Should students be punished for recording their instructors?

[Jane_Smythe]

@DSYoungEsq

No. No. No. A thousand times NO.

The whole POINT to tenure is to protect professors from their viewpoints, as expressed in a classroom. They are expected to take controversial viewpoints. It’s their JOB, damn-it. They aren’t there to regurgitate uncontroversial pablum; that’s available to anyone who wants to look it up in books. The job of a professor is to expand the thinking of college students, to challenge their viewpoints on subjects and make them come to terms with those challenges. They are called “professors” for a reason (hint, look up the definition of the underlying verb).

What they have to be careful of is letting their personal viewpoints impinge upon their assessment of student achievement. That is, giving a student a “C” for coursework that would have earned an “A”, had it been couched in terms consistent with the professor’s viewpoint. I had one of those once, a political science professor at my alma mater who had a particular viewpoint about the use of Mutually Assured Destruction to guarantee world peace. I disagreed with him, regularly, in class, and on my final exam, wrote what I thought was an excellent answer establishing exactly how he was wrong and what could be done to supplement his thinking. I received a barely passing grade; a friend who wrote a much less detailed, much less well-thought-out answer (his viewpoint, not mine!) which sucked up to the professor’s viewpoint (again, his statements, not mine!) got an “A”. That sort of teaching is to be avoided.

But controversial opinions? Those are expected, nay, required of a professor. God help us when the day comes that professors don’t express controversial thoughts.

(Which should not be read as a justification for what THIS particular professor said in this particular rant; as always, there are no absolutes, and some limits do exist.)

NO, NO, NO. The sign of a good educator is to allow all perspectives and encourage critical thinking skills so that students learn to consider varying perspectives and make their own decisions, form their own perspectives. It IS the teacher’s job to illustrate different perspectives, but not to be biased and argue one over another. Considering all perspectives or many perspectives is not “regurgitating pablum.” It is presenting a broad vision of reality. To discuss controversial topics is one thing, to promote your own agenda is another and is not appropriate.

The issue is epistemology. “Epistemology is the study of the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief. It analyzes the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims” We need to teach students to evaluate all knowledge claims, not feed them our own.

The goal of a good education is teaching students to think for themselves. Presenting one perspective as a way of believing something is okay, promoting it above others is not.