Should I stand up to my liberal teacher?

I'm not too sure I understand. Could you rephrase?

 

I know. I haven't had her for too long, and our activites so far seem left leaning but moderate, not really political. Maybe I should just give her sometime before I do anything.

 

Actually, you are in pretty good shape because you have real world experience on the different ideologies of our peoples. You being brainwashed doesn't seem likely to happen. In other words...you sound pretty grounded. Its the ones without a clue that are most vulnerable to "brainwashing".

Personally, if it were me, I wouldn't be argumentive or disrespectful but I would express my principals to the best of my ability during the debates and essays.

 

Absolute gibberish. Most highly educated people in academia may be on the left, but they are certainly not all democrats. I just finished a grad program at a very esteemed university, and I can tell you that the majority of the students AND professors like neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. Some may vote for Democrats as the lesser of two evils, but very few like Democrats. What actually intelligent people do, is see through the political theater involved in the two party system....

As far as they OP. As others have said, as long as the grade isn't damaged, who cares? Being unbiased is impossible. Moderation is in and of itself, a form of bias. My AP government teacher (10 years ago now, I feel so old), was a crazy far right Republican. I openly clashed with him in class (though I was not as left-wing then, as I am now), but he was always amazingly kind to me. He wrote one of my letters of recommendation for college. He was funny and one of my favorite teachers. He never let our political differences change his opinion of me, and despite the fact that I openly disagreed with him in class, it never influenced our relationship and never influenced my grade.

 

Teachers come and go but yeah if you have a point feel free to make it, just don't go to the point you get in trouble. We had a class back in highschool where they were talking about shutting down the dams to save the fish. I was the only person who thought it was a bad idea because it would affect the power grid and cost millions. Also since we have hatcheries already it didn't seem like a huge problem. They respected that. Later we had a group come in and talk about battered spouses. Needless to say men were not represented, and the people speaking did not pay much credence to the idea of men being on the beat down side. The entire class was pissed. I ended up getting a candy bar and a atta-boy for my paper talking about how if you are going to come in and talk about an issue that you need to talk about all side involved.

Honestly though it's teacher dependent and you can't just fill up class time when there are things to be taught. Some issues are also off the table. My buddy is a science teacher and he has a quick speech for any time God is brought up in class (ID, whatever). He basically just says "That's not what we are here to learn about. You don't have to believe what I'm teaching but you need to know it to pass the test at the end of class. Your beliefs are your own and that's fine, but we're not going to go into that subject."

The kids seem to respect that.

 

I know, and she has those moments when she'll share a personal experience with the class. But it's to the point where I really do feel that she is trying to teach us about liberalism. We have to do an essay explaining our political ideology. I don't know what she's going to say about mine but still. It's something I will be sharing.

 

With any luck it'll be good things. Certainly should be if she's going to make you write a paper on it.

 

My worry is she's going to call it naive or try to find holes in my logic, but will pass a liberal student.

 

It's possible that they will, but you should end up with the same grade. Besides having your point of view challenged is always a good thing. You want to be firm in your beliefs or, if the other side has an argument, able to change. At no point should you be so dedicated that you will not change your opinion based on the facts at hand. For instance as things stand now I believe in the free market, that people should earn a living, and that we should maximize freedom. In the future, as things become more automated, that's just not going to work (well other than the maximize freedom part). If tomorrow all fast food restruants replaced their employees with robots, we'd have a huge jump in unemployed, unskilled workers and would not have jobs for them. My political philosophy could no longer work without either exporting or just paying for these people. It's actually something that we'll have to address within our lifetime and sort of are.

It had long been thought that if there was a lesure class that it would be the rich (and in a way it is), but it seems that people who simply don't have the ability to work with technology will have to be it. Capitalism would destroy them and cause massive issues to the point of uprising. Seriously if 10%+ of the population could not work and did not get food, water, and shelter things would go ape (*)(*)(*)(*), and unless things change that will be the future. It's not a bad future, Star Trek is awesome, but the transition will either make us or break us.

 

I would want her to find the holes in my logic as well. I want to keep thinking and learn more about how the world's problems can be solved. Because of PF, and everyone thinking their own way about issues, I have become who I am. Someone who believes that basic services should be provided, but a free market is also desirable. But I don't want her passing some liberal kid because they agree with her, and failing someone because she disagrees with them. But I don't know how she'll grade it, and it might not even be a problem. I haven't even started the essay yet.

 

Don't worry about grades. Honestly no one will care other than you. Beyond that if you have a coherent thought I'm sure she will pass you, at least I hope. Write what you want so long as it fits the standard presented. I would bet 20 to 1 that you'll be fine. Stay on here to discuss, or in my case bash fellow posters. Sorry but there comes a point.

 

What are your political leanings? You have always struck me as vaguely liberal. What changed?

 

If I cared about grades I would pay attention in Math class. I'll let you guys know how my essay turns out.

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I'm a moderate with Collective anarchist leanings. My worry is she thinks that I'm a liberal and when she hears I don't think there should be as much government have a different opinion of me that affects my grades.

 

I don't consider exposing one to a different view than one possesses as indoctrination.

 

Really? Have you asked Bill Gates?

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And when they don't, one is capable of changing their opinion. That's why they are called opinion.

 

If you cared about success in this world environment, you'd pay attention in Math Class.

 

I don't think that a classroom is place to express extreme political opinion. I have always opposed to that, even when my instructors opinion goes along with mine. This kind of discussions goes forever, and everyone ends up being upset with no real accomplishment to show for it.

 

You mean that math class the chances of me using one maybe two things in this class is next to nothing? I have more important classes to pay attention to, and I'm not going to work hard in a class I don't like.

 

Well, a good way to counter argue her is to stick with economics.
Economics is not about left wing, mostly about right. The goal is to put resources in most productive use. It is about efficient money management.

So for example, any point she could bring about socialist government spending, you could say that it would be better to invest the money in assets that return money on their investment.
Finance is all about investment appraisals..if you invest in resources that dont return money on your investment (government spending) than you incur a loss..and from there the GDP will simply be lower and the economy wont reach its full capacity or expand.

So instead of investing on senior healthcare, some of whom already out of the labor force, it would be wiser to invest on education and urban infrastructure.

You cant be beaten by a socialist whatever he brings upon you! When socialists try to beard down on helping the poor, they lose sight of the economic consequences and opportunity costs that are going bad or lost.

 

I can both agree and disagree. I think that when it comes to politics in general that the classroom should avoid it. However when it comes to a specific issue I think it can be a good exercise. It can allow students to take a side, find facts about the issue (on their own, not just presented as that can sway the conversation), then present their arguments. That kind of critical thinking needs to be encouraged and is something our society sorely lacks. Right or wrong shouldn't be the qualification of the grade in such an exercise, but the effort and facts presented.

 

A moderate with....... collective anarchist leanings???? I am sorry, but that does not compute to me. I also have collectivist anarchist leanings, and the idea that you could hold both those sets of beliefs simultaneously seems ridiculous to me. I am far to the left. If you have collectivist anarchist leanings, you are too, and you just don't know it yet.

 

Wow!! So you think when people are educated, challenging their preconceived notions of hegemonic and dominant discourses, is a bad thing? Wow!! The whole point of education should be to challenge people to think critically, challenge preconceived notions, question those in power, etc. Instead its goal is to produce good docile citizens and good capitalist producers. To create people who show up on time, do their work on time, sit in one place quietly, submit to authority, pledge allegiance to the flag, etc, etc, etc. We are training worker drones, when we should be training thoughtful citizens capable of critical thinking. That is not useful to those who wield political and economic power though, so it doesn't happen. However, if kids somehow get a teacher who does push them to do the things I listed, and doing that REQUIRES one to hold at least somewhat extreme political opinions, I can think of nothing negative that can come out of that.

 

Economics is a field that produces both left and right wing thinkers. Your post is completely nonsensical and inaccurate.

 

It is a Government class I suppose. Does she allow the students an opportunity to interject or is it strictly preaching?

 

Has the OP checked back in with an update?