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DEL.ICIO.USDo profs pull students to left?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New research contradicts the assertion that colleges are hotbeds of liberal indoctrination where professors turn malleable students into soy latte-sipping, Birkenstock-wearing, Jon Stewart-watching lefties. If students become more liberal in college, it is usually because of the influence of their peers, not their professors, according to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute.
The impact is also often temporary, with many students, particularly women, moving back to the right after graduation.
Those findings don’t surprise me. In my own experiences teaching college, I had a hard enough time getting students to attend class, never mind talking them into marching on Washington or volunteering for voter registration drives.
In another recent study, political scientists surveyed about 7,000 students at 38 campuses and found that while students could detect their professor’s political leanings through subtle cues, no evidence existed that the instructor’s views caused the students to change theirs.
In fact, the authors of the new book, “Closed Minds? Politics and Ideology in American Universities,” contend that there’s not too much political discourse roiling college classrooms today, but too little.
“Overall, to our surprise, we found that, far from being saturated in politics, the universities generally have all but ignored what used to be called civics,” conclude the authors. “Most professors, like most Americans, have an aversion to politics and find ways to avoid thinking seriously about politics and political issues.”
Most of the complaints about liberal campuses come from state legislators, who allege that conservative students are treated as enemy combatants in the culture wars. Last year, state Rep. Tom Rice of Peachtree Corners introduced a bill to prevent professors from filling the minds of students with liberal dogma.
House Bill 154 stated: “Teachers should not take unfair advantage of the immaturity of students by indoctrinating them with their own opinions before the students have had an opportunity to examine other opinions.”
Among the bill’s provisions: Georgia’s public colleges hire an ombudsmen to investigate complaints of intellectual discrimination and submit reports to the Legislature detailing their efforts toward “intellectual diversity.”
Rice’s goal, he said, was to allow students to speak without fear of reprisal or reprimand.
But is every opinion equal and should teachers honor all viewpoints?
A student once accused me of espousing “dangerous” liberal ideology because I encouraged women in the class to pursue their ambitions to become journalists. Under his belief system, women were supposed to defer to their husbands’ viewpoints and remain at home. Culturally and religiously, he objected to women taking classes and teaching them.
If HB 154 had passed, would I have been required to accept that young man’s opinion in the name of intellectual diversity? As it was, I recommended that he get comfortable with women in his class and workplace or consider a move not only to another college, but to another country. Because I intended to keep on encouraging talented women —- and men —- to chase their dreams.
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By One Voice
November 11, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this
Education is about presenting concepts that are supported by empirical evidence to students. Indoctrination is about presenting concepts that do not have any emprical evidence as facts. College students do not adopt liberal views because they are indoctrinated; they adopt them because they are exposed to evidence, because of course, reality has a liberal bias. If conservatives had it their way, biology professors couldn’t give bad grades to students who didn’t learn about evolution since they hadn’t been given the opportunity to be tested on the “science” of creationism. Now THAT’S a lack of education.
By Famuan
November 11, 2008 1:02 PM | Link to this
Rep. Tom Rice just needed some hot button topic to get some airtime for himself. These fear tactics are just no longer working, and we’re all the better for it.
By Copyleft
November 11, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this
It’s a classic knee-jerk conservative response.
Confronted with the fact that better educated people tend to be more liberal, they dodge the correct conclusion (i.e., broader knowledge leads to more liberal thinking) and skip immediately to “Education Is Bad.”
Funny stuff! Too bad America has thrown out the ignorant bully and is replacing him with a smart intellectual type.
By Republicans R Crooks
November 11, 2008 1:53 PM | Link to this
Well, I am a guest lecturer in a couple college courses per year (thermo and fluids) and I do indeed inform my students that ALL rupukes R crooks….does that mean I am pulling them to the left, or just preparing them for the real world?
By Citizen of the World
November 11, 2008 2:16 PM | Link to this
I had a college professor once explain that the breakdown in modern society could be traced and attributed to the removal of prayer from public schools. That’s purely anecdotal, but I’m reminded of that lesson every time I hear the “conventional wisdom” that college professors are liberal.
By steve
November 11, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this
Copyleft Better educated people run nearly all of the large companies in this contry. Especially in the banking and mortgage venues where MBA’s and higher are pre-requisites for upper management positions. By your logic, because they are more educated, they are more likely to be liberal. Henceforth, the financial crisis we are facing now results from liberals.
Republicans R Crooks: Your statement is so ridiculous I’m still laughing. If a poll was taken of the people incarcerated today, I dare say it would lean FAR more toward the liberal side than the conservative.
By JackLeg
November 11, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this
Schools should teach, not indoctrinate, politics should not be taught in schools, only the facts, not liberal ideology. Why is it that liberals all want people to have their say as long as it is a liberal point of view?
By Billy
November 11, 2008 2:41 PM | Link to this
I would argue that professors are, as a rule, people who have decided to devote their entire working lives to education. Such people probably tend to lean to the left. For one, they spend their whole lives acquiring more information about the world and expanding their knowledge base. I firmly believe that the more you learn, especially in the Social Science fields, the more leftward you start to lean. In addition, educators, even college professors, tend to make less than they could in the private sector. They may teach as many as four or five classes, maintain office hours for their students, and serve as advisors and still be expected to do research and publish papers. The could earn a lot more money for their time in another profession, but they believe education is a worthwhile endeavor.
By James
November 11, 2008 3:09 PM | Link to this
College professors are liberal? College professors attempt to indoctrinate students? Please say it ain’t so! “I’m shocked……shocked to find out that gambling is going on in here!”
Anyone who has been to a major university (I have) knows that the overwhelming majority of all college professors are far left liberal thinkers. If any reaonable, open-minded person has any doubt about this whatsoever, I dare you to read the following book by former leftist David Horowitz: The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.
In the book, Horowitz documents the exact opposite of what Ms. Dowd is trying to argue. But don’t take my word for it……read the book and make an informed opinion for yourself.
By SC Birdflyte
November 11, 2008 3:25 PM | Link to this
David Horowitz went from far left to far right with scarcely a pause in between. Anyone who cites him as an authority on anything needs to broaden their reading list.
By RealityKing
November 11, 2008 3:27 PM | Link to this
New research by who, The UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute?? Boy, talk about a hotbed of indoctrination by soy latte-sipping liberals…
Sorry but the liberal indoctrination of our education system, like the MSM, is obviously coming by why of stifling opposing views. History clearly shows that over the last 30 years 98% of education slots have filled with hard core kool-aid drinkers. And with that, diversified opinions have been removed. In fact, it has gotten so bad now that tenures depend more on ideology than experience, morons shout down their opponents during paid speeches and adolescents throw cream pies at those they disagree with. But hey.., lets spend all that extra money researching the non-existence of our own non-bias(eyes rolling)!!
Is there any wonder why our progressive education system is a complete failure? I mean really, shamelessness must be the most important attribute of liberal indoctrination..
By Paul Scanling
November 11, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this
Accepting someone else’s opinion, and following that opinion or making it your own are two entirely different things. Where do you draw the line at someone else’s opinion being valid? I’m not sure. My philosophy is very simple: You have your opinion and I have mine. I will respect your right to have an opinion and even to express it in an appropriate time and manner. I expect you to show me the same courtesy.
By Copyleft
November 11, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this
RealityKing, you’re still ducking reality.
And the reality is quite simple: The more you know, the more liberal you inevitably become. Our liberal positions are simply the result of being smarter than you. Education doesn’t need to “indoctrinate” anybody—the truth is all the support we need.
By h ryder
November 11, 2008 4:28 PM | Link to this
I was a college professor for fifteen years of my professional career. My students were informed by written handouts, at the beginning of each course at the beginning of each academic term, that the correct answers on examinations were those presented in assigned course text readings and my class presentations. Should they disagree, extra credit was earned by presenting my view and theirs with a cogent reason for their view. A few of my views changed with opposing views accepted as “truth”. All such changes occurred from arguements offered by older or experienced students.
By CK
November 11, 2008 4:34 PM | Link to this
One problems is the fact that so many people look to label people. They sit in class and try to label them as liberal or conservative. I got my undergrad and grad degree at a major research university where I studied communications policy and economics. One thing I consistently saw from people was trying to reinforce or defend their pre-existing political beliefs while in class.
This gets problematic considering such issues as regulation. In the public opinion world (go back before the financial meltdown) democrats seem to defend regulations and conservatives seem to always dislike regulations. However, for those of studying a sector of the economcs and the regulations and policies applied to it often see regulations do more harm in some situations and in others regulations help and correct real economic problems. Whenever something showing a regulations didn’t work some students portrayed the prof as being conservative. Whenever evidence showed that regulations worked many students would assume the professor was liberal. Truth is both democrats and republicans consistently miss the mark on the regulation vs. no regulation debate (which should be changed to the… -when- and -how- to regulation debate). However, a professor teaching empirical evidence is stuck being labeled, because of the preexisting perceptions of the students. The survey cited above is nothing more than an opinion survey from students.
That is what I believe happens a majority of the time. The other issue is as a student you have many professors over 4 years. During my undergrad years I did have one lecturer that went on rants about why democrats were wrong from time to time. (This was just my experience… I know it goes both ways on occasion). However, it was just one of many.
There were also issues in the sciences where empirical evidence says one thing, but people choose not to believe it. Therefore the class is just “liberal.” The best example of this is global warming. For years people were called liberal for thinking global warming was existed. Now people are accepting that is reality and the argument has moved on to whether or not it is influenced by man. In this case a professor is not being politically biased, but just showing the reality of science.
I have listed three cases where I have seen students scream political bias about their professors. Only in one of these situations were the prof really being biased, but the problem is all three situations makes students believe their teachers are biased.
By skydog
November 11, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
The more one learns(outside of Sunday school)about burning bushes that talk, the more left they get.
By norman ravitch
November 12, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this
i taught at a good university for 38 years and did not find that students were unduly influenced by their professors’ political views. The one exception was during the Vietnam war when opinions on all sides were very heated.
The real problem with professorial talk is not that they influence their students inordinantly. The problem is that recruitment of faculty is too much in the hands of the faculty, who define positions and choose candidates according to their own orthodoxies and ideologies. The result is that they reproduce themselves: CONSERVATIVES choose conservatives and LIBERALS choose liberals, depending on the discipline and the school — and this is particularly true in the social sciences and humanities. Try hiring an historian of Russia who is of Polish extraction and you will get all sorts of opposition on the grounds that a Pole cannot teach Russian history, as a white cannot teach African history. There needs to be a better way of recuiting faculty.
But faculty should be free to express themselves, as should students.
By tom
November 12, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this
Republicans have nothing but contempt for knowledge, science in particular. That’s why they’ll continue to run on a platform of anti-intellectualism and continue to lose, while alienating any remaining thinking conservatives left in the party. Godspeed GOP.
By Cynic
November 12, 2008 10:10 AM | Link to this
Tom Rice is the new Joe McCarthy!
By Shawny
November 12, 2008 10:19 AM | Link to this
Isn’t the statement, “If students become more liberal in college, it is usually because of the influence of their peers, not their professors, according to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute.” basically the fox watching the henhouse? A report on the fairness of universities, published by a university?!?
Just ask any student the right questions, and yes, it is a hotbed of liberalism. Look at the exit polling of the way the youth voted and try to explain it any other way, particularly if their parents, their largest force of influence, voted the other way.
By Cynic
November 12, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
And Paul Broun is the new village idiot!
By Cynic
November 12, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this
Shawny:
Isn’t the point of a post-secondary education to teach our children to think for themselves?
The fact that young people voted for the politics of hope and possibility rather than those of fear and division is testament to their optimistic view of our future, not their professors’ political positions.
By cranky old man
November 12, 2008 11:30 AM | Link to this
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I became progressively more liberal after college than during. And I have a degree in political science and history, so, according to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, my classes should have been taught by rabid pinko America hating intellectuals. While my professors were, for the most part, left of center to varying degrees, I can’t recall any of them giving anyone a hard time for offering spirited debate.
I grew up a military brat, and I voted for Reagan the first election I was old enough, so I was probably a good deal to the right on a lot of issues when I was 18. And I have been accused, on occasion, of being just a wee bit sarcastic. So if anyone would have been the victim of a left-wing thought police slap down, it would have been me. But I can’t recall ever being ridiculed or having a paper unfairly graded.
What probably turned me to left more than anything was my work history during and immediately following college (before I joined the army). I worked enough low wage jobs to learn how trickle-down economics really works. It sounds logical and reasonable in theory, but once the people at the top get everyone to buy into it, they go and hire “GOP the plumber” to fix all the leaks and keep anything from trickling down.
(WARNING: RANT FOLLOWS!)
Unions cutting into your bottom line? No problem. Just move your business to a “right to work” state. Wages eventually start going up anyway? Just move overseas. We’ll make it easy. We’ll even give you a tax break. Got a business where the work can’t be moved overseas, and no American wants to do the job for minimum wage? We’ll just wink at your use of illegal immigrants. Since they are here illegally, you can even get away without worrying about paying overtime or OSHA. It’s not like they’re going to complain.
And we’ll make sure to keep unemployment insurance low and very short term. Keep ‘em hungry and desperate, and they won’t hold out for a job with benefits that will pay the bills. They’ll just take the first lousy minimum wage job they can find. Keeps those pesky wages down.
Don’t like paying estate taxes? We’ll find a couple of anecdotes, and even make them up if we have to, about someone losing the family farm because they had to pay taxes on the value of the farm machinery when someone died. Don’t like the alternative minimum tax? We’ll refuse to index it to inflation, so it will eventually bite into the middle class. That will get ‘em screaming to get rid of it.
And if someone starts to complain about the way things are going, just dust off the old McCarthy playbook and call them communists.
By G8R GRAD
November 12, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this
Cranky Old Man:
Well said.
By Dukie
November 12, 2008 12:46 PM | Link to this
If you aren’t a liberal when you are 20, you have no heart. If you aren’t a conservative when you are 40 you have no head!