<p>Wow! Totally unprofessional.
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Metro State College is investigating a professor who asked students to write an essay critical of Republican vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin. One student said the instructor singled out Republican students in the class and allowed others to ridicule them.
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<p>cbs4denver.com</a> - Metro State Professor Investigated For Palin Essay Assignment</p>
<p>My junior's AP English teacher had his classes read pro/con columns on Palin and used them to show how people construct arguments (when son was telling me this he used lots of fancy terms that I can't remember at 7 a.m). I like when teachers introduce current events in the classroom, but not with a blatant political bias.</p>
<p>My D is taking a Current Issues class team taught by 2 of the HS's best history teachers - one Republican and one Dem. It's been fair, balanced, and a great learning experience.</p>
<p>It seems pretty clear that this is a couple of conservative students who have succeeded in creating a little media firestorm, with help from Drudge.</p>
<p>Here's some other stuff from the story:</p>
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Brooks [another student in the class] said Hallam is a great teacher and the controversy overblown. </p>
<p>"He definitely makes it known he's a Democrat and prefers that and wishes everyone else would, but he knows there's Republicans in class and lets them speak out and have their opinion and doesn't put them down or discriminate against that," she said. </p>
<p>. . . . </p>
<p>A former student of Hallam's emailed CBS4 Thursday and said he or she could understand how the professor's style could be misunderstood. Hallam often picked a topic for students and asked them to write a specific viewpoint as an exercise in critical thinking, the student's email said.
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<p>HR policy of work place at some companies is "Political discussions should be avoided" - it is mentioned at the same time as "Sexual Harrassment".<br>
The same should be applicable to teaching instituions. It should be internal to each family, professors/instructors should stay clear of current party politics. It is not their job to brain wash our kids into one side or another.</p>
<p>This type of biased teaching is an under-reported problem. One inescapable reality is that the education world is dominated by liberal and ultra-liberal minds. While it could be "interesting" to use current events to teach and develop the concepts of critical thinking, there are PLENTY of better subjects than a VERY recent news, and especially one about which little CONCLUSIVE is known. Critical thinking should not be based on gossip, innuendos, and blatant distortions. In the case of a project on Gov. Palin, I doubt there is little else. </p>
<p>Further, I seriously doubt that the good professor instructed his class to write a similar paper on the incredible good fortune of a governor of the most backwater state in the Union who was facing serious allegations during his campaign! </p>
<p>Simply states, when it comes to the academic world, there is NO balance whatsoever. Non-liberal opinions are considered ... extremist.</p>
<p>Re: Post #2: Ditto for my son's AP Language Composition class. From what I could tell from his description, there was no political bias. He know bias when he sees it, as I was a former local elected official.</p>
<p>On the first day of AP Biology, by D's teacher (a 60ish woman) elaborated on "a woman's right to choose abortion" as one of the greatest recent advances in science!! She noted various situations where a woman would choose abortion (unplanned child, handicapped child, selective abortion of multiples when you only want one or two. . .) According to my D, the class seemed very uncomfortable. One (brave) student mentioned "adoption" as a good choice. . . my D (and I) wanted to complain that this was inappropriate, but D wants to get through this class, and there is no way that a student who rats on a teacher is not going to be retaliated against somehow. Even if the teacher "tried" not to be biased against that student, it would always be in the back of her mind, "that's the student who reported me to the principal. . ." (BTW, almost 1/3 of that class dropped before the first test). I think it is wrong for a teacher in a public school to misuse his/her power and authority in this way. Students are intimidated because, if they disagree with the teacher's views, well, the teacher is holding their grades. . .so they say nothing. I don't care if the teacher is pro-life--she shouldn't use a public classroom "pulpit" to spout her views on controversial topics.</p>
<p>I don't know JHS. It did not seem like the instructor was trying to play devil's advocate.<br>
I am very happy for students to debate current events, but I also want them to have a chance to present and to hear all sides of an issue, whether from tem-teaching profs, different reading materials, random assignments, etc... That does not seem to be the case here at all.</p>
<p>I don't know the details of this case, but living in Denver and knowing the political climate here, I wouldn't be surprised if the case has been overblown by everyone involved, as someone quoted in the article claims. </p>
<p>Colorado is conservative; Denver is liberal. Students are often more conservative than their professors, especially at Metro State which is more like a junior college (no entrance requirements.) It's a small city where not that much happens (smile) so the media gets excited a lot, especially by anything with a whiff of political scandal. </p>
<p>This could be a tempest in a teapot - or it was, until it went national. </p>
<p>By the way, Metro State is an interesting school, with an on-going legal battle pitting faculty against the administration. In effect, Metro administration wants to do away with tenure - and retroactively at that...</p>
<p>I heard David Horowitz speak (very conservative author and speaker). He actually believes conservatives get better educations, since their views are challenged more often and they have to defend their beliefs more effectively.</p>
<p>A lot of colleges have heavy liberal bias, both in student body and in the professors, but I don't feel too bad for the outnumbered conservatives. If attacks ever become personal, or affect their grades, then they should of course take appropriate action. But the notion that a school should identify the partisanship of its professors and attempt to maintain some kind of balance seems ridiculous to me. Any professor who does not, to some degree, allow his or her students to challenge their opinions is not a very good professor, regardless of what political persuasion those opinions happen to be.</p>
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But the notion that a school should identify the partisanship of its professors and attempt to maintain some kind of balance seems ridiculous to me.
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<p>Why would that be ... ridiculous? Ridiculous at private institutions or ridicilous at public schools? </p>
<p>Looking at the political landscape, it is pretty obvious that the country is VERY balanced between liberals and non-liberals views. So, why would not be blessed with a balance in the political "persuasions" of the people in charge of educating the children of this great country if the citizens do contribute to the expenses in a balanced manner -- and that assumes that the funding is balanced. </p>
<p>This is not very different from the political support of the NEA: while the number of teachers who are NOT liberals represent a substantial percentage of the entire membership, the financial support of political candidates is almost exclusively delivered to ... non conservatives. </p>
<p>The only thing that is utterly ridiculous is that our society has grown to accept such blatant ... injustice. We see little problems in ensuring that our schools remain religion neutral, but seem pretty happy to allow them to be dominated --read poisoned-- by a one-sided political agenda. </p>
<p>Ridiculous, indeed!</p>
<p>Wouldn't it be a better assignment if the students were required to write an argument from the viewpoint they don't support? So liberal students have to write something in support of Palin, and conservatives have to write something against her.</p>
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While it could be "interesting" to use current events to teach and develop the concepts of critical thinking, there are PLENTY of better subjects than a VERY recent news, and especially one about which little CONCLUSIVE is known.
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Excellent point.</p>
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So liberal students have to write something in support of Palin, and conservatives have to write something against her.
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So what so the apolitical kids write? I think if the goal is to truly assign an exercise in "critical thinking," then every student should deliver both pro and con arguments.</p>
<p>Xiggi,</p>
<p>The political map of the entire country is fairly balanced (assuming the roughly 50% of people who don't vote do not lean in a particular direction). But by state, region, and even specific schools, it can vary to great extremes. I've been to Notre Dame and Columbia, for instance, two schools on very opposite ends of the spectrum where the political ideologies are far from balanced among the student bodies.</p>
<p>So you don't think it's a ridiculous idea to identify professor partisanship and strive for balance among liberals and conservatives? Does this count only for professors of certain disciplines? Just poli sci? All humanities? Or even the math and physics profs? </p>
<p>Then, what do you do with the professors who aren't political? Who don't submit to a simple, categorical ideology? You're thinking in black and white terms. My school has a lot of liberal professors, but even among this group, there is a tremendous variety of conflicting opinions. As someone who does not consider himself a standard conservative or liberal, I really don't think there is any conscious attempt on the part of academia to promote a unified agenda.</p>
<p>You also get into problems of political affirmative action. Tenure is already incredibly competitive at top schools. So if these schools with largely liberal professors announce their intention to hire the same amount of conservatives, then we'll see a lot of academics abruptly "converting" to conservatism.</p>
<p>I'm not thrilled with the so-called bias at many institutions, but so long as partisanship is not the reason a professor was hired and so long as it doesn't interfere with their job (research and teaching), then I don't see it as a huge problem. There are plenty of great schools that have a conservative edge (Notre Dame, Duke, etc), for applicants that are truly concerned. But even here at liberal Columbia, the Young Republicans is our most active club and the conservatives I know don't feel ostracized at all. In fact, they enjoy the constant opportunities for debate.</p>
<p>I think if you look at the total numbers of classes taught including HS the number of "strange" folks is limited.</p>
<p>Xiggi-- I think you are incorrect about non-liberal views being unacceptable on campuses. My father is a rabid conservative who has had no problem getting tenure at a major public university. Many of his associates are also quite conservtive professors. </p>
<p>On your point about NEA spending-- it is quite simple: The goals of the NEA are most directly supported and advanced by the Democratic platform, not the Republican one. Like any other group, the NEA puts in political contributions in the hands of candidates most likely to vote their way.</p>
<p>I think the more interesting question is why such a high percentage of our very best educated people are liberal rather than conservative....</p>
<p>College is not kindergarten.</p>
<p>I do think that the higher eduction communities, especially those well-known universities and colleges, tend to be more liberal. My theory is that the professors don't live in a "real word" and they tend to be more idealistic. Idealism brews liberal values.</p>
<p>Dierdre: What university and what subject? Economics proffessors are known to be more conservative, while gender studies are often rabid liberals. At Washington and Lee, you may find a higher percentage of conservative proffessors than say, Swathmore. In general, though I would say Xiggi is pretty much right. Liberals rule the ivory-tower world.</p>