My Reply to Students When Asked What I Believe

Throughout the year, students often ask me which candidates I support, where I stand on issues, and what political party I support. My response to students is "I'm not telling you." Not only do I not tell students where I stand on issues and what political party I support, I consciously work throughout the year to keep them guessing on this by being a critical thinker and modeling critical thought, ripping into all parties and voicing arguments from all sides. Oh, I'm not perfect- my smart and astute students notice that my liberal and Democrat arguments are a tad sarcastic and that my ripping on Obama is harsher than my ripping on Bush was, but at the end of the year I always ask students what they thought I was, who they think I support, and what political party I am active in, and the results are encouraging to me- the students don't really know, even to the end.

There are a couple of reasons I refuse to tell my students where I stand on issues and what party I support. One is time- I have a very well-defined curriculum that must be taught, and there isn't any free time in my teaching for anything personal. Another important reason is that I want the students receptive to my methods and teaching, and if they pigeonhole me into a political position, they might become less receptive. I want them listening to me and learning, not dismissing me just because I'm a conservative. Too many students tune out of social studies classes and ignore everything teachers say because they reject the teacher's personal views on things, and that's not good either because they are rejecting real knowledge too.

But most importantly is that my students look up to me and respect me, and I value that, and if I told them my values and beliefs, they would be encouraged to adopt them, and that's not my job or role in the classroom. My job or role is to teach my students about economics, government, history, psychology, and geography, not push my views on them. If I said "man made global warming is a load of poop", half of my students would reject my views, and the other half would nod and agree with whatever I said- but no one would be the smarter for it. But if I point to facts and bring up research and ideas, all without saying my view, then everyone is thinking, evaluating, and learning- and that is what education is supposed to be.

Via Protein Wisdom, I came across a blog entry by a professor named Douglas Campbell. The blog entry was called "The Classroom Without Reason", and has a lot of good stories in it. He documents what he sees is the liberal bias in education, the liberal slant to university teaching, and this fits very well with what I also have personally observed. I'm now going to relate to you one of the stories on this post:

I offer yet another true story. Just before the last presidential election, at the beginning of a course on business planning, a student asked me in front of the entire class why I had not told the students which candidate I supported. I responded, “Politics is not the subject of this class. We have enough material to cover to fill our class time. Besides, on principle, I will not use class time to impose my political opinions on you. If outside of class any of you seek my opinion of the candidates, then I will be happy to share my thoughts.”

The reaction of the class surprised me. A few students were nodding their head, others were smiling humorously at me, and a few were laughing and gossiping about my response. Somewhat peeved, I asked, “What is so funny?”

One student said, “You might as well tell us who you think we should vote for, because all the other professors already have.” Other students chimed in to support that student’s claim and mentioned specific faculty members who had turned their classes into campaigns for their presidential candidate. Undaunted, I proceeded with the subject of the class.

Let me also point out that Douglas may very well have just told his students who he was voting for, because it was quite obvious to me. Our education system is dividing, along with the rest of our country, into two different and separate camps- those who use education to push their liberal-communist-leftist-Democratic-anti-Christian views, and those who refuse to push any views on students. Douglas, by refusing to use his classroom to indoctrinate youth and brainwash them into believing in the church of global warming or the worship of Obama, was displaying his views none-the-less.

By Douglas pushing thinking, by encouraging thought and reflection, by pushing the liberty of ones mind and the freedom to choose ones own beliefs, by suggesting responsibility for ones own education and learning, by not violating students trust and faith- he was telling any student that he rejects the views of those who mean to do our nation harm. And the astute students in my classes, no matter how hard I try to not push my own views, also recognize this, and that is why at the end of the year, many indeed guess my views, but when they do, they just smile and accept and respect them, because of the way I went about my teaching.

And that's how you change the world, one student at a time.