acroyear | on "academic freedom"

Conspiracy Theories 101 - New York Times:

All you have to do is remember that academic freedom is just that: the freedom to do an academic job without external interference. It is not the freedom to do other jobs, jobs you are neither trained for nor paid to perform. While there should be no restrictions on what can be taught — no list of interdicted ideas or topics — there should be an absolute restriction on appropriating the scene of teaching for partisan political ideals. Teachers who use the classroom to indoctrinate make the enterprise of higher education vulnerable to its critics and shortchange students in the guise of showing them the true way.

Parallel to "partisan political ideals" are those of religious views (which are currently partisan dividers, but don't have to be - BOTH parties have pandered to religion in schools on occasion and some Democratic Party policy makers are trying to see what allowances to the religious conservatives they can make to get the votes), particularly in the public school (K-12) world.