Stanford writing program accused of prioritizing ideology over core skills: 'Nonsense'

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Stanford writing program accused of prioritizing ideology over core skills: 'Nonsense'

Experts at Defending Education told Fox News Digital the curriculum should be 'revised'

Andrew Mark Miller Fox News

Published

January 6, 2026 4:25pm EST

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FIRST ON FOX: Stanford University is promoting required reading courses that incorporate anti-ICE sentiments, racial identity politics, and all-male drag shows, resulting in criticism from a leading education watchdog.

A writing requirement at the prestigious university, formally known as Stanford’s Writing and Rhetoric Requirement, mandates that students complete university-approved writing courses designed to teach critical thinking, research, and persuasive writing skills, but several of the writing courses that satisfy that requirement, first reported by Campus Reform, are raising eyebrows.

The courses contain names such as "Language, Identity, and Power" where students are instructed, according to the university’s website, to "explore this intersection across spheres such as politics, education, medicine, and media spaces, intertwined with forces like globalization, immigration, and the rapid development of new technologies."

"Our Future is Each Other: Collaborative Rhetorics" is another course offered by Stanford which features an essay "on the all-male ballet drag troupe, Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo" while promoting its lessons as text that will "engage with a diversity of cultural practices and rhetorics."

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Stanford, California: Stanford University Campus. ( Photo by David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images)

Defending Education, an education transparency advocate organization, told Fox News Digital the listed coursework shows changes must be made in higher education.

"It seems Stanford is joining many of its sister Ivies in taking the dumb way out: swapping rigorous pedagogy for social experimentation and a misplaced emphasis on identity politics and progressive pandering," Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president of Defending Education, told Fox News Digital.

"The Stanford Program in Writing and Rhetoric oversees a number of courses that are designed to fulfill a 'Writing and Rhetoric Requirement at Stanford,' something required for graduation. But by including among its offerings, classes on ‘Language Identity and Power,’ and another examining an all-male drag ballet troupe, Stanford has made the argument that the core competencies in higher education across the country must — for the sake of America's students — be revisited and revised."

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Another writing course, "The Rhetoric of Bearing Witness," students are told about the "murder of George Floyd" and instructed on the "importance of recording eyewitness accounts, whether in Gaza, from Holocaust survivors, or when ICE raids destabilize communities."

Fox News Digital reached out to Stanford University for comment but did not receive a response.

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A map is posted on the Stanford University campus on March 28, 2025, in Stanford, California. (Getty)

"Stanford’s insistence on prioritizing race, sexuality, and other nonsense over the nuts and bolts of communication in their Writing and Rhetoric requirements only serves to harm their students," Reagan Dugan, project manager for Higher Education at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital.

"Instead of teaching their students how to write and speak well in an era where these skills are becoming more and more rare, Stanford prefers to focus on topics like male drag ballet. Stanford students deserve better from their school."

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

Stanford writing program accused of prioritizing ideology over core skills: 'Nonsense'