chu chu rocket

Bah, this is nothing new. Professors aren't used to being challenged in classroom, as students always happen to be in an inferior position, both when it comes to knowlegde and security. Security in the sense that disagreeing could make you expelled in certain universities (not sure about the US) and as a bonus, Professors talk amongst themselves. Better to just shut up, take the knowlegde and leave out personal opinions. Problems arrive when you can't be sure whether there is a real core to the teachings or if they are all founded on ideology. That is something similar to what is addressed in the latter part of that article.

I am sure it can be cumbersome didactically to educate individuals who question EVERYTHING. Like having to quote every study made if you taugt medical students pharmacology. That would take ages, so naturally, students expressing different opinions can be disruptive. That is another side of the story.

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roobarb

To me I would hope the key to helping someone develop the potential of their mind is to encourage them to be flexible and see many shades of a colour. Is it a liberal bias to teach a developing mind to be flexible and see as many sides of an arguement as possible? Is it a liberal bias to encourage a student to be creative and be willing to question everything and constantly challenge himself or herself to come up with many possibilities as opposed to just one? I don't think so. I think that is the role of a teacher, any teacher.

See to me the issue isn't whether a teacher has a particular bias or not, it is whether the teacher can be frank and candid to his or her students about their bias, put it out in the open, and then show respect to students if they have their own biases, and establish its o.k. to have biases, as long as we all respect each other, keep an open mind, and do not use our biases to avoid seeing more then just our own view of things.

To me the best teacher I had, was an Anglican Minister. Of course he had a bias. He believed in God. But the key was he respected other people's views and while he was open with his biases, he did not let them distort his respect for other views. I sat there and watched students insult him and laugh at him over whether God existed, and it just rolled off of him. In regards to my particular way of looking at God, he simply encouraged me to continue adding to the formula and established the key to learning was simply keeping an open mind. Is that a liberal bias? Don't think so but I think it is construed by many that being tolerant and open minded as a precept of learning constitutes a liberal bias.

What I find sad is anyone who claims to teach but has no respect for any opinions other then his or her own. To me that is not a teacher, that is an indoctrinator. Hell at my age I already have to get prostate exams. The last thing I want is someone shoving anything else up there. So I appreciate when the younger generation says they can't stand it when teachers try impose views on them. Shoving things into people without their consent sucks.

OneCandidatereviews

My thought exactly! What does it matter if the Professor/ Teacher votes Democan or Republicrat?? How can you be biased when talking about the chemical composition of pixie dust? or dissecting a Frog?? Even if the subject is political philosophy, a teacher is supposed to explain a multitude of theories not personal opinion. The prime reason for school is to teach someone how to think, not what to think.

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justoneman

Womens studies was created to accomodate the liberal professor.

Liberal arts has a different meaning of the word liberal than liberal politics. If they say in a recipe to use an igredient liberally it does not mean they want you to put Ted Kennedy in your cake batter. If you did I guess it would be a rum cake. I am a fine arts major from university and a conservative.

roobarb

I still say the opinions a teacher may be predisposed to are fine as long as they admit them and hold them out as such and allow students to feel safe to be able to see many views. In my opinion a good teacher whether a creationist, atheist, humanist, feminist, should be able to teach any course. Its not what they think that counts, its how they help others keep an open mind that does.

The best political science professor I ever had was someone I had not one political opinion or belief in common with. So what? He was a fantastic teacher because he was clear what his views were with me, but never expected me to agree with him. All he wanted me to do is question, question, question and always see as many points of view as possible.

He provided the best damn analysis of the weakness of commuism in East Europe I ever heard probably because he was a Hungarian refugee from the 1956 uprising and had valuable insights he learned as a young man. But he did not just give a simplistic diatribe against Marxism. He painstakingly showed the practical limitations of centralized economic production and what happens when a state organ can control creative expression. He did so at a time when it was hip and popular to be leftist in my school.

He never once expected me to be anti-communist or anything else or parrot what he said unlike some of my other professors who would black-ball you if you did not mimmick their political views.

One thing I learned was that it was easy to know what prof. was a Maoist, who was a Trotskyite, who was say an NDP'er, who was a Liberal (Canadian political party) or PC (Tory), etc. and how feeding back their beliefs got you your mark except for this guy who demanded I push myself.

Good teachers you never forget.

Thomas Paine

My professors never stopped any debate, and rarely picked sides. It's obvious you're speaking as someone who never went through the rigors of academia past the undergraduate level. It sounds as if you're creating a bit of a strawan. . .

For example, I recall taking some social theory courses in grad school. The reading selections ran the gamut, from conservative political commentary to ultra-liberal transgender sexual theories. The professor really acted only as a moderator, allowing the masters & PhD level students to discuss the articles on their own. Once a week, we submitted a paper that either supported or refuted the arguments presented in the papers and had to back up our assertions with other evidence.

The students in the classroom also were from a wide spectrum, from a former divinity student to a pre-op trans-sexual and everything in between. I look back on that period I got to spend in graduate school fondly, as it was the only time in my life I felt free to explore ideas with other people who were similarly interested in exploring ideas.

Were there students with their own agendas? You betcha. But they were pretty easy to recognize. We had the fundamentalist Christian who bemoaned all of the "liberal" readings, and we had gay students who bemoaned reading treatises on religion. But the professors, I felt, were fair, both in how they conducted the classroom and in how they assessed grades. I never felt insecure about submitting a paper that I thought might run counter to beliefs held by my professors, as I always felt that as long as I could back up my assertions then I'd be graded fairly.

I'd like to add that I finished the last three semesters of grad school with a 4.0 and a cumulative 3.86 GPA in two separate masters tracks.

From the outside looking in, commentators don't see these things. But from someone who has been "inside," I can tell you that the O.P. wasn't my experience at all. If you find yourself in a school akin to that of the O.P., I'd suggest finding a new school. . .

Thomas did not believe the resurrection [John 20:25], and, as they say, would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I, and the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person, as for Thomas. [Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]