Column: Bias has no place in the classroom
Published Feb. 19, 2010
College classes are historically known for having a liberal bias. I've heard many teachers and students make jokes about this liberal bias. It's not acceptable for college professors to push political views on their students.
Shouldn't teachers be providing students with both sides of an argument and letting them choose what they believe? In my book, every college student is intelligent enough to draw his or her own conclusions when given both sides of an argument, and I think most people would agree with that. So why is it that most college professors continually push a leftist agenda?
When presented with a problem in life, whether it's fixing your computer or apologizing for an argument with your friend, there are multiple ways to solve the problem. But this logic fails to apply in our classrooms.
One of the greatest things about college for most students is that they are away from their parents and for the first time in most of their lives are able to make their own decisions about curfew, studying and the like.
Making these decisions is part of college, so shouldn't it also be part of college to find your own views on abortion, health care and welfare, rather than having professors telling students what to believe?
Teachers are here to help educate and enlighten our community. Part of education is having your mind opened to new ideas. This isn't a one-way street, though. Professors should be open-minded to others' views as well.
Sadly, some teachers view their job as a way to be close-minded and only educate students about what they see in the world. Ultimately, the best way to learn is to go out and look for the answers to your questions.
If a teacher tells you the correct answers to everything, you won't ever learn about the material — you'll just reiterate what you were told. If we continued this mentality outside of college, in the real world, people would stop challenging our leaders and those with authority until we no longer had a check on our government.
Is this why our leaders are pushing drastic reform movements, such as health care, with little to no resistance, when it is clear the citizens of our country do not want to move toward socialized health care?
A liberal bias on a college campus is created by a failure of teachers to allow a free exchange of ideas in the classroom. How much can we learn if we only look at one side of an issue? How much can we grow if we aren't challenged by new ideas? How can a college be a place of higher education without exploring more than one point of view? A liberal bias on a college campus is not a good thing, and is not part of a quality education.
So next time you're in a class where the professor shows an obvious liberal or one-sided bias, I encourage you to share the other side of the argument. By sharing a counter argument, you're helping your classmates learn and grow by seeing both sides of the argument.
Comments (3)
6:26 a.m., Feb. 19, 2010
Witch Hunt said:
Clay, I hear this gripe from college conservatives and talk radio hosts all the time, but I have never experienced it in the classroom. You're going to have to name names or start citing specific examples or I'm going to start writing letters to the editor about how all the Republicans didn't vote for Obama because they're secretly racist. Were you aware that this issue came up in the state legislature a few years ago? Turns out, all the colleges and universities have a grievance process for students to file complaints if they believe a teacher is over the line. So yeah, file a complaint, get a prof fired, then I'll believe you.
4:31 p.m., Feb. 19, 2010
Kevin said:
In four years as a political science major, I never had this issue with any professor whatsoever. Maybe it's because they were mostly poli sci people so they knew better. But they always presented both sides of issues. A few would reveal their political affiliations or campaigns they had worked on at the end of the semester. I was always surprised to learn which professors were which. So, I'm with the other two commenters. Unless you can cite specific examples, you have no reason to be believed on this subject. A bunch of theoretical junk is all you have there.
4:20 a.m., Feb. 19, 2010
Cobra said:
You're clearly uninformed. First, it's called Academic Freedom, and as per state law, professors aren't allowed to teach from a particular viewpoint. In fact, you will find this stipulation in every syllabus, right next to the ADA information. Moreover, campuses are historically liberal because of the nature of academia, which is essentially change, whether through additional education or new research, which is inherent conflict with traditional, or conservative, viewpoints. There are exceptions, and they are usually private institutions that are skewed in the other direction due to their affiliations with individuals or institutions (ex. private universities with religious elements, such as Notre Dame). No, you're not more informed than your professor. That's why you're here I'd really like to hear how many professors have given a lecture on abortion, health care, or welfare, let alone a biased one. I am fairly confident that hasn't happened to you, and especially not on a regular basis. Similarly, I'd like you to name a professor who told you not to challenge authority; that's a joke... they're all about that sort of stuff... I once had a professor chew out the entire class on the last day of lecture for not challenging her enough. Especially toward the end of your column, I get the vibe that you're a right wing hack. You claim that there is little to no resistance to health care reform? You must be living under a rock. Oh, and it's not clear that our citizens don't want "socialized health care." The jury is still out... and if a majority of Americans don't want health care reform, it's not by a huge margin (btw, I'm sure that a large number of those getting upset about proposed changes are probably plenty happy with Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, which are all "socialized health care.") You need to think... and perhaps do a little research... before you write.