<p>Around 90% of teachers I've ever had have not been very good about staying objective in controversial conversation... such as abortion, (thoughts on George W Bush), and just overall perspective. I know teachers aren't expected to stay impartial but at my school they actually push their views onto the students and favor one way of thinking over another frequently... mostly English teachers. </p>
<p>One English teacher I had gave me a D- on a heavily weighted argumentative paper, not because I didn't use enough sources or cite them properly, or because my grammar was awful or my arguments didn't have support... See, my paper was on how staying in Iraq was best for the country (this was like 9th grade, lay off), so on the back of my paper (which was otherwise UNMARKED by the teacher) she just wrote "Poor reasoning, invalid points. Try thinking harder about the points you make on hot-button issues like this one before making generalizations" and slapped me with a D-. I tried to talk to her about it but she said she wasn't "going to fight me on this one". </p>
<p>So share any stories you've had of teachers who have been ridiculously liberal/conservative and the way they have pushed it onto or overly conveyed it to their students... or even share a story about some of the impressive teachers who have been tactful enough to conceal their slants from the class.</p>
<p>Most of my teachers have an obvious slant, but they don’t let it interfere with their grading. </p>
<p>I started fighting with my AP English teacher last year about gay pride parades (I have no idea how we got onto that topic). I am against them. I don’t think there should be pride parades of any sort but that’s a long story as to why. We butted heads over this all second semester and finally I just said “You don’t even know what it’s like to go out in public with your girlfriend and have only two reactions- disgust or guys who want to watch.” And went on about it because I was just sick of it. </p>
<p>Next thing I know, all of my papers (which had previously been straight A’s) dropped down to C/Ds, because “I didn’t develop my ideas fully”. Which is bull because there were much worse papers that got A/Bs. </p>
<p>I don’t mind teachers like that as long as it doesn’t interfere with the grading. Their tirades get you to thinking about your own position on the issues, and consider their arguments.</p>
<p>My AP US History teacher is a complete ***** about these things. Our class is pretty split with liberals/conservatives, and generally the smarter kids are liberal (including myself). Whenever I happen to be chosen to argue in a conservative view (imperialism, Darwin, etc), I get an A. Whenever I am chosen to argue in a liberal view, I ALWAYS get a B, which is completely dumb considering I know a lot more about it. I love ridiculous teachers.</p>
<p>Ya my AP US teacher told our class that Obama was the only reasonable selection for President and got a ton of kids in the class kind of uncomfortable. Later in the year he then proceeded to explain why only lunatics would be pro-life.</p>
<p>My AP Prob and Stats teacher used to go on anti-Palin rants. They were hilarious. Even McCain supporters laughed (because even they hated Palin). </p>
<p>It’s even funnier because she’s in her 80s and is retiring so she really doesn’t care if something gets her fired.</p>
<p>I have no problem with it, as long as they initially state “now my opinion on this matter is…” so you know they’re not preaching to you, they’re just stating what they believe.</p>
<p>At my school most teachers are obviously liberal, like most schools. I do get occasional lectures with liberal slants, and very frequent cracks at Bush. But I dont think they let it influence their grading…</p>
<p>My US teacher is very conservative and expresses his views against liberalism all the time. I openly agree with him. He nominated me for student of the month. ^-^</p>
<p>My APUSH teacher and the whole class really are so liberal that it’s ridiculous at times…at many other schools in the country, I’m sure the class would never be taught like this…it doesn’t both anyone, though, because we’re all so liberal. If someone expressed a conservative opinion, though, I know my teacher would totally be fine with that and treat the person equally…it’s just that…no one ever does…lol</p>
<p>I know what party a lot of my teachers belong too. My math teacher is a democrat, my human geography teacher is a republican, and so on. But it doesn’t interfere with grading or teaching. It’s not like my teacher is saying “Only a republican would integrate like this. F!” or “Only a democrat would give this definition to intensive subsistence farming.” If my teachers want state their political beliefs, fine. If they don’t fine. It doesn’t take up a lot of class time or interfere with anyone’s learning.</p>
<p>My Economics teacher is an uber social/economic conservative. I don’t mind his economic bias when teaching the class, because, well that’s obvious. However, he keeps on informing us on “current events” on the Obama Administration, and although I don’t agree with Obama all the time, he leaves out important facts and makes it seem like Obama is always the bad guy. My class is heavily neo-conservative, so they eat it up.</p>
<p>That’s not too surprising. It’s very possible that you can argue better when you’re not emotionally invested in what you’re writing. When you’re arguing something that you agree with you might take certain logical steps for granted.</p>
<p>My school has no obvious liberal teachers, heck I can only think of two or three that are liberals and they don’t show it in class. I have two teachers that are openly conservative. One is my contemporary issues teacher, so its very noticeable. We are always writing about conservative issues, but sometimes its not too bad, like now we are doing stuff about the history of Israel and there isn’t any bias. Anyway, the whole class except for one person is to the left (slightly), and he’s a moderate republican. There are three of us who are borderline-socialist (me and two others), and one of them is an actual socialist so its an interesting class. Everyone complains that she grades harder for liberals, but I think its just that they don’t support their ideas as much as they should. I never agree with her and always get good grades. The class dynamic is cool though, she’s one of my favorite teachers.</p>
<p>The worst is my AP biology teacher. He rants all the time about political issues that have NOTHING to do with biology, like the spending bill. Its annoying, and the worst thing is that I can’t say anything because a) I don’t want it to go any longer and b) I’ll get shouted down because the whole class agrees with him either because they really do or to kiss his butt. Once he ate up a whole class talking about how evil pro-choice democrats are, and that they have abortion mobiles, and how the city-folks are luckily voted down by “good country values” so PA is pretty pro-life. Again, nothing to do with biology, and it really made me mad because he was over-simplifying everything he said from a position of teaching a class. I’m not even that strongly pro-choice. He’s also said that lack of health insurance isn’t a real problem since anyone can get medical treatment at will in this country, which is a laughably stupid thing to say. I didn’t argue of course because I wanted to learn about BIOLOGY. We’re actually about a month behind, in part because of his tangents on politics and other non-biology subjects.</p>
<p>This is a little off topic but I got to a Catholic school and gleefully enjoy arguing about everything in theology class whether I agree with it or not and I know it hurts my grade, but whatever, it’s theology. So we were reading When Bad Things Happen to Good People and it completely rejected Catholicism. So in class my teacher starts telling us how the book is law, God can’t hear our prayers, miracles aren’t real, God has no control over the world, etc. It was so funny. It’s terrible how Catholic schools try to indoctrinate children and then they get teachers who teach opposite the faith. </p>
<p><em>Sorry for the incoherence/scatterdness</em></p>