College Brainwashing

[hebrewhammer777]

One of my brothers is taking a sociology class; his liberal professor assigned him four articles to read before the next class. Three were by liberals (including Paul Krugman) and one was by a conservative who was criticizing the President. Fair and balanced? He also has to read a book written by the vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of

Comments

[iamjimpaine]

I'd say your brother is getting more education than he paid for. Something like that can be a real opportunity for him to sort out what he believes and what he doesn't.

[brendo]

Not if he's being told what's right.

One of my first poli-sci profs opined that the police departments of the US represent a standing army. I disagreed. He asked me how old I was. 19, I told him.

Without a word, he turned to the blackboard and wrote "Brendan: 19 years old and still niave."

Obviously I didn't turn around and start agreeing with everything he said.

But what do you suppose my motivation was to speak up in class after that?

childish professors

[hebrewhammer777]

So the professor responded to a challenge by ridiculing the challenger instead of addressing the actual point of contention. How childish. How do these people get degrees? How do they get these positions?

What did you do/say when he did that?

Re: childish professors

[brendo]

I was sitting up front, so I listened to everyone laughing behind me.

And steamed.

[babzen]

The conservatives at Babson pushed me more liberal, because it was easy for me to see the flaws in their arguements - people who have no depth in their analysis will be seen as weak more often than I think you give students credit for.

professors

[hebrewhammer777]

Conservative professors or students?

By the way, I give all credit where credit is due. Thoughtful students like yourself won't buy what they're selling, but we both know that there are huge numbers of uncritical students who just buy into whatever they hear.

[invisible9fire]

Out of curiosity, and without the intent of sounding rude --

would you mind if the professor presented a singularly conservative point of view?

conservative professors

[hebrewhammer777]

Completely fair question; the answer is the same: I don't want bias in the classroom. Some of my best professors at Babson (Professors Hotchkiss, Bruyneel, Bortman, Lester and Sullivan, in case anyone was wondering) were various shades of liberal but they all managed to keep their bias out of the classroom in most cases (Hotchkiss didn't early in the semester, but she was fair in assigning articles with competing opinions).

Anyway, I don't want a biased conservative anymore than a biased liberal -- I just find that the vast majority of professors who use their classes as a soapbox are liberal.

Re: conservative professors

[microphonefiend]

that's a lie. i think youre brain is cloudy, and that everytime you hear a liberal speak, you consider it "using the classroom as a soapbox" but when a conservative speaks, you consider it "telling the truth." a lot of times i see it the exact opposite way.. because maybe im a little bit liberal, which makes you a lot a bit conservative. ..and you do want a biased conservative, you'd love a biased conservative to take control of a classroom! how do i know that? because whenever you turn our house into a classroom, you teach with tons of bias!

go ahead, tell me im wrong. tell me that youre very fair to liberal guests.

Re: conservative professors

[hebrewhammer777]

A lie? Monkey, how the hell would you know? Have you ever had a class with me? I've criticized DeBlasio for using her classroom as a conservative soapbox but she's the *only* conservative teacher/professor I've ever had who did that. So basically, you're so wrong that you deserve to be slapped silly