A new poll shows that 49% of college students feel “intimidated” when expressing beliefs different from their professors.
The other 51% said they only took the poll because they thought it’d be an easy A, and were angry because they didn’t know there was going to be a test.
The other 51% said, “I’m supposed to HAVE beliefs different than my Professor’s?”
College is a game.
Some teachers will debate honestly – those who are confident in their intellectual positions or who are genuinely open to persuasion. Other teachers are clinging bitterly to their weakly supported or entirely bankrupt theories and only want students to buttress the positions that they themselves recognize as inferior. Successful students quickly figure out what sort a particular teacher is and tailors his or her behavior accordingly.
Successful students will easily pass the classes of the inferior teachers though they won’t enjoy it and will always view these teachers, no matter how personally nice they are, with some measure of contempt. The intellectually confident teachers’ classes may be much harder to pass yet good students will always view them, no matter what they think of the teacher personally, with a large measure respect.