I was sitting in class the other day when a classmate made a comment about how a professor stated in one of his classes that during the Super Bowl there are more incidences of spousal abuse than any other time of the year. The student making the comment did not believe the professor — he was stating what was said.
This really got me thinking about how much worth students put into a professor’s comment or opinion. I believe that some students on this campus put too much faith into what a professor says or is teaching instead of looking at the sources themselves and researching the facts. Some students never think for themselves or question what the professor is teaching.
In my ethnic studies class last semester my professor pulled a stunt that has made me think more than in any other class I have taken here at the University. She gave us a syllabus full of busy work. Any student in that class would have said that it was a bunch of busy work.
One of the assignments was to do a class project and the goal of the project was to educate the campus about race and ethnicity. As the class started working on the project, a couple of us started to realize it was not going as planned. We went up to the professor and questioned why we were doing this. We were concerned that the class was not fulfilling the requirement.
She told us that the project was a bunch of busy work and she was waiting for someone to question her. Her whole point of the project and the course was to get students to think for themselves. She wanted a couple of us who realized what she was doing to rebel and question her in front of the class. She played it up but she got her point across to the class. Some hated her for it and some saw the point that she was trying to make.
Now, I am not trying to tell everyone to go rebel against his or her professors and to not do any homework. Some homework and some projects do serve a useful purpose. But I am asking you to think for yourself and to look at why you do some of the things you do in the classroom.
You can approach a professor in a respectful way and question why he or she is doing something or where he or she is getting the information. We are taught to use credible sources when writing a paper or doing research of any kind. It is a responsibility of ours as students to make sure that the sources our professors are using are credible also. If what the professor is doing serves a purpose then the evidence will speak for itself. If you are like me, you don’t have time to check up on all of the classes you are taking, but if something sounds fishy — check it out.
College is a place of learning and a place to find out what you truly believe and where you stand on certain issues. If you just take a person’s word about something or take the opinion of a professor without looking at all of the facts, you can be suckered into believing something that is not totally true.
You may not agree with the professor’s ideology and not even know it because you are not aware of all of the facts.
So, have fun learning here, but go and find your opinion, not one that someone else drummed up. You may agree with a professor or teacher because you have the same ideology or know that what is being taught is credible, that’s fine.
Research the facts and see which side of the fence you are on. People who straddle the fence always end up getting knocked off.
E-mail Brad with comments at [email protected].