was sponsored by "The Committee for a Better Carolina". Web search revealed this group is a front for the Phillips Foundation, a publishing firm that has on its board the following persons: chairman of Eagle Publishing, Robert Novak, the chairman of Regnery Publishing, CEO of Focus on the Family and the Chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County California. The ad was typical right-wing propaganda. I'm proud that UNC in Chapel Hill selected this book and wrote the News and Observer to let them know that, and just who the real sponsors of the ad were.

[DemoTex]

37. I volunteer in a downtown Dallas soup kitchen, and I take issue with:

"The student committee said that the book has a liberal bias and presents a radical perspective of the U.S. economy."

Oh? Maybe Barbara Ehrenreich should have included a few chapters on how hard life is if you are a trust-fund yuppie in Highland Park, Texas. Balanced reporting and all that.

I read Nickel and Dimed, twice. It is so accurate, based on the stories I hear at the shelter, that it is heartbreaking. "Presents a radical perspective of the U.S. economy" my left-wing ass!