Today I was reading an article on caller.com called “Who's afraid of liberal professors?”, and it got me thinking about how I teach my class – actually, how I always knew I would teach my freshmen classes. I have a lot of opinions. I am a VERY opinionated person; however, I don’t share those opinions in my 1301 classes. I don’t want my students to feel that they need to censor themselves because I have shared a personal belief. While I do encourage lively debate in the classroom, I allow those discussions to evolve on the student side of the room. I don’t want to use my freshmen composition class to further my political or personal agenda. (Not everyone believes what I do, and I couldn't disagree more. But there is nothing I can do about other classrooms.) Students need to be able to say what they feel and believe without fear of being put on an instructor’s “naughty list.” I know that this will change if I ever teach a different course, but I think that freshmen classes can be inspired without them feeling that they have been backed into a corner. You can just give them things to read and be sure that you allow them to think whatever they want about those readings.
For now, I do my best to present both sides of every situation and never validate things I do not believe while still not “pushing” on them the things that I do believe. Yes, it is very tiring sometimes. I know that some of you are probably thinking that I might be doing more harm than good, but I’m not going to change what I do. I have been lucky to have dodged any outright “hate discussions” in my class but if/when they do come up, I will deal with them and make sure that whoever is at the root of the hate knows that the topic is wrong and unwelcome in my class.
Last week I had to deal with a student who is a huge John McCain supporter. She has always been very upfront about her political beliefs, and I have made sure to always encourage her and listen to everything she writes even if I do not agree with it. She never let her classmates know how she felt about the issue. She only felt comfortable telling me in her essays. I never felt that it was my job to try to get her to change her beliefs – the beliefs her parents instilled in her – and I guess she felt comfortable with me because of the choice I made.
But back to last week…things changed as I reviewed her argument paper. She was trying to make an argument that Obama will probably be assassinated before his four-year term is over. She was citing the KKK website as a source for this information. How could I let her write about this? I couldn’t. Up to this point, I have let her write whatever she wants – about whatever she wants – but I knew that I had to say something to her. I knew she wasn't a bad person; she was just trying to make her point in a bad way. She was just repeating things she heard either at home or from very biased media. Luckily, I had the requirement of scholarly research on my side. When I approached her about this made up argument and the use of a ‘hate’ cite as a credible source, she was less than happy but willingly backed down. Although I did not think it would be possible, I still managed to get away from that conference without projecting my beliefs on her. I helped her to understand what she was doing wrong, why it was wrong for this particular assignment, and how she could change it – all without yelling “WTF?!?!?!” like I really wanted to!
I think I might be getting the hang of this.
5 comments:
She was trying to make an argument that Obama will probably be assassinated before his four-year term is over. She was citing the KKK website as a source for this information.
That's where you draw the line. This sort of thing can get both student AND teacher in hot water. Imagine a scenario where a peer-review takes place before you've had a chance to read the papers. KKK-girl's paper is read by another student who becomes alarmed and considers it her duty to notify the Secret Service on her cell phone.....need I continue?
I try to also keep my opinions out of the classroom...and I think its a good thing. I love playing the devil's advocate, though, and bringing up every objection I can think of for every student. That way, I can sneak in my objections, too! :)
I think playing the devil's advocate (like Joanna...thinking of every possible objection) is a great way to keep us sharp, too. It stretches students to argue fully and thoroughly, but it also helps the facilitator or instructor who must always be two steps ahead.
Here is an excerpt from a short essay I wrote last year that addresses this issue that you bring up about helping students understand others sides of an issue. I'm talking about a 1301 class, where we focused on Hurricanes.
Here is the excerpt.
A number of students selected topics on Hurricane Katrina that related to their major. The end result was that we had a community of Hurricane Katrina researchers who discovered the medical, psychological, economic, environmental, racial, educational, and governmental disasters that plagued New Orleans and beyond. I also witnessed a change in several students’ political views. In Texas, we have a number of students who are pro-Bush supporters, and faculty would often complain about the conservatism of our students. I remember one pro-Bush student who quietly asked me to review some of the research he found on Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. He asked me if I thought this research he had uncovered might be true. I encouraged him to pursue his research with multiple sources and then make his decision on what he thought was the truth. He came to me a few weeks later and said that his research led him to change his views on Bush. I had several conservative students renounce their support of Bush and side with Hurricane Katrina survivors and their criticisms of this administration. I have to wonder if this political conversion had something to do with the act of caring on the part of the students. Through their research and the research of others, they learned to care about New Orleans. I wonder if they wanted to disassociate themselves with those individuals who did not foster this acceptable level of caring.
I hope that I am discretely encouraging them to be liberal :)
Love the argument papers and the logical fallacies that follow. It sounds like you handled the situation very well. Maybe someday we'll feel like we know what we're doing..
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