The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

The independent newspaper of the University of Iowa community since 1868

The Daily Iowan

Studer: Liberal menace destroys education

The+University+of+Iowa+campus+looking+west+from+Old+Capitol+and+the+Pentacrest.
Tom Jorgensen/University of iowa
The University of Iowa campus looking west from Old Capitol and the Pentacrest.

By Samuel Studer

[email protected]

Why does it seem that professors at universities are very liberal? Does it have an effect on our education? Educators might be shifting to the left, but does it seem to have an impact on our education? What does left-shifting math looked like? What about a gender-education class? That might be a different story.

Teachers might show their true thoughts and impose them on their students. Professors such as Stephen R. Ball, in a letter to the New York Times, wrote, “The best of us share our beliefs with students but encourage students to find their own voices and paths. That is the purpose of a liberal-arts education.”

In our UI classrooms, I believe that this does not happen. In classes, professors impose their thoughts on us. They will teach a lesson and share their thoughts, and they do not put different perspectives into the discussion.

Many think that the more students are educated, they tend to be more liberal. I think that students should be able to choose, and they should be given lectures that help them make an educated decision. Educators should give numerous perspectives that help us make decisions. I know that I have sat through classes in which professors have imposed their thoughts on the students. I might be more liberal, but those thoughts should not be imposed on others. How can we think for ourselves when we are told what is right and wrong?

Another issue: It is very hard to hear the voices of conservative students, because they do not want to share their voices in a sea of liberal students. Why would they want to be different?

As Joyce Appleby wrote to the Times, “When I was an active member of the UCLA history faculty in 1996, I tried to organize a student-faculty debate on the presidential race. Getting a liberal student and faculty member was easy, as was getting a conservative student, but finding a willing conservative faculty member proved much more difficult. In fact, the only person available was spending the year at Stanford. The debate never took place.”

This just shows how difficult it is to try to get people to voice their opinions. It makes them seem different and unusual in comparison with their peers. This is not OK.

They should have the right to express what they believe; they should not feel that they should conform to a certain political stance. Professors need to try to work toward making lectures and class more politically neutral. Liberals have grown more proportionate on college campuses, and they impose their thoughts on students all over the United States. We need to try to work toward education systems that value both liberal and conservatives. In the classroom setting, take a second and see how your professors teach. How do they view the world? You do have a right to disagree with what they say.

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