Since giving my first lecture in a college classroom 18 years ago, I have noticed a gradual increase in the disconnect between what takes place in the classroom and public perception. This shift has culminated in a wave of legislation aimed at prohibiting college professors from promoting or endorsing so-called “divisive concepts.” If interpreted correctly, these bills would have virtually no impact on college classrooms—because professors teach ideas; they do not promote or endorse them. Unfortunately, many politicians and members of the general public conflate teaching with advocacy.
Put simply, teaching about a topic or theory does not mean endorsing it. Professors rarely invent the concepts they discuss; these are ideas developed and debated by experts in the field. In any given semester, students are exposed to hundreds of such ideas, each of which they are expected to analyze critically and evaluate on its own merits.
Take, for example, a college class on world religions. A professor teaching such a class would outline the beliefs of many faiths—Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and others. Few would object to this. Even if students do not share those beliefs, they recognize that these religions exist and merit discussion. No reasonable person would claim that any one faith is being promoted. Each is simply one of many topics presented for consideration.
The same logic applies to the so-called “divisive concepts” that critics claim professors are endorsing. Just as describing the tenets of Judaism does not mean a professor is urging students to become Jewish, discussing issues related to race, gender and sexuality does not mean students are being asked to adopt any particular belief. Like the world’s religions, these topics exist and therefore deserve to be examined and understood.
Students who learn to think critically are fully capable of deciding for themselves which ideas best describe the world around them. For instance, in a recent criminological theory class, a student raised her hand and observed that if one theory discussed earlier in the class were true, the theory we had just covered could not also be correct. She was absolutely right. My job was not to tell her which one to believe, but to help her weigh the evidence and reach her own conclusion.
This is what happens every day in college classrooms. Students are not being told what to think; they are being taught how to think. They are presented with the best available knowledge and asked to judge for themselves what they find convincing. Politicians and the public must do a better job of distinguishing between teaching and promoting. If they fail to do so, the result will be ruined careers, stifled inquiry and a generation of students ill-prepared to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world.
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