A place for professors of Spanish Literature to complain about or defend the field.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Adendum to Fish
I ran across an article on Stanley Fish's continuing crusade to banish politics from the Academy on thisChronicle blog. It's about an MLA session a month or so ago that I would have paid to see.
I have to say that as a student I haven't had much experience with Professors seeking to impose their political views in the classroom, both as an undergrad and grad student. As a professor, however, I have noticed that during campaign season, many of the lecturers who have offices in my corridor used their office hours to convince students of how to vote, which seems repugnant to me. That said, I don't think a campaign against politics in the classroom is the answer. I think that the good thing about academia (at least in theory) is that it can be a place where reason is applied to difficult issues without being held hostage to sound bites or campaign rhetoric.
That is shocking to me that there are actually profs out there doing election campaign work among students.
Yeah, Fish might have picked the wrong approach to say that multiple angles on any issue should be included in class discussions. And I am glad to see that there are still people out there who believe in the concept of "reason."
I don't politicize the classroom but sometimes things do come up where I do take a stand and express my opinion. I think we all do this through our readings of literature or through our history or cultural discussions.At the same time, I try to show both sides and I never carry a placard or put political propaganda in my office. But yeah we need to teach students to reason through the arguments.
Back to Dr. Biden. Maybe the fact that she insisted on being called Dr. Biden annoyed people. I dont' insist on it--the title is not on my personal checks or mail. But if you want to go that route, go for it.
Yes, in fact, I think it is impossible to avoid having your personal views come out in a class, especially if the student asks you point blank. That is why I think Fish's proposal is unreasonable and frankly I think it is his way of keeping himself in the public eye.
4 comments:
I have to say that as a student I haven't had much experience with Professors seeking to impose their political views in the classroom, both as an undergrad and grad student. As a professor, however, I have noticed that during campaign season, many of the lecturers who have offices in my corridor used their office hours to convince students of how to vote, which seems repugnant to me. That said, I don't think a campaign against politics in the classroom is the answer. I think that the good thing about academia (at least in theory) is that it can be a place where reason is applied to difficult issues without being held hostage to sound bites or campaign rhetoric.
That is shocking to me that there are actually profs out there doing election campaign work among students.
Yeah, Fish might have picked the wrong approach to say that multiple angles on any issue should be included in class discussions. And I am glad to see that there are still people out there who believe in the concept of "reason."
I don't politicize the classroom but sometimes things do come up where I do take a stand and express my opinion. I think we all do this through our readings of literature or through our history or cultural discussions.At the same time, I try to show both sides and I never carry a placard or put political propaganda in my office. But yeah we need to teach students to reason through the arguments.
Back to Dr. Biden. Maybe the fact that she insisted on being called Dr. Biden annoyed people. I dont' insist on it--the title is not on my personal checks or mail. But if you want to go that route, go for it.
Yes, in fact, I think it is impossible to avoid having your personal views come out in a class, especially if the student asks you point blank. That is why I think Fish's proposal is unreasonable and frankly I think it is his way of keeping himself in the public eye.
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