Fresno State professor who mocked Barbara Bush’s death is getting a reality check

[Dill]

(04-20-2018, 08:52 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I hope no teacher at any level is pushing their personal bias on any student, but I am not naive enough to know that's not the case. Apparently you want teachers to share their personal bias with students in addition to presenting facts. Seems a shame 

There is a difference between education and vocational training.

A teacher in an automotive training school who is teaching students how to repair an automatic transmission might be expected to simply "present facts."

But if the goal is to provide students with civic knowledge and some critical thinking skills, a bit more will be required.

Then there are not simply two options--"facts" and "personal bias."  Teachers must get students to exercise critical thinking skills; doing that well may include exposing students to a variety of different beliefs about the world, including the differing values that go along with them, especially, but not only, at the college level. I would consider it a good thing if teachers represent a spectrum of political/scientific/religious views to students.

As far as public schools go, I don't see how they can be expected to teach students without also affirming some values over others. E.g., democracy over fascism. I would also hope that both curriculum and teachers condemn phenomena such as slavery and genocide rather than just "presenting facts" and "letting students decide." I would hope that some historical figures are praised over others, MLK over Hitler. I don't think we can reproduce US democracy without a bias towards democracy in the school curricula.

I understand that some parents hold beliefs that don't hold up well under scrutiny, and they want to pass those on to their children without challenge. Hence all the fuss about "liberal bias" and "leftism" in schools, not to mention support for home schooling and charter schools. But the U.S. is a first world industrial nation, in part because of its system of public education--one which does not just "present facts." I don't see why standards have to be lowered for all to protect the beliefs of some.