Professors, Your Political Views Don’t Matter in the Classroom
November 10, 2012
Recently, President Obama came to BGSU. Regardless of your political views, having the President of the United States visit your school and talk to students is a honor. Unfortunately, several of my professors did not share this view and, because of the election, I noticed changes in the teaching style of some of my professors.
One example occurred recently. My marketing professor is a great at what he does and is accommodating to students, so I was surprised by the way he clearly displayed his political views when President Obama came to my school. Not only did he rescheduled a test for the day Obama was speaking, he also gave extra credit to the students who showed up to his class on that day.
To me, this is totally unacceptable and is not professional. As a professor, he should never have shown favoritism to the students who missed Obama’s speech to go to his class, whether for political reasons or not. Though, attendance is important, so much more is a visit from the President.
His actions made me think about how strongly a professor’s political views should be expressed during their teaching.
This topic depends significantly on the class the professor is teaching. Since I am a journalism major and a senior, most of the classes I am taking do not deal with politics directly. However, many students take a more varied classes during their first couple years of college. Classes such as political science, international relations and history usually discuss politics.
I don’t believe that their is anything wrong with expressing your views. The problem comes into play when your teaching is one sided because of your political views. It can be a challenge to maintain a non-biased tone in the classroom, especially when you have strong opinions about politics. However, as a professor you are not doing your job if your teaching is one-sided.
It bothers me as a student when professors use up valuable class time expressing their views on political issues that have nothing to do with the class subject matter. Students pay to learn, not to spend class time hearing all about their professor’s political views.