You’ve just demonstrated the beauty of catch phrases: You can spend an eternity debating what it means. In the meantime, four years pass by rather quickly.
I think the reason why the discussion about Critical Race Theory often doesn’t go well when it occurs is because it is often presented as one group vs another, and one group inevitably feeling blamed and then getting defensive.
If it were presented in terns of power tactics by the powerful to exploit and oppress those without power, I think that the conversation can become more inclusive because we can all identify with both the feelings and experience of being exploited and oppressed. Solutions can then be explored by looking at how to end exploitation and oppression wherever it exists, rather than simply solving the problem by blaming an entire group and holding them accountable for the misfortunes of others.
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Fifty years ago, it was considered controversial to suggest that the Emancipation Proclamation did not actually end slavery (it only freed slaves in the states then “in rebellion” - not in the North.) Today, we celebrate Juneteenth just the same as though it did. So, for me, the label “CRT” is far less important than what is actually being taught.
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Actually, not even that initially, since it could only be applied immediately to areas of states in rebellion that Union troops had gained control of, since Confederate controlled areas obviously would not obey it. Of course, as Union troops increased the territory under their control, they could apply that order to those newly controlled areas.
IIRC, it was DuBois who contended that there was a strategic purpose behind freeing the Confederate slaves; it was hoped that they would abandon the plantations in advance of federal troops arriving, thus hastening the South’s economic collapse. But, there you have it: we’re having a discussion of a tiny corner of CRT - and, no one got hurt.
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Aside from whether or not you would be happy at Middlebury (or at any of the many other liberal arts colleges where many of the students hold political views that do not jibe with yours), have you considered the U of Utah? Very different environment, but the STEM ed is good, surely you could minor in Spanish, lots of scientific research going on there, and the skiing/hiking/outdoor recreation is incredible - far, far better than Middlebury’s, and better than anything in Vermont on 95% of the days between Dec 1 and May 15 (even 4th of July, some years). There will be Catholic students there, and there will be a significant number of politically conservative students there, what with the Mormon population.
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To come back to @2026 's question, no, I don’t believe that you would be discriminated at Midd for being either a conservative or a Catholic - and I say this is as liberal and an Episcopalian.
What matters is the quality of the argument you make, the evidence you adduce and the clarity of the language you use. When marking my students’ work it is easy to sympathise with “George W. Bush and Tony Blair are war criminals for the 2003 Iraq invasion”, but simply saying this (and/or “becuase they’re all bad” or somesuch nonsense) won’t win you a great score.
Rahter, your liberal student would need to demonstrate:
(a) that the 2003 Iraq invasion was illegal under international law (and that international law superseded US and British domestic law);
(b) that agression of this type was an international crime in 2003; and that
(c) agression in 2003 was understood to be a leadership crime which Bush and Blair could be held individually responsible for.
(For bonus points, you could explore in (d) what would be the appropriate court to try them in.)
Alternatively, a conservative could write a perfectly credible essay that would explore whether there was a Kosovo style “illegal but permissable” excuse for Iraq based on the crimes of the Saddam Hussien regime; after all, almost no-one calls for Bill Clinton and Tony Blair to be tried for agression in Kosovo.
Midd’s faculty are all excellent academics and if you make a coherent, evidenced-based argument - even one that they personally deeply disagree with - you’ll be fine. And if you don’t, you’re toast whether they agree with you or not…
CP
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Thank you for your response!
Of course, more than happy to help.
CP
Hi 2026,
Chiming in a bit late, but I am a junior at Middlebury and am politically moderate. In my opinion, the school itself and the administration try hard to facilitate a welcoming environment for conservatives to express their views. There is a large contingent of students who are very much opposed to socially conservative views. If you’re very pro-life or anti LGBT in some way I would advise that should be kept a bit close to the chest. More fiscally conservative stuff and neoconservative foreign policy stuff, some students might give you an eyeroll but it doesn’t bother people quite as much as the socially conservative stuff.
In my view, there are more than a few far leftist professors(particularly in certain language departments and humanities/social sciences) so they may challenge your views. Some of my professors recently have been quite far left and tried to teach their ideology as indisputable fact(one professor blamed America for 9/11 happening in a religion class). I personally suspect I may have been marked down by one particular language professor for expressing some more moderate views on a paper(my grade on that assignment was more than 10 points lower than on every other assignment, and the work quality was the same), but none of my other professors have done anything like that.
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So there are no “rightist” professors at Middlebury?
Also,
Did you discuss this with your professor as to why you were graded lower? It seems like total supposition, but if it so flagrant as you say, surely you questioned the basis for the lower grade?
As I posted up thread a long time ago, I know Midd parents who are in a parent group whose kids specifically help each other remove more moderate language and beliefs from their papers prior to turning them in. Some of these families have had multiple students attend Midd, and this group has been together for 6+ years. I am not a Midd parent, so can’t detail specific classroom or grading practices from personal experience, but what I am saying about these students and parents is fact.
I am predisposed to believe what @middkid1800 is saying because I have heard a number of students and their parents say the same.
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Hopefully, that’s not considered cheating at Middlebury. 
Rather than doing this, if the issue is so widespread, pernicious, and blatant, students should be complaining to the Middlebury administration. Leftist or rightist should not factor into a grade.
Also, as several, including me, have said, there are very different issues where the source is not credible vs. the politics of what is being said. There are some great examples in this thread.
Of course it shouldn’t. But, it’s naive to believe it doesn’t happen, no matter the college we are talking about.
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I think the issue is one of systemic vs. one-off. If it is systemic, as some seem to indicate, that is very much an institutional problem.
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I agree. And more than several Midd students seem to agree.
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Thank you for your response! It helps to get a perspective from a current student. It would be more fiscally conservative viewpoints.
Sigh.
I have seen some of those “Middlebury parents” on the Midd parents’ FB page. Since parents have been banned for posting antisemitic conspiracy theories, the crazier and more evil COVID conspiracy theories, etc, I do not know how much I can believe parents when they claim to be “moderate”. Believing that Western culture is inherently superior to all other cultures, or that the Civil War was not about slavery is not “moderate”.
Besides, I have very little faith in parents who, instead of teaching their kids facts and arguments to support their own opinions. Instead of letting kids actually think about opposing views, these parents “helping” their kids write papers. It seems to me that these parents were actually just finding the best way to keep their kids from considering opposing points of view.
The second best way to avoid considering opposing points of view, or considering the weaknesses in your own points of view is to mindlessly parrot back your opponents’ opinions as though the were your own. That is what these parents are helping their kids do.
There is irony in that conservatives keep on complaining about how “liberal” so many “elite” colleges are. Yet, these same conservatives prefer to send their kids to those colleges. If you think that only left leaning colleges are able provide the right atmosphere and education for your kid, perhaps you should start rethinking your own opinions.
I mean, if your opinions match those of the faculty of Hillsdale, Biola, etc, why are you sending your kid to Middlebury?
The real problem here is that it was in a religion class, and irrelevant.
Also, did the professor “blame the USA”, or did the professor blame the policies of the Reagan administration during the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR? These are two very different things. Blaming “the USA” demonstrates a very weak understanding of how things work in the world. Most Americans had no idea that the armed groups that the Reagan administration was supporting were violent religious fanatics. On the other hand, there is direct line between the extensive support and training that the Reagan administration gave to the Taliban and to other Jihadist groups and the ability of the Taliban to successfully pull off suicide attack on American civilians - so laying blame on the Reagan administration is legitimate historical opinion.
Here is the true test of whether a person is a “moderate”, as opposed to right-wing. If you think that being anti-LGBTQ is acceptable, you’re not socially moderate. There is no “somewhat anti-LGBTQ”.
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Faculty political bias in grading has occurred on many campuses for decades. Students accept it and move on. 40 years ago, at a similar school a classmate was unfortunate enough to have the most conservative and liberal professors in the department as her thesis readers. She got an A and an F, respectively, causing quite a stir on campus.
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I have two kids. I think I’m a lot more conservative than one who I think would have liked Middlebury and a little less conservative than the one who I think would have hated it. Not sure you can judge kids by their parents or what you think the parents are trying to tell their kids.
My sister went to Middlebury. I’d say she was ‘college kid liberal’ at the time, and I’d say my father was a person who thought he was liberal and democratic and in fact was not at all. He was more an Archie Bunker. Of course he wouldn’t have spent 5 minutes on a parent blog or FB.