Getting through syllabus week is about as difficult as spotting a first-year uptown for the first time. By the time Year Four rolls around, you can sleepwalk through this glorious week of syllabi recital, routine introductions and well-intentioned, if somewhat flat, jokes from the faculty. You don't think that much can throw you for a loop at this point — we know our system well.
Speaking with the arrogance that can only come with being a senior, I walked into each class thinking I already knew what every professor had to say. However, as I was idly doodling in the margin of my first syllabus, a professor I had never had before started talking about his subject with what I can only describe as contented glee. He welcomed us to learn, ask questions and never settle for what we believed we already knew. I've heard similar speeches, but for some reason, this time around the words struck a chord. Maybe there was more sincerity in his tone than I'm used to hearing. The idea of contradiction and discussion is usually reserved for the liberal-iest of liberal arts classes, but realizing that this professor would truly welcome questions, uncertainty and infant ideas about big things made me look a whole lot closer at my previous years of study.
I wish I could count the number of times I've had ideas shot down, then beaten with a stick, by certain teachers.
As an example (and one highly specific to a political science major), I had never before dared to strongly argue that supranational organizations have the potential to replace the revered nation-state. Any class discussion expressed hope that the European Union has the potential to efficiently restructure governance was treated with everything from raised eyebrows to outright ridicule. I have pretty thick skin, but getting laughed at by a professor in front a roomful of peers can cut through even my sizable ego. And there are professors like this in every single department. Benevolent scholars, most all of them — but lacking a certain sensitivity towards how we lesser intellectuals learn.
You don't get to a doctoral level without mastering your subject area — I get that. But I find it frustrating to see how many professors allow personal biases to influence and to some degree construct their students' perspectives on what they learn. I would never, ever presume to believe I knew more than someone with his or her Ph.D., but just because I haven't read the library and half that she has, doesn't mean I can't try to theorize based on what I do know.
There are many who would argue that studying literature is, at best, a fanciful way to waste college tuition. But, generally speaking, I defy you to walk into an English class, plop a theory on the table and have a teacher treat it with scorn.
I'll let my Miami University pride shine through a bit here, but you don't go to MU unless you have achieved and maintained more than a modicum of academic excellence. We want to be challenged, but we would like our ideas respected. I think some professors forget just how young some of us are and just how much more learning we wish to do. By shooting down an idea that doesn't jive with his doctoral thesis, a professor is stunting a student's ability to learn, not encouraging it.
Before the faculty starts flooding my inbox with angry emails (again), allow me to say that I have yet to take a class and walk away with no new information. I've had professors that have made me so angry my left eye will twitch, but those are also the ones I've learned life lessons from, if not entirely academic ones. To round out my theme, my message to the newbies getting their collegiate sea legs is to not be afraid to argue — someone will listen to you. To the old hands returning, maybe talk back a bit and stir the pot — your ideas do matter and you're part of an institution that exists to nurture them.
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