The High Cost of Dumbing Down

A troubling piece in today's USA Today shows that 1 in 3 US High School students (gov't schools, of course) believe that the press should be more restricted and government should approve newspapers before readers see them. Wonder how they feel about the 2nd amendment?

Then there's this:

In case you're under the false impression that academia is about the free exchange of ideas, think again. Hat tip to Jack Mercer at News Snipet, for this: LeMoyne expels man over paper because the paper didn't fit the college template:

While students are guaranteed the freedom of speech, LeMoyne College's recent actions against a student have raised questions of whether or not academic papers are the place to exercise this right.

LeMoyne College expelled Scott McConnell, a student from its Masters of Education program, for writing a paper in which he advocated the use of corporal punishment in schools, he said.

The paper, written for a class on classroom management, originally earned McConnell an A-. However, when he attempted to enroll in classes for the spring semester, he found he couldn't.

"LeMoyne doesn't believe students should be able to express their own views," McConnell said. "If you differ from our philosophical ideal you will be expelled from our college."