A shockingly large number of college professors these days think of themselves as “change agents” who care mainly about indoctrinating their students with a wide array of “progressive” beliefs. All we can say is try to avoid them as much as possible. There are still quite a few who care about passing along skills and bodies of knowledge. They might be very interested in improving their craft.
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor Robert E. Wright offers his thoughts to them, particularly when confronting dramatic events.
“For starters, keep it positive. By that, I don’t mean upbeat; I mean not normative. Make claims that, if not empirically supported, are at least inherently testable or falsifiable. Don’t pass moral judgements; just inform students what happened and help them to understand, to the extent possible, why it happened,” he writes.
Indeed so. Students are not paying money to be regaled with opinions. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has said that throughout its existence. Act like a professional and don’t abuse your position.
Wright also advocates intellectual humility:
Next, stay intellectually humble. I don’t mean give up the pursuit of knowledge; I mean acknowledge that some things are inherently unknowable, and many other things remain unknown. The intellectually humble professor does not privilege his or her own views over those of others without empirical evidence of their superiority. Teach students methods to address past, present, and future problems, not to memorize conclusions based on incomplete data, sources, or theory. Talk in terms of hypotheses, not conclusions.
That’s sound. Most students will respond better to such teaching than to heavy-handed indoctrination.
Read the whole thing.