Professors should share their political perspectives
Should professors share their own political opinions? This topic comes up a lot in the first couple of weeks of class, especially in today’s polarizing political climate. The answer is easy: Of course they should speak from a place rooted in their own views.
It is ridiculous to argue that professors who confess their own beliefs are actually telling their students what to think. We are all old enough to not get brainwashed. People should be encouraged to share their views without being accused of projecting them. College students are impressionable, but not overly impressionable. A 2012 research study from the American Association of University Professors shows that students are not simply indoctrinated by professors. It’s laughable to think professors would hold back their own views for fear their students cannot form independent opinions.
This is not to say that professors should be fervently ideological. For instance, professors leaning left should be able to ask students in a political science class to ponder the salient arguments for conservative ideals such as those expressed in an originalist reading of the Constitution or to think critically about liberal ideas like affirmative action programs. A business professor should be able to talk about the potential pros of increasing corporate income taxes. Professors still have the obligation to offer myriad fact-based, competing, valid views presented respectfully. That can be done while still including a little bit of personal perspective.
Though this is a generalization, it seems to be mostly right-wingers who harp on professors who express their views, stereotyping them as self-advantageous, narcissistic, “social justice warrior” professors trying to proselytize the youth with their liberal propaganda. If conservatives are so mad that liberals are waging a war on college campuses, why not get in the mix? If conservatives are afraid of political homogeneity on campus, why not introduce their own views into classroom discussions to broaden the perspective of the conversation? These political perspectives should not be discussed as one-and-done showboat performances that are sporadically put on by attention-seeking, pseudo-conservative sensationalists like Ben Shapiro.
Conservatives should contribute to the conversation in an intimate and lasting way throughout a semester or college career. But many conservatives do not want to do that. It makes one wonder whether or not those who refuse to espouse their beliefs aloud want to be held accountable for them. There’s a reason the “silent majority” is silent. If you are not proud of your opinions, it may be time to re-examine them.
College is an important time to garner bits and pieces from several new worldviews. People need intellectual sparring partners to refine their own opinions. Yes, the discrepancy between political parties on most campuses is large. USC is no different, a mecca of highly educated people in southern California, a notoriously liberal state with Los Angeles serving as an increasingly liberal city. That’s not to say that there are no conservatives here. There are bound to be right-leaning professors in every academic discipline at USC. Conservatives should encourage open political discourse in the classroom. It is necessary for the formation of solid opinions. We all have biases, and it is important to be cognizant of them. People change their ideas all the time. When new information comes into the picture, peoples’ views change; that is impossible without a free exchange of ideas.
For those, however, who think partisanship is going to lead to this country’s demise, across-the-aisle debates professor-to-professor, student-to-student and teacher-to-student should be increased. The point of debate is to share an inquiry and explore ideas. In that exploration, it’s harder to villainize the “other” side if it is someone you know and can respect. And with debate moving more onto online platforms, it is essential that people get confronted in person over their beliefs to remember the rules of engagement. It’s much easier to be thoughtful and considerate when you cannot hide behind an anonymous username and a laptop screen. The in-person debate should happen at any age, to any person, regardless of profession or power dynamic. It makes our democracy better, plain and simple, to have ownership over our beliefs.
The world is a political place. For many students — DACA students, black and brown students, LGBTQ+ students and so on — their mere existence has become political. To say political views do not belong in the classroom is a privileged viewpoint because, frankly, everything is political. The classroom should be preparing students for the outside world, not shielding them from it.