Word: biases
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It’s no secret that the world of academia—Harvard included—has a decidedly leftward lean. Not even liberals deny this. But what they do often deny is that this overbearing bias is a problem that needs to be addressed. The fact that it is not even seen as a serious concern is indicative of just how deep and institutionalized this political imbalance has become. Things need to change. Bias should be kept to a healthy minimum in the classroom, and schools need to make a much more serious effort to recruit faculty that...
That educated Americans have strong political views should be no surprise. Very few people ever obtain the saintly objectivity that would allow them to view the world with a lack of political bias bordering on indifference. Only slightly more are able to feign that attitude in the name of academic debate. The question, then, is not whether professors should have the political biases that are their birthright, but whether universities like Harvard should put restrictions on political speech in the classroom...
...perfectly able to make up their own minds on a range of issues. Whether a student takes a class on economic incentives or systems of oppression, he can be relied upon not to mindlessly parrot every word the teacher spouts, like some sort of evil zombie. Some bias is actually salutary, insofar as it spurs students to articulate their own views...
Such benign bias has its limits, of course. Professors should always question their students, but never heckle them or mock them. Students should not feel, in general, that they cannot get good grades without abandoning their true political views. But the number of cases of biased grading practices on account of political leanings is surely less severe than the problem of teaching fellow ignorance or poorly worded exams. Until cases of the persecution of conservatives appear on its campus, a college should refrain from exerting undue influence on a professor’s right to free and open expression...
...line must inevitably be drawn to prevent improper intimidation in the classroom, but we think it best to err on the side of academic freedom rather than to overzealously stamp out bias wherever it appears. At Harvard, at least, we are confident that the quality of the curriculum is sufficiently strong and even-handed. Where there are exceptions—and there are—there are other avenues for exposure to alternate perspectives, and there are generally multiple outlets to air grievances. Professors rarely treat their students as pitchers to be filled up with the correct...