Professors on the modern college campus are often condemned by conservatives for having a liberal bias. This liberal orthodoxy supposedly suppresses differing points of view. Whether that’s true or not, I believe whatever the bias — be it liberal, conservative, socialist, reactionary or something else — students and professors should not conceal them.
If done correctly, making this bias transparent can open up discourse instead of shutting it down.
How can I justify encouraging professors and students to project their biases proudly? The typical line in journalism is to cover topics without fear or favor. Surely this applies to professors and students as well.
But this standard is mistaken. While people in a particular position may try to suppress their biases, they’ll still exist. Biases magnify certain details and downplay others, even unconsciously. This doesn’t go away in the classroom.
If someone is discussing a contentious issue such as abortion, foreign policy or immigration, they will most likely have some sort of bias that affects their presentation of the facts. It may not be intentional, but the emotional aspect of our thought process is very strong.
Without knowing someone’s bias, we could be missing half the story and not even know it. However, if their bias was made clear, we could more reasonably infer possible blind spots.
While professors are understandably better-read than students, having biases affect your presentation of ideas is still a natural part of the human experience — They are as faulty as the rest of us.
As such, I believe that the best way to foster deeper understanding among students is for us to understand the possible biases that come with the lecture and consider any opposing points of view that may not be as apparent.
Instead of having an unspoken elephant in the room that the wrong point of view might be shunned, laying bare one’s biases and simultaneously welcoming dissident perspectives makes expression easier.
Far from worrying about whether a paper or a question would be transgressive, a student can argue from their own biases and views knowing they are transgressive. This permits a respectful exchange of different ideas instead of making students constantly tiptoe around a subject, worrying about what might cross the line for the professor.
In fact, when a professor acknowledges his or her bias on a topic and makes it clear that they welcome differing viewpoints, I find it much easier to disagree with them than if the professor did not acknowledge their biases.
When bias is accepted as a component of one’s view, potential for heterodox opinions is possible too.
In a politically charged environment, disagreements can often become tense. Making the ordeal an open book by disclosing biases also recognizes that imperfect and immutable aspect of the human condition we all share. It allows us to lighten the tension by sharing such an experience, and in a college environment where the majority of students refrain from expressing some of their views out of concern for consequences, lightening this tension is crucial.
Most importantly, however, I don’t want to sound like I am putting the onus solely on our professors. Even though they have their biases like the rest of us, they are the most educated and therefore more likely than anyone else to be able to steelman opposing views. It is even more important for us, as students, to actively seek out ideas that challenge our current ones as we learn.
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