Spring Break
Professors teach what to think, not how to think
Dustin Stein
Issue date: 11/18/03 Section: Commentary
When post-colonialists revise the history textbooks, crucial details are left out, and theories become more pertinent than facts. This allows students to be able to ace a class without reading or reasoning, but just by understanding the jargon and theory their professor espouses. Does this really pass the test of higher education standards?
There also seems to be a growing gap between college students and their professors. In two recent studies, one by the New School for Social Research and one by Harvard University, it was revealed there are now more college students who consider themselves to be Republicans than Democrats, but one would never know by sitting in a university lecture hall. Professors are by and large Democrats and mostly of the liberal persuasion. One could go through their full college education without ever being exposed to a book written by a conservative or someone willing to explain to them the conservative ideology.
I am not a conservative; I happen to consider myself a liberal. But, I am a liberal who cares about education, and I am a liberal who thinks free speech and open policy debates are more important than singing to the choir. I have sat through too many courses and lectures where liberals preach to liberals. Don't students deserve a variety of voices?
The post-colonialists are especially guilty of denying a full political spectrum. Post-colonialists are so prepared to degrade and demean American policy and most of the civilized world's history that they rarely, if ever, discuss what the guiding forces in these policies were. They rely on premises like "in imperialism and colonialism's past, the colonialists (read America and Western Europe) enforced their will and policy on the other, land and people they wished to subjugate to their rule." Not once have I heard a professor explain why. And this same idea: that the minority or those being ruled never had a voice in these matters is now being reversed. The post-colonialists exclude colonialist thought from their curriculum, and instead explain to students how they view colonialism-just as they say the colonialists did to the natives (telling them what they should think). If professors want to live up to America's higher education standards, they need to start opening up their minds more and exposing students to more than just their beliefs. If they wish to simply indoctrinate students, maybe they should go to a radical madrassa. I hope, in the near future, professors will have the intellectual vigor and commitment to their students' academic achievement to not stifle debate and be more objective in their classroom presentations. But, of course, this is more wishful thinking, professors subscribing to moral and cultural relativism don't believe in objectivity or even coming close, so all we should expect from them in class is their opinion. Are American college minds being closed?
There also seems to be a growing gap between college students and their professors. In two recent studies, one by the New School for Social Research and one by Harvard University, it was revealed there are now more college students who consider themselves to be Republicans than Democrats, but one would never know by sitting in a university lecture hall. Professors are by and large Democrats and mostly of the liberal persuasion. One could go through their full college education without ever being exposed to a book written by a conservative or someone willing to explain to them the conservative ideology.
I am not a conservative; I happen to consider myself a liberal. But, I am a liberal who cares about education, and I am a liberal who thinks free speech and open policy debates are more important than singing to the choir. I have sat through too many courses and lectures where liberals preach to liberals. Don't students deserve a variety of voices?
The post-colonialists are especially guilty of denying a full political spectrum. Post-colonialists are so prepared to degrade and demean American policy and most of the civilized world's history that they rarely, if ever, discuss what the guiding forces in these policies were. They rely on premises like "in imperialism and colonialism's past, the colonialists (read America and Western Europe) enforced their will and policy on the other, land and people they wished to subjugate to their rule." Not once have I heard a professor explain why. And this same idea: that the minority or those being ruled never had a voice in these matters is now being reversed. The post-colonialists exclude colonialist thought from their curriculum, and instead explain to students how they view colonialism-just as they say the colonialists did to the natives (telling them what they should think). If professors want to live up to America's higher education standards, they need to start opening up their minds more and exposing students to more than just their beliefs. If they wish to simply indoctrinate students, maybe they should go to a radical madrassa. I hope, in the near future, professors will have the intellectual vigor and commitment to their students' academic achievement to not stifle debate and be more objective in their classroom presentations. But, of course, this is more wishful thinking, professors subscribing to moral and cultural relativism don't believe in objectivity or even coming close, so all we should expect from them in class is their opinion. Are American college minds being closed?