I never write in the morning. I'm a creature of habit and the morning is for perusing the news with a cup of coffee, and petting the cat before the dog wakes up and destroys the calm of the house. I usually wait until the day has passed before I muster up the faculties to reflect.
A shorter way of saying this is that my brain is rarely running at full capacity, and I have nothing to say. Today, not so much.
I've been reading a lot about the election lately. I've been blessed or cursed (changes depending on my mood) with a group of incredibly bright and incredibly inquisitive students this semester. They challenge me and make me defend my beliefs every bit as much as I ask them to defend theirs. We're growing as a unit, and I include my own process in there just as much as theirs. Any professor will tell you that we are never done learning, changing, and trying to find some idea of truth.
I have to read both sides of the argument, as is my duty as a teacher and a citizen. Know what I found out? University professors are, apparently, "naive ideologues." We singlehandedly got Obama elected because we unfairly influenced our students and forced them to vote for Obama through a series of academic and pseudo-intellectual coercions.
Hunh? Has the author ever MET a teenager?
I can't get my students to come to class the requisite number of days or turn in papers on time, and I supposedly hold absolute dominion over their political leanings?
I won't lie and say that wouldn't be very cool, but, I think most professors would use that control in far different ways.
Just for the record, if I could wave my hands and make my students do my bidding, I would forget about politics altogether. I'd form a crime family, not a political action committee. I'd get them to found a Suzanne-based religion and put up statues, not support one particular candidate. At the very least, if I held ultimate sway over my 120 shiny new voters, I would urge them to picket the university to give me a ridiculously high salary, not to worry about the cares and concerns of others. Since I have beenie-weenie, raman noodle months even though I'm in my 30's, this is obviously not the case.
I don't care so much about what people say about me. I'm comfortable with who I am. Took me almost 3 deacades, but here I sit. What does concern me is that these types of comments insult my students. They are doing their best to become the adults they want to be. They've entrusted me with a part of the responsibility of helping them along the way. They don't know everything; this is true, but darn it, they are getting closer at the same time they are realizing they'll never know everything (perhaps some pundits could learn the same lesson).
They're sponges, but I'm not the only water laying around.
Yes, conservative folks, I'm liberal. Shockingly so. I advocate a conspiracy of compassion and duty in my classes -- duty to your fellow man, not duty to me or a particular cause. I unilaterally advocate volunteerism and try to find ways that my students can serve their community and gain valuable insight all at one go. And the world WILL be a better place for my pushiness.
Sometimes, it even works.
Still, students challenge my beliefs and my pushiness. They are supposed to. THAT is what I am teaching them. I tell them that every great thinker who has ever existed was once a scared kid who knew little. I don't believe that anyone has ever emerged fully formed with all wisdom since Athena burts forth from Zeus' head. I tell them that they can all be Mill, or Bacon, or Kant if they study work, and think. They could even be Nietzsche, although I wish them more happiness than that.
I remind those who question my methods that there was a time when professors pushed a lot more ideology on their students than they do today -- during the Vietnam conflict. This is perhaps the high point of professorial influence in recent history. Many students were saved from going to Vietnam by professors who doled out A's to keep young boys out of the draft. In circumstances like this, I sure do believe those boys thought they owed their professors (who were saving their lives) some sort of due.
But students today aren't under those conditions. They choose their course in life, and they answer to no one, really, but themselves. They are, at their core, teenagers and young adults. They are cranky and obstinate and not interested in marching in line behind anyone but themselves.
And I applaud them for that.
I also remind everyone that those college kids during the Vietnam Conflict? Those ones who were in college when professors were almost unilaterally pushing them to continue their peace protests (students themselves sparked that, not professors)? They turned out so liberal that they helped elect Ronald Reagan twice. They bought into the "greed is good" philosophy of the eighties. They elected George Bush and later his son..... twice. They comprise a fair percentage of the Republican party now.....
Sure, university faculty have a tendency to be liberal. But we aren't stupid and a part of liberalism today is a philosophy to live and let live. We encourage openness to new ideas and as spirit of compassion to your fellow man. Developmental writing teachers like me teach Jackson's "The Lottery" every semester and we do fear tradition for tradition's sake. We ask our leaders of tomorrow to look into their lives and question every aspect. That's the point of the academy.
But the academy is just a school of thought. It is not meant to be a permanent resting place for all. It is a foundation for all who attend, but a stopping place for only a few. We give students the basis for critical thought and exploration and then send them into the real world. What they do then is completely up to them, and we sit in our crowded offices and wait to hear what happens.
Whatever they choose, we wish them well. The most important thing we do is to let them do as they wish and as their conscience dictates. We attempt to give them roots and wings, and hope for the best. It's all we can do, all we should do, and all we hope to do.
Except for maybe that statue thing -- that would be cool.
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