I'd like to address this silly notion that the evil liberal professors of the world are corrupting the innocent minds of our youth.

I've been directly involved in higher education since 1997, first as an undergraduate student, then as a lab instructor, followed by graduate school to get my PhD, and finally a recent change to a postdoctoral position where I'm directly responsible for both teaching and mentoring everything from freshman students to experienced seniors and graduate fellows.


NOT ONCE, in over a decade of college experience, spanning direct employment at three different universities, and collaborations and conferences with hundreds more, have I EVER felt like a "liberal teacher" was forcing his beliefs upon me.

In fact, in that decade of experience, the ONLY professor I EVER saw being pushy and forceful with his political beliefs was a conservative.



The reality of it is, much like high school, college students, for the most part, don't really care what their professors think - whether that's apathy, rebellion, or outright disdain for teachers who, quite frankly, are often far more interested in their own research than teaching ANYTHING to the students, including political beliefs.

The real influence is the students around them. A bunch of young people, put together without parental influence, is naturally going to lean toward the liberal side - ESPECIALLY when the conservative talk show hosts have put so much effort into painting the left as some "liberal elite", and marginalizing the educated - well, these students are becoming the educated, and starting to feel the hatred directed at them.

THAT, my friends, is a far more powerful influence than the teachers who the students probably dislike anyway.



Furthermore, my anecdotal observations have shown a very reproducible trend - students from ultra-liberal backgrounds are more likely to swing towards the conservative when they are in college, and students from ultra-conservative backgrounds are more likely to move to the left. That's simple youthful rebellion at work. Those from more moderate backgrounds, on either side of the fence, are more likely to retain beliefs in line with those of their parents.




My overall point? As someone who has gone deep into debt, and resigned himself to a lifetime of pay too low for the level of education, with long hours and little recognition of my work, I am personally deeply offended by the implication that I, or any of my colleagues, are part of some left-wing conspiracy to corrupt the minds of your students. It takes every ounce of effort I can muster to get your brats to give a crap about quantum mechanics, let alone try to undo the deep-seated personal beliefs that you have instilled in them for the last eighteen years. If four years away can truly change your teachings that much, perhaps you should look inwards into the way you raised them, and stop blaming the educators who work with too little funding, too little respect, and too little time for our own families.