Liberal bigotry in Academe....A first-hand acccount

A young anonymous professor, posted to a Red state southern university, reports on his student's visceral reaction to his attemp to relate the Aeneid to the war in Iraq. It failed - why?

-Orson
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After class, I asked one of the students for his read on what had happened. How could the response be so heated but the question left unengaged? He replied: "You know how it is. Students don't want to disagree with their professors. Most of the students around here are pretty conservative, but they get the strong sense that their professors are liberal. And on issues like these, they're afraid to disagree." They had made assumptions about how I would think and were reluctant to contradict me.

A couple of days later, during the Republican National Convention, I ate lunch with several colleagues. The discussion turned, inevitably, to politics. The anti-Republican tenor at the table remained unbroken, but reached its zenith with this vehement comment from one colleague, "I'm not even going to watch [the convention]. I can't stand it."

I could no longer blame the students for shying away from hot-button issues like Iraq: For them, the academy does not foster thoughtful discussion of thorny issues, but harbors the potential at any time to unleash the visceral reactions of their superiors to what students think are their own reasoned political positions. For students, the risk of speaking up is much the same as it is for me: They risk losing the respect of professors and perhaps endangering their long-term aspirations.

I've come to see that, as passionate about traditions as it is, my new college leans with equal rigor to the left. That was never more apparent than in the days after the election when people like myself came under heavy attack from my colleagues for our "stupidity" in failing to vote for the enlightened candidate. "That just tells you how stupid they are; now they have no one to blame but themselves," said one. Another insisted that the result of the election was "criminal."
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2004/12/2004121501c.htm

 

Another hysterical overgeneralization about evil liberals hijacking education which I can counter with a first-hand anecdote. As a graduate teaching assistant I have taught quite a few college level courses in literature. Twice I taught a survey course on Western classical literature. In one of those classes I had a conservative student who was slightly to the left of Mussolini. There is always a strong political component to classical literature, and it definitely came out in his class comments and papers. I marked him down a couple times when his papers went off on a political tangent that didn't have anything to do with the literature, which I would do (and have done) no matter what the student's philosophy was. He ended up getting an A in class because that's what he deserved, even though I vehemently disagreed with most of the things he argued.

The lack of discussion among students has many reasons, and reason number one is generally apathy and complacency. If students don't care about a topic then the teacher has to work really, really hard to get a good debate going. A common complaint among teachers in literature is that they wish college-age students would believe more strongly in ANYTHING, either on the left or on the right. Once you get into classes of mature and nontraditional students, then you get people with more life experiences and solid beliefs and it becomes much easier to spark discussion.

Also, for the account you pasted, the teacher is obviously a conservative, and sounds like a naive one. If he has a conservative outlook, then why on earth would conservative students be afraid to speak up? The whole situation doesn't make any sense. It seems like the student was the one telling the teacher what he wanted to hear in hopes of a better grade.

 

speaking of overgeneralizations

Where's the political component in Sappho or Callimachus--or Catullus or Tibullus, for that matter? (Of course, I think they're boring as piss because there isn't.)

 

I'll just address one of those names. Catullus frequently talks about political figures in his poems, including some outrageous invective about Julius Caesar's homosexual affairs. He went to the provinces on a political appointment and had a lot to say about that as well. His poems also involve modern-day issues of freedom of speech/definition of obscenity, since some of them are so extremely filthy. Maybe you have just read some of the expurgated versions....

The Greeks and the Romans really had no idea that politics was something that should be kept separate from drama, poetry and philosophy. Even "light" entertainment like satire and farce had a lot of politics.

 

La mission civilisatrice, or, Take up the TA's burden/Send forth the best ye breed...

And maybe I've taught Latin poetry at a major RA university, too. But thanks for telling me that there are references to Caesar (and to Clodia and to other public figures) in Catullus. Gosh, I wudna ever guessed, what with reading only bowdlerized translations.

There is a difference between gossip and politics, and modern standards of obscenity have nothing to do with authorial intent* in ancient poetry.

Funny thing. You want to know why some liberals alienate the crap out of people and drive them toward being conservative, not by conviction but by default?
Try these on for size: "hysterical", "slightly to the left of Mussolini", "apathy and complacency", "naive", "telling the teacher what he wanted to hear."

Dealing with Untermeschen is such a drag.

Just what entitles you, being a grad student, to be so scornful of your
fellow students above whom you stand "dressed in a little brief authority"?

I am glad that you have some older ("nontraditional" being the accepted euphemism) and more mature students who are up to your level.





*my apologies if you are a deconstructionist

 

First of all, I have to call it like I see it. The original account is hysterical. I don't see the "bigotry" at all. Second of all, when it comes to "apathy and complacency" I'm not being superior, just practical. There are the ideals of teaching and then there is the pragmatic reality, and you have to take both into account. In an ideal world all students are bright, attentive and engaged and all teachers are paragons of wisdom and effectiveness. Guess what, that is never 100% the case, not even at Harvard. The most effective teachers are the ones who understand both their flaws and their students flaws and then do their best to compensate for those flaws. I don't see what the hell is so "superior" about my position. My point about older and nontraditional students is not they are "smarter" or "better" -- in fact, specialized language learning studies show a direct inverse correlation between age and quickness at learning a new language -- but that they have more life experience to draw on and stronger beliefs supported by that life experience, thereby making it easier to spark discussion and debate in the classroom. Do you have a serious argument against this analysis?

I still find it amazing that with your knowledge of classical literature you would claim there is no connection between politics and classical literature, and "There is a difference between gossip and politics, and modern standards of obscenity have nothing to do with authorial intent* in ancient poetry." There are plenty of conservatives who are very quick to bring out these political references, so you can't claim that only leftists do it.

 

Tolle et lege!

You don't read carefully.

I never said there is "no connection between politics and classical literature." Cripes. You said there is "always a strong political component to classical literature," a belief which is not in accord with the facts.

Thank you for the teaching tips. I am sure that I can profit from your sage advice.

 

You asked me where the political component to 4 classical authors was. Now you're attacking me for not pre-determining the specifics of your argument, as you make sweeping generalizations about my snobbishness based on my very basic analysis of the difference between regular and nontraditional students. It seems like you are not interested at all in the subject of this thread or even in explaining your viewpoint.

 

Re: La mission civilisatrice, or, Take up the TA's burden/Send forth the best ye bree

Criminy!

Orson posts a SINGLE account from a conservative prof., and then titles the thread "Liberal bigotry in Academe...A first-hand account." Not bigotry at a single school, or a single department, or the single experience of a single prof. within a single department, but rather, Academe!

qvatlanta correctly points out the "hysterical overgeneralization" of such a claim.

And then we have a shrill, "I'm smarter than you are" attack from Janko (surprise!) that has virtually nothing to do with the original post. Incredibly, in the process he attempts to explain "why some liberals alienate the crap out of people and drive them toward being conservative..." Really? I’d say he’s holding up his end of the bargain in maintaining equilibrium in the conversion game.

And to any newcomers, Janko is smarter than you are. Don't forget that. He's also a "man of the cloth." Yes, really, though he loves to berate and belittle, and point out typos, and make sarcastic fun of people (it's great marketing for religious orthodoxy). What he really loves to do is make fun of people in ways so subtle that they don't even realize they are being made fun of. That way they look really dumb, and he looks really smart - very entertaining, and really really funny.

Janko, go back and read your posts; then look in the mirror; then take a sedative, for crying out loud.

 

qvatlanta: Just the texts of your posts, that's all.

Tom57:

 

Well said Tom. I make it a lot more simple on myself by putting the ole Uncle on "ignore".

 

Which is why you posted this.

 

When I was in undergrad school at Delta State in the '70's, my International Relations instructor was extremely anti-Nixon.

I was very pro-Nixon. I made a "C" in the class. In every other political science class I took I made either an "A" or "B."

 

I don't think all liberals are fair and all conservatives are biased. I just think you can divide teachers a couple different ways:

A) Some teachers are politically to the left, others are politically to the right, some have rather unique politics that don't fit either category.

B) Some (bad) teachers allow their political outlook to influence their grading of students, other teachers are on guard against this tendency and do not.

And from my experience A doesn't really correlate with B.

 

So - does my first-hand anecdote to the contrary cancel yours out?

If these really are "overgeneralizations" as you alledge, why does all the recently gathered hard data show such wild skews to the left?

And then why does the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, refuse to hire anyone associated with the Alabama Association of Scholars?

"Hysteria?" A buddy of mine emailed the above witnessed and firsthand information to his departmental collegues and received exactly zero reaction.

-Orson

 

What hard data? And does the data show that there are more liberals than conservatives in higher academia, or that there is a pattern of active bias against conservatives by liberals? Those are two quite different things.

Also, the anecdote you cited simply did not support the extremist conclusions you were drawing from it, and it also wasn't first-hand, since the teacher was relying on the interpretation of a student about the situation. The basic situation: students didn't feel like engaging in a discussion of the Iraq War as connected to the Aeneid. As I mentioned already there could be a variety of reasons for that, and it could have had absolutely nothing to do with politics.

 

Nixon? In the 70s????

Jimmy,
Are you sure that "C" wasn't the result of too many late nights out partying??? Also, if I recall the mood of the times, even Republicans would have given you a "C" for continued support of Nixon after 1972.... LOL!

Just teasing you bro....
- Carl

 

Left Wings on Campus

Anybody who doesn't think some fields of study have a left wing bias hasn't spent much time on campuses. As an adjunct I periodically attend faculty events at the very small liberal arts college where I teach. Calling most of the full time faculty left leaning would be like calling Rush Limbaugh a moderate. The majority are way left and even banded together to start a Move-On chapter.

A good Chronicle column: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=56a4b06e77oshwaiq5psszuc2gti5neb

 

Re: Left Wings on Campus

And, assuming that more education leads to a greater understanding of the truth, this surprises you?

Or are you suggesting that becoming highly educated actually makes one less intelligent, and therefore more likely to become a "liberal" (which, according to you neo-cons is clearly a lower form of life)?

If the latter is true, then why are you in school? Why not just hang around the local working class bar and spout off about Democrats and liberals? Or better yet, inherit your daddy's wealth and privileges and lambaste all liberals from a position of unassailable power?

 

Re: Re: Left Wings on Campus

It wouldn't be a good idea to do that if there were any union members there