My 18-year-old student sat in my office, apologizing for his conservative views. He was eager to please me, a professor well to his left politically, but unsure what that meant for his convictions.
Education suffers when students hide their beliefs as soon as they arrive on campus, wary of what others may think. These students are often absent from their writing. Yet someone like my student, shaped by background and experience, becomes a stronger writer when his authentic self guides his work.
He had just returned to New York after a week of rebuilding homes in a disaster-stricken area in the south; his priest wrote his absence note.
Praising his values, I told him never to apologize for what he believes since he never has to agree with me, his classmates, or anything we read or watch. I also told him I wanted to read something about him with a hammer and nails in hand, as well as what prompted him to volunteer.
This scene has repeated itself over decades in private schools, CUNY and Catholic schools. I say this as a professor at NYU and Pace University and a former professor at Brooklyn College, the College of Staten Island, St. Francis, and St. Joseph’s. For this reason, I have made it a point to dismantle assumptions about such beliefs by encouraging students to think for themselves and engage in critical thinking and synthesis without a predetermined conclusion. My job is not to teach people what to think but to teach the process of thinking.
My job is also to make students feel heard and validated. Students who feel disrespected may not succeed academically. How can they learn the type of writing they need for college and beyond if they do not buy into what they are saying? I know I cannot.
A few veterans in my classes have expressed concern that espousing the “wrong” political ideology (at least what may be perceived as wrong in fairly liberal universities) will earn them low grades. Some, having fought for our freedom of speech, remain silent. Yet I have given many A and A minus final grades to veterans, the one who wrote a scathing paper on liberals opposed to war included. It was well researched and included incredible military interviews.
Veterans are not alone in their assumptions about professors and political ideology. Another student once told me, "My father said never to trust my crazy liberal professors, but you're okay." Far from home and on their own for the first time, many students worry about fitting in with teachers and peers. Youth culture claims to celebrate nonconformity, but I have had students tell me that expressing the wrong opinion can come at a social cost. Self-censorship also takes an emotional toll and leaves little room for genuine exploration unless the professor deliberately creates space for it.
I remember that pull quite well, wanting to be accepted by my peers. In the 1980s, many conservative students bonded by defining themselves in opposition to anti-establishment culture, movements advocating for marginalized groups, and, especially, people like me. I was also penalized by some conservative instructors for not aligning with their views. As a result, I came to believe that rejection moved in only one direction. Experience later showed me otherwise and shaped my promise to myself: I would never treat my students the way I had been treated.
The young man who tried to apologize for being conservative did well in my class. He came to me for extra help a few times during the semester, no longer worried if our ideas were not the same. Over time, he stopped trying to anticipate what I wanted and began to write what he actually believed. He never apologized for his beliefs again.
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