Should I stand up to my liberal teacher?

Senior year at my high school. Hooray, one more year and it's off to college. The obstacles facing me? A pre-calc class I'm going to get through, two AP courses and nothing historical whatsoever. And of course the reason why I'm posting this. My liberal government teacher. Now what do I mean by liberal? I mean liberal, full blown liberal. A very well educated one with a long history of volunteering and public service. I respect as a liberal, and all she's done for the city I live in.

But I can't respect her when she's indoctrinating us. Literally. She'll tell us her opinions, and maybe ask us what we think. We can't form opinions of our own when we don't know everything we need to know. For example we're talking about Obamacare. She mentions the good things about it (For example, I can stay on my parent's plan till I'm what 26?), but didn't talk about the costs associated with it. We had time, a good 10 minutes left. Instead, she let us do pretty much whatever. Though to be fair, she did show us magazines about 9/11 and we were free to read them. And not a big one, but still a stupid thing to do. She made an incomplete political spectrum, with liberal on the right side, and conservative on the left.

Now, that was an innocent thing there and she talked about how you could be anywhere on the spectrum, and she did try on the first day to get us engaged in a discussion without inteferring with us. So how do I know she's indoctrinating us? I had her before. Left wing indoctrination all the way. When we watched movies, all left wing, enviromental etc. I've heard things about her from people who had her in the past.They all say she's left wing and indoctrinates you. It's just something you have to deal with.

But I don't want that. I actually want to learn something in that class that won't backfire on me if I use it here. So my question is, if she starts to indoctrinate us, should I ask, "What are the arguments against it"? At least making her admit there are arguments against what she's saying is a step forward. But I seriously want to hear what you have to say about it.

 

When I was in high school our math teacher was a total hippie. She was vegan, an environmentalist, and all etc. She was really nice so everyone liked her. She never talked about religion or politics but she did keep trying to incorporate environmentalism and veganism into the curriculum. One of the classes was supposed to do some kind of group project with a presentation. I'm not sure what it had to do with math but she let the groups pick their topics. One of them did a project on slaughterhouses with lots of graphic pictures of meat and animals. She stormed out of the room crying. It was pretty mean considering how nice she was, but I was getting tired of hearing about how great it is to be vegan.

It's not very relevant to your situation, but something I wanted to share. As for you it is a pretty conflicting position you're in. It's not fair that students be brainwashed with one sided arguments but depending on how she runs things if you call her out on it you could theoretically get some low test scores and fail the class.

 

Oh I don't think she would do that. I think she'll just have a bad memory of me. I debated on the side of the democrats last year, so she thinks I'm a liberal.

 

In my experience most government teachers, particularly in AP classes, actually enjoy getting their students to debate the topics. Just stay respectful. I think your suggestion of asking about the arguments against is a great idea.

 

Alright. She knows I like so politics so I could see it working.

 

You might or might not be liberal, i don't know. I just find it rich that right wingers often complain about left indoctrinating students but they see no problem with religion influencing how people think. Both sides are guilty of this. And why does environmentalism have to be a left or right thing? Respect the planet that you live on or get off this planet.

 

It depends on if the professor grades people based on their political views. I have had lefty professors and we debated but they still graded me fairly. If your prof is a real nutjob lefty who would give you an F if you said that you liked Reagan then I would say just suck it up and either keep your views to yourself or pretend to be a liberal like him. In fact its sometimes fun to be a liberal as you can make underhanded jabs at their thinking and they will actually take you seriously.

 

Environmentalism isn't a left of right thing. My hunting/fishing friends and relatives are more concerned about the environment than my current college friends who spout off a lot about saving the planet but don't really do anything other than talk a lot. The hunting/fishing people donate to the WWF (not the former wrestling company) and other outdoors groups and they attend local meetings about water and land regulations and they are the first ones calling for stricter standards for water usually in regards to fuel that leaks from boats, run off from properties on the water and other stuff. God knows because I was dragged along to a couple of them to boost their numbers for votes.

 

Makes sense because (I hope) that they eat what they catch. I don't mind people hunting or fishing if it's to eat the meat. However I detest people who hunt for trophies and for killing sakes. Now, for culls, it's a case by case basis because sometimes a cull is necessary to save the habitat.

 

most professors and people in academia are 'lefty'. theres a reason for that, they tend to be more intelligent and better informed. that makes people lefty.

 

There's a reason you get the left wing view in class, and the right wing view on AM talk radio.

 

Most hunters I know at least do it for fun and yes if they get a 100 point buck they will definitely get it mounted. Honestly if you hang out with enough of them you soon realize that hunting is an excuse to sit in a cabin and get hammered for a few days. Maybe that is just the group I know though. As you said though they they eat what they shoot/catch and between the fish fries and the venison sausage/steaks its definitely yummy. These are the people that are always picking up trash when they are in the woods if they see it and leave their campsites cleaner than they found them, its my lefty friends who leave cigarette butts everywhere and will toss their candy wrappers into the wind. I just see mostly lip service from them and not really any actions. As an environmentalist of a different stripe I am also severely disappointed in many aspects of today's movement and how quickly they will jump on any fad without thinking it through case in point ethanol added to fuel which was forced in part by environmentalists years ago and is now seen as a rather stupid idea. Don't get my started on CFL bulbs either.

I have had to explain to more than a few of my lefty colleagues that you can either shoot some of the deer or watch even more of them slowly starve to death and like you said they can wreak havoc on the local vegetation. We recently had a wolf cull proposed here in my state because of their growing numbers although I think that might have been postponed by the Feds. I didn't even know we had lots of wolves in my state I always figured them to be in the Rockies. Definitely taking some silver bullets with me next time I go camping. As cool as it would be to be bitten and survive and get super powers odds are that I would just end up getting torn to pieces.

 

Is that why Republicans routinely get more of the college educated vote and also the majority of the higher income vote?

 

It's why the more education a person has, the more likely they are to be a Democrat.
You won't see a lot of Romney bumper stickers in the faculty parking lot.
Because, let's face it, if you understand economics, you are a Democrat.

 

where the hell would you find a 100 point buck? Chernobyl?

 

Um........don't let facts get in the way of your ideological blinders. http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president/exit-polls

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html

Bush won the college educated vote twice and so did Romney despite his poor showing. McCain didn't get any majorities in 08 for obvious reasons. Democrats win post grads who are not smarter than four year graduates they just go on to get their Master or PhDs so they can teach. Most universities require one of those in order to be a professor. Also four year college grads outnumber post grads by 2 to 1 so the numbers are in the Republicans favor. Democrats win because they clean house in the undereducated votes particularly in inner cities where Obama wins by massive amounts.

Also the more education you receive on economics the more likely you are to be fiscally conservative. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/does-studying-economics-make-you-more-republican/

http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr450.pdf

I just love it when some smarmy leftist who has no idea what they are talking about spouts off some nonsense and I get to show the world how stupid they are. The best part is YOU referring to other people as dumb and stupid.

 

With all respect, think of the Professor like a Business owner, if you speak out against them they will hold it against you, and come after your job or in this case your grade.

They have latitude in their position of power of you, they are the boss, corporate executive, President, etc.. and it will be wise not to make them angry by crossing them in this way.

She will sense when you start to question her that you are not on her side as she expects and that is not good, the best thing to do is research opposing arguments from other sources and compare the two privately, rather than publicly.

 

Oh dear god, reminds me of my English Humanities teacher in high school. She was such a liberal hippie, yet extremely Christian and was obsessed with Christmas. Her class was fun, but sometimes she was just too much. lol

Now on the other hand I also had a government teacher that was uber conservative and always only showed us videos that were specifically geared towards the right wing and promoted Capitalism to the extreme. Honestly, every time I came across teachers like that I just had to roll my eyes. I never spoke up to them or anything. I just got through the classes and got out of there.

My most memorable teacher was the one who taught us Sociology. He always wanted to hear every side of the argument and gave everyone a chance to openly share their opinions and have open discussions. He never pushed his personal views one way or the other, well except for his love of Seinfeld. Seriously, he had a huge picture of Seinfeld framed in his classroom. lol!

 

I think you have a duty to call her out and challenge her orthodoxy, Kranes. People like this are everywhere in the education system. And every time you stand up to them, you put another one in the win column for objective education.

Do it, man. I think you'll be proud of yourself afterward. You'll feel like you've accomplished something good by recognizing a problem and confronting it rather than looking away. It'll also be a pretty good character building exercise for later on in life.

 

This, in my senior year in H.S I faced much the same problem. My Government Civics teacher was *supposedly* an independent(at the time, I was already disassociated with Liberalism, and moving towards at a time temporarily towards Libertarianism/Modern Republicanism.) And for a while, it seemed like my intellect was well-respected.

Until the time came to discuss the situation around the Middle East(particularly, the extremist Islamic sects). I wrote a report basically outlining the facts that we supplied the Muhajeeden in 1982 to overthrow the Soviets, and my teacher rejected it flat out. I told him that the sources were verified, it was a historic, actual occurrence in American foreign politics(This, as he made mention of the Military Industrial Complex).

It frustrated me, given much of his earlier stances I thought it was possible to take the debate levels deeper than it was.(He even discussed the Federal Reserve)

I mean, I didn't bring up 9/11 "truth" or Obama Birth Certificate forgery, I brought up a blocked out, but truthful account of our military history in Afghanistan.

In the end, my stay in the class lasted for a few weeks before feeling insulted so much so, that I left the course. I couldn't do it anymore. If truth can't be held to account, there's no reason for debate.

These classes are not mandatory towards your credit or graduation, if you feel as though you can't express the facts and your political identity, just let it go.

I went into a Computer Class afterwards that was more fun.

 

"...won't backfire on you here". You mean "here", as in this board?

Who in (*)(*)(*)(*) CARES about your opinion here? This is, AFAICT, an adjunct of StormFront refugees with a sprinkling of people who occasionally say something that makes sense. You don't get a grade for coming here. You are killing time with a hammer, that is ALL.

Very little REAL political "indoctrination" is the fault of the teacher but it may be the fault of the curriculum and the curriculum is what the teacher must teach, she really has very little choice in the matter

Oh, and the people who say she's "indoctrinating" you. What is THEIR political stripe?

The last question you want to ask seems a good one because it is possible that the teacher is trying to get a discussion going. If a good teacher gets a discussion going it makes their job easier. If, however, a new or bad teacher gets one started it slows them down. If you note that she doesn't seem to want discussion then leave it be. She's probably new and trying to get through the curriculum. The fact that you say she had ten minutes left after explaining Obamacare is one good indication. I don't know how long your classes are but it should have been more, ten minutes is not enough time for a good discussion of anything.

If you want a good grade in any class on the HS level take good notes, listen hard, read your textbooks and note what the teacher seems to like. Then repeat it back to them. Discussion is generally a college thing. (Though what I say often works even better in college)

 

It's probably because a) everyone is forced to pay taxes to support the one kind and not the other, and b) one kind is essentially required, whereas the other is entirely optional (as is paying for it). This isn't even apples and oranges, this is like steaks and oranges.

Your proposal of asking about the other side is probably best. The problem is that an indoctrinating teacher is unlikely to be willing to answer that question fully and honestly with every topic she inserts, so she may appear to be glad that you're asking that question the first time but eventually appear annoyed. If you yourself add in the other side, there's always the worry about it affecting your grade, but that depends on how honest the teacher is. It sounds like the teacher is way far gone, but an honest and respectable person. If that's the case, you could even just go up to her and talk to her about your concern and she would probably appreciate it.

But the key is whether she's an honest and respectable person, or if she's likely to "get back" at you in some way. If you're certain that she's an honest and respectable person, then I would just go ahead and talk to her about it and tell her how her class looks/feels. Tell her that, even if she doesn't mean to, it appears like indoctrination because she shows very liberal movies (and only very liberal movies), she voices a lot of support for liberal ideas (and omits and reason for opposing them), etc. I've known teachers/professors that were very liberal (though not as far as you suggest she is), but who were very honest and respectable. When talking to them about the other side of issues that was left out in class, they acknowledged the issue and made genuine attempts to add in the other side, as well as allowing me to voice the other side (usually when they weren't so sure as to what it is).

If she's the latter type who's spiteful and will get back at you for it (they exist, I've had those too), then you may want to contact the administration, but I'd always say give her a chance to address the issue first.

 

The GOP constantly use the bible to justify the laws they try or do create. Like gay marriage is bad because (and then they bring up the bible and god) thereby shoving their religion down everyones throat.
And yes they do use tax dollars to shove their religion down the peoples throats.

 

My advice (for what it's worth...free LOL) Don't antagonize the poor woman. You'll only get a bad grade. If you must participate in her 'liberal arguments' try to ask pertinent, focused questions aimed at getting her to 'educate' you on the reasons for her POV. She won't change your mind and you won't change her's but at least you'll maybe get some insight and a good grade to boot! Good luck! Graduation day!!! Yahoo!!!