I went to Texas A&M and I could not tell your what most of the professor's leanings were even though it's a super conservative school. Being an EE probably didn't expose me to many of those classes. But the math, philosophy and psych guys seemed pretty open minded and liberal.
Easy & Traj, Well, professors can't really "teach" anything in the majority of undergraduate classes. All that can be done, in the ideal situation, is for a professor to provide the tools available to help a student learn how to learn (about whatever subject or subjects). There is simply not eough time and one-on-one attention to facilitate true learning (the "because"). Additionally, that fully disregards the fact that there is often not one "because" or any "because" at all. Even something as seemingly evidenciary as history, much less philosophy, etc.. Also, notice I wrote "provide tools" and not "directly teach" because there will always be those who won't even try to absorb.
I think this issue has to do with how good the teacher is. A good teacher with a liberal political bent can still do a good job teaching critical thinking as much as a good teacher with a conservative political bent. Having worked in academia myself in general I've tried to keep politics out of teaching. This wasn't too difficult because the subjects I taught had little relation to current politics and I was never the head instructor so generally followed the lead of the head prof. My advice to students who feel uncomfortable with a professor's overt politics is to challenge them on it. I disagreed with many of my professors and I found the best actually appreciated that a student would speak up and be willing to challenge their ideas. IMO while students are their to learn they cannot truly learn unless they are willing to think critically about what they are taught.
If a Professor wants to teach student to think critically by offering views that challenge their preconceptions, that is probably a good thing. If they shamelessly promote their own political views on their captive audience they are worthless. Once had a professor who wore Lenin and Stalin t-shirts and continuously proclaimed how much better the USSR was than the West. I asked her if she had ever BEEN to the USSR, and was not suprised to find that she hadn't. Since my father IS from the USSR I vehemently disagreed with her worldview which, shall we say, did not endear me to her. Expressing views contrary to accepted opinion (if you can call it that) can be enlightening or a silly waste of time. It depends on the professor and their personal motivations, and their own ability to realize that not all students are drones who can't think for themselves, or that haven't thought out their position before forming their conclusion. Personally, I've met many many stupid PhDs and many very very smart people with no advanced degrees.
Well, I had some classically (who may or may not have been politically) liberal professors and I also wound up in Dick Armey's Econ Class. Anyway, there's this whole conservative movement to clamp down on Liberals (and it looks like they mean both classic and political) started by David Horowitz. Here's the latest from Boulder... man, do I want to party with those Student Republicans... what a fun-sounding group they are... ________________ GOP students launch complaint Web site BOULDER, Colorado (AP) --Republican students at the University of Colorado launched a Web site to gather complaints about left-leaning faculty members, saying they want to document discrimination against conservative students and indoctrination to the liberal viewpoint. "We want concrete examples of bias in our arsenal when we go to the administration, the regents and the Legislature," said Brad Jones, 20, chairman of the College Republicans, who launched the Web site last week. The CU College Republicans are affiliated with Students for Academic Freedom, a national organization started by California conservative activist David Horowitz, who is pushing a Colorado effort to protect students from what the group sees as harassment or discrimination based on political beliefs. Most faculty and many Democrats deny liberal indoctrination exists on campuses. "I'm shocked the students would resort to this," said Barbara Bintliff, a CU law school professor and chairwoman of the Boulder Faculty Assembly. "I'm concerned they may wind up with a blacklist" Travis Leiker, 22, president of the College Democrats at CU, said classrooms are full of different perspectives. "I think the conservative students who feel there is a bias are more afraid of hearing points of view different from their own," he said. Lawmakers are also involved. Republican State Senate President John Andrews called for all state universities to submit their anti-discrimination policies in November. Conservative lawmakers introduced a resolution last week calling for the defense of students' First Amendment rights, including expression "based solely on viewpoint."
I'm of the unwavering opinion that teachers should teach the truth and only the truth. Keep politics out of the education process for the love of God!!! The idea is to teach kids enough so that they can rationalize things for themselves, not brainwash them with a professor's ideologies. I guess that is what you get when you treat the teaching profession as you would the profession of a clerk at your local gas station. A teacher should be a professional job in my book. Having more professional teachers in this country would solve or at least decrease a lot of the problems this country faces.
Ah, liberal professors and their fate at universities in this age of Bush the Younger. A topic of great interest to me. Once had a professor who wore Lenin and Stalin t-shirts and continuously proclaimed how much better the USSR was than the West. I asked her if she had ever BEEN to the USSR, and was not suprised to find that she hadn't. Since my father IS from the USSR I vehemently disagreed with her worldview which, shall we say, did not endear me to her. Hayes, was this at Rice U ? I have a son who is a National Merit Finalist type and I would think twice about sending him to Rice. Throughout the years in Houston I have found the graduates of Rice to be so conservative or apathethically apolitical. This is of course very unusual for an elite school. Now I have a neighbor who is a tenured professor at Rice and he says things are gradually changing as they get more students from outside the Bible Belt, but still. As far as the main thrust of the thread. The professor should just admit to being a liberal, but be cautious. If the professor isn't a liberal I think it is silly to expound a viewpoint just to be different or expose the students to a different point of view. At the very least the professor should say what he believes is factually true. I agree with the poster from A &M that is probably just another example of the type of profs who are often at universitities in Texas. They are afraid for their jobs (with reason) if they admit to being a liberal at a place like A & M. Throughout the years I have seen a number of friends fail to get tenure due to the fact that liberals, especially if activists, must be doubly good to win tenure. If the leftist professors limit themselves to obscure journals with research that won't challenge the conservative status quo they can get away much easier with being an out of the closet liberal or leftist. In the past liberals tended to go into academia as many of them were not interested in maximizing their persoanal wealth as the main goal in life. Conservatives tended to go for the money and avoid academia. In the last twenty years or so we have seen the lavish funding of right wing think tanks. Their job it is to churn out the best arguments possible for arguments favored by the wealthy such the non-sense that elimination of the taxing of estates over $5 million really helps the little guy or is the moral thing to do. With the opportunities to cycle back and forth between media jobs, think tanks and defense industry etc. we have more of the traditonal conservatives making big bucks while pursuing academia.
I lived in Austin off and on for nine years and even though the county elected a lesbian sheriff, took a turn rightward when the Bushies took over - people couldn't fawn over them enough without stepping on each other in the process.
rimmy, I think you probably misunderstood what I meant by "because." "Because" is the process of coming to the belief of something. I believe simply getting the student to ask "why" (shaking up her beliefs) is not enough. The teacher has the responsibility to teach her the sound way to come to one's conclusion. Notice I said "answer for herself" which means that the teacher is not there to provide the answer, but to help her understand the process of finding the answer. Many professors, liberal and conservative alike, simply pound the answer(s) from their own biases on the students without teaching how to come to one's own answer. What you say about "providing tools" is actually pretty similar to what I'm trying to say. I am a teacher. I have a great sense of calling for what I'm doing. I want to do my job right. That's why I am quite passionate on this subject.
This thread has changed a little bit. At first the question was: Is it OK to teach a liberal point of view?...but the question has become: What is teaching all about? There are many different view points on this. I think there are some classes of teachers that you can group them into, however: 1. The "Liberal" prof: This is the prof that pushes thier leftist views for one reason or another. Either they do it to challenge the status quo and make students think of another perspective, or they see it as a chance to spread their world view to a captive audience. 2. The "Conservative" prof: See the first one...same thing, just different leanings. 3. The "Real World" prof: Usually in business classes or engineering, ect. These folks have actually had a life outside of school. They have worked in the real world, had different jobs, been employees and employers...and have come back to teach. They tend to use and speak of their real world experience to better prepare students on what to expect in the real world. (my personal favorite prof) 4. The "By the book" prof: Prof who just spouts off the text book and gives test. If you read the book...then you are fine. Teaches information...not ideas. 5. The "Funny" prof: Tries to cover up their lack of teaching skills by being "funny." At the end of the lecture...you were entertained...but didn't learn anything either. This is just a sample of some profs. Anybody have more?
I still live in Austin and this is the most liberal city I've ever seen outside of California. Can a liberal confirm this? Deuce would probably call Jimmy Carter an extremist liberal. If so, that could be a great place to send my son. I'm not sure if it was this board, but a conservative UT group had a list of supposedly ultra-liberal professors that they wanted canned from the university. It sure sounds like a good place to find some professors to take to me. BTW this statement is IMHO.
I still live in Austin and this is the most liberal city I've ever seen outside of California. That would be funny, because on an A&E program I saw a couple of years back which ranked the top 10 cities in America to live in, Austin made the list, and among the comments was that it's populace was 'by far' the most educated of any city in Texas.
My observation is that Austin has been trending conservative since the dot com influx. Late 70's-Early 80's... maybe, but I don't think Austin could ever touch Madison, WI or Boulder, CO.
Ah, Madison Wisconsin. I spend two fun years there in the early 1970's. Great place, but cold as hell. Well you know what I mean.
