A Plea to the Faculty: Indictment No. 4

Imagine, in a classroom full of 20 or so students, 15, alongside the professor, debating a single student on this basic premise: Are capitalism and racism intertwined? At first, a quick back-and-forth ensued between one student and the professor. Yet, as the debate continued, professor against student became professor — alongside other students — against one. What could have been a lively and engaging discussion became no more than a public prosecution akin to the trial of Socrates before the Athenian court. However, the outcomes of this trial were neither death nor expulsion but humiliation and embarrassment. This is one of many instances I’ve both borne witness to and served as an unwilling participant in. It was, and is, as if my differing opinions merely served to amuse and entertain my peers and professors alike, and I will no longer tolerate such behavior.

However, what remains unanswered is what the professor should have done. In my opinion, it is only by serving as a counter-majoritarian check, rather than the vanguard for the tyranny of the majority, that the professor could create an environment necessary to stimulate intellectual growth rather than indoctrination.

The duty of a professor like Socrates — who we may credit as one of the first “real” teachers — is to serve as a midwife. Rather than guide newborns into the world, however, the professor aids in the birth of new ideas. They do not sterilize concepts  to them which are foreign to them, nor do they abandon them prematurely. From conception to birth, they guide their pupils in creating something new. A beginning from which an entirely new world springs forth: —a miracle. Only by serving as interlocutors may professors fulfill the duty of their role. Refining this point further, if we are to take Socrates as our “ideal” professor, then this is no more than serving as an intermediary between pupil and text — or whatever medium, for that matter, which one engages within the classroom.

However, it seems to me that many of our professors have forgotten this principle. It appears that they find themselves more concerned with disseminating their opinions, creating a room full of devout followers. And for those who find themselves resistant to such methods, they may, and at most times often are, seen as no more than heretics in a house of worship, laughed at and mocked by those around them.

And in these final words, I make my concluding remarks to you. Distinguished members of the faculty, do not forget the burden you bear when taking this office (professorship) and the authority bestowed upon you by it. You all serve as one of the most integral checks against the divisiveness of our political zeitgeist. And if you deserve the protection of tenure, then fulfill your role as an impartial arbiter, ensuring a wide breadth of views are expressed instead of serving as partisan constituents. Do what I believe and hope you all are capable of.