The damaging effects of the “indoctrination” accusation

Someone I love dearly told me recently that I indoctrinate students when I teach Native American rhetorics. That, in fact, every time I talk about it, post about it, publicly proclaim about it, that I am indoctrinating people.

Let’s take a look at this word, “indoctrination.”

I’m going to take a page from the college student handbook and include a dictionary definition here:

Indoctrinate: “to teach (someone) to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of a particular group and to not consider other ideas, opinions, and beliefs” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indoctrinate)

So, my profession has been conveniently boiled down to this negative assumption; an accusation oft thrown around by conservatives and anti-education folks. I am fascinated to know that I teach my students to fully accept the ideas, opinions, and beliefs of Native Americans without any consideration of others’ ideas, opinions, and beliefs. (And ignoring the fact that, as a group, “Native Americans” are a varied bunch with many diverse opinions on a wide variety of subjects.) Of course, that’s not at all what I do, but let’s just go with that for now.

Where exactly does this accusation come from? A simple Google search for “college professors indoctrinate students” had 974,000 results, some of which are linked here:

Student indoctrination. http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/4714344-74/academic-professor-students#axzz2l6PJr23b

One-Party Classroom: How Radical Professors at America’s Top Colleges Indoctrinate Students and Undermine Our Democracy. http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/books/one-party-classroom-how-radical-professors-america%E2%80%99s-top-colleges-indoctrinate-students-and-undermin

How California's Colleges Indoctrinate Students
A new report on the UC system documents the plague of politicized classrooms. The problem is national in scope. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303816504577312361540817878

School Has Started And So Has Student Indoctrination. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/091913-671786-using-classroom-to-indoctrinate-students-grounds-for-dismissal.htm

College Professor Tells Students Republicans Are Stupid, White Old Racists- Indoctrination. (And this author takes the official dictionary definition a step further. Her definition of indoctrination: “To imbue with a partisan or ideological point of view.”) http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2013/04/college-professor-tells-students-republicans-are-stupid-white-old-racists-indoctrination-2618916.html

Clearly, this accusation of indoctrinating students is coming from the political Right. My personal opinion as to why this is the case has to do with the Right’s persistent refusal to accept that students are capable of making up their own minds and thinking for themselves when it comes to fraught political or social issues, such as gay marriage, abortion, and in my case, Native American sovereignty, history, cultures, contemporary issues. Okay then.

So, we know this accusation exists in the national conversation. We also know that this assumption exists in the personal spectrum when people who believe that we indoctrinate become personally involved with us as friends, colleagues, partners. Let’s take a look at the damaging effects of this accusation.

First, being accused of indoctrinating students undermines my professionalism, my goals as a professor, and dismisses the import of what I actually do in a classroom. Like most simplifications, it renders a complex and sometimes difficult task down to a very negative and easy process. It also makes huge assumptions about the gullibility and malleability of college-aged students. How quaint to think that my room full of 18 – 21 year olds are so easily swayed to my perspective, my point of view, my opinion; that they, in fact, have no opinions or perspectives of their own. Hence, this accusation not only undermines my professionalism, it also assumes that people in college are empty vessels waiting to be told what to think. And in my professional experience, that assumption is quite far from reality.

Second, accusations of indoctrination evidence a deep disrespect for my profession and for me personally. This accusation, in one simplistic swoop, tells me that the subject I care about deeply enough to invest money, time, and energy into learning about in order to teach students the wide variety of issues inherent in that subject, does not matter, is not worth my time or my students’ time, and is certainly the wrong thing to be teaching.

Third, the accusation of indoctrination puts professors on the defensive. It certainly put me on the defensive. I take what I do very seriously – and personally because of all the time, money, and energy I’ve expended to get here. Putting people who have worked so hard and care so much about a subject on the defensive is an effective strategy because it shifts the focus away from the real problem: that students need to be exposed to a multitude of opinions and information in order to form their own opinions about the world.

And here’s my final word on this for now: If students come away from college with different opinions than yours? That doesn’t mean they have been indoctrinated. It means they were presented with a broad spectrum of information and opinion that you may have never seen, and they decided for themselves what to think. The process of college is scary to some people because it does influence how people think about subjects and realities in the world. But I am tired of being on the defensive – it is exhausting. I know what I do in my classroom and most people have no idea. I invite any of my readers to come to my classrooms and observe for a day. Just a day should be enough to demonstrate how misguided this indoctrination accusation really is.

Student and Professor Rights & Responsibilities

Having just finished three straight days of student conferences (and having an hour before my three-hour evening class), I find myself ruminating on rights and responsibilities. Specifically, students' rights and responsibilities and professors' rights and responsibilities. What might those be?

To wit, when faced with a student who has written nothing for the extensive major project due two days from now and whose response, when asked why he would set himself up to do poorly on the assignment, involves some shrugging and a meek, "I don't know," I had what Jon Stewart might call a moment of zen. In this moment, I felt both revulsion and relief, disappointment and acceptance, confusion and clarity.

This paradox presents itself every semester when a few (not many, thank goodness) students sit across from me in my office and unabashedly (and sometimes apologetically) acknowledge their procrastination and the potential negative effect it will likely have on their performance in my class, as though they have no control over this behavior. They sometimes even make frank and unapologetic admissions, as my student this afternoon did when I asked if he procrastinates and ignores work in other classes, that no, in fact, he does all his work in all of his other classes. And when I further asked why he thought not doing the work in my class was a good idea, all I got in return was the look of wide-eyed disbelief at being called out.

Now that I have a moment to look back upon these three days that are designed to help students further their progress on their stories (after all, these conferences don't help ME) and perhaps clarify any points of confusion, I can happily report that only five of 50 students didn't show for a conference and only four of the conference attendees had not done any work on the project. As my officemate would say, that's an incredible percentage. That's over half who were prepared, had specific questions, and who I was able to guide and encourage. I agree, that's wonderful. But as a teacher, I can't help but wonder what is going on with the minority - the select special nine who seem to think that writing a complex, comprehensive humor-laden story with a specific underlying meaning can be done with any degree of satisfaction and passability the night before. Perhaps the answer lies in rights and responsibilities:

Professors have a right to expect college students.

Students have a right to behave as though they are still in high school.


Professors have a right to expect students to make good decisions, prepare for meetings, do the work of the class.

Students have a right to make bad decisions, come unprepared for meetings, and to ignore the work of the class.

Notice the difference in action. All we, as professors, have a right to is to expect responsible behavior...but that doesn't mean we are going to get it. Students, on the other hand, have two clear action paths - take the route of responsibility or the path of Halo/Madden/beer/girls/boys/pizza/lame excuses/sleep.

Understandably, these freshmen are overwhelmed by a new place, new and higher expectations, new people, living away from family and their childhood comfort zones. But so many students are successful in the transition that it always makes me question why those few seem unable or unwilling to take the right route.

Because here's the clincher - students in both groups expect to succeed based on their choices, decisions, and behaviors. This fact is what puts this conundrum into the realm of the unsolvable for me; this I cannot relate to in any way, shape, or manner.

Honestly, when I made bad decisions in my youth, I knew it. But I also knew to expect sometimes dire consequences and never thought to beg for a better grade when I wrote the paper two hours before it was due. Granted, this was my high school behavior and by the time I got to college, I straightened up pretty fast because I was paying for it myself and wanted to succeed. However, my first two years as a non-traditional student found me taking classes that I really hated - math and science. These were not even close to favorites and they were hard for me. But I never ignored the work. I always at least tried. And when I met with a professor, I had questions, perhaps instinctively understanding that arriving unprepared was a massive waste of this person's time...this person who might be able to help me...or take pity on me (etc, etc) and to waste said person's time might be truly devastating to my grade (ie, negative consequences).

Professors have a responsibility to teach the approved curriculum in the fashion they deem productive.

Students have a responsibility to...and here's where it gets fuzzy. 

What IS a student's responsibility in this day and age at a university? My gut reaction to this question is directly informed by MY experiences and MY work ethic, which is decidedly at odds (very often) with the current generation of college-aged students. (Again, not all...but enough to make me continually return to this puzzlement.)

Ultimately, there are lots of ways I could complete that student responsibility statement, from snarky and smart-ass to serious and philosophical. But I'm not going to complete it. How would YOU finish that statement? And before you answer, ask yourself whether you are answering through your lens of experience, or whether you think it truly applies to today's college students. I'm looking forward to the responses!

Death in education

Within a week of each other, the following three articles were published in three different publications:

Chronicle of Higher Education: "10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly"

New York Times: "Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits"

Philadephia Inquirer: "The Lecture is Dead"

What these articles have in common thematically is death: death of diligence, perseverance, and work ethic even at the highest levels of the education community; death of attention-span, common-sense, and structure of any kind for students; and these articles also lay the foundation for what seems to be coming faster than some of us would like: the death of the traditional college classroom where we interact face-to-face two-three times per week with our students, getting to know them and their personalities, quirks, and strengths. At worst, taken together, these articles announce the result of decades of growing laziness, convenience-addictions, and computer-assisted-dependence. At best, these articles are identifying serious and fundamental problems in the education system for the participants.

When it comes to academics writing "less badly," which my students just loved as a title (oh yes, I made my college composition students read that article for information and perhaps some relief that none of us writers are perfect), the biggest problem seems to be an over-abundance of self-importance and a lack of gritty work-ethic. Especially in grad school when it comes to finishing projects like dissertations on time. And everyone in the academy knows someone who fits Munger's "poseur writer" description, right down to the hipster skinny jeans and too-cool-for-school scarf or jaunty hat on a head so filled with ego that no real (and useful) ideas may penetrate.

For most of us, Munger's assessment is not shocking or even remotely surprising, but for those outside the ivory tower, his pronouncements may be unsettling. After all, aren't we supposed be advanced and hard-working idea people and wordsmiths cranking out publications for our own and our home universities' glory? Well, yes, but have you seen the average teaching/service workload for a tenure-track professor recently? This is something I'm recently discovering, although only three weeks into it and I did manage to find time to complete a book review. But maybe I'm just the weird, old-school one who works too hard and believes in deadlines? (And I also don't spend 4.5 hours per day on Facebook.)

As for the death of study habits, well, no shit. Hell, in 1987 when I was in high school, you could count my study habits with one fist. Namely, I had none. And certainly, secluding myself away in a little corner with a desk, a lamp, a hard chair, and no noise would have driven my teenage mind bonkers. Only later, after a career in advertising and one in journalism, when I returned for my advanced degrees did I discover the need and joy for silence when I studied. And usually in a soft, comfy chair with a cup of tea or Diet Coke or water and with my cat, Lucy, climbing all over me.

But the problem isn't when and where and how students study, it's that they don't study. And they don't care enough to retain new information. Well, many of them. Admittedly, I've only taught 400 students (not including my current 90) over the short four years I've been teaching in the university setting, but many of my students were so tightly and narrowly focused on one particular career goal (engineer, accountant, "business"...whatever the hell that means anymore) that they resisted giving thought-space to subjects that the university deemed valuable such as world literature and writing. Mostly, my students were swell but were more interested in just getting through those classes than in actually LEARNING and RETAINING anything. So in today's university setting, which is becoming more and more consumer-oriented with outcomes and goals that read like a fact sheet for the Widget Factory, with every piece in its narrow place, the value of studying subjects outside one's specialty/major may be in danger of being de-valued.

Thinking about devaluation, that last article is both true and a little scary. On one hand, I agree that lectures don't really work - students fall asleep, have the attention-span of a gnat (when it's not something they are already interested in), and are easily distracted by other more exciting tasks like texting, doodling, making paper footballs, and staring slack-jawed into space. I've seen it happen, which is why I chose to conduct my world lit survey classes without one lecture from me. I made the students present and lead class discussion (with me chiming in to add details, ask questions, and provide background when appropriate). Every day. And despite some hearty fear and resistance at first, they delivered tremendously and did (imho) get more out of those discussions than they ever would have by me just talking at them for an hour a day. So yes, I agree the lecture is dead, but my concern is what university administrations are doing with this type of information.

If the classroom is no longer a place where students are lectured at by brilliant PhDs, why have a classroom at all? Why not go online? In fact, why hire PhDs to teach those online courses? Why not hire Tony Robbins-esque type public speaking dynamos and give them a pre-crafted syllabus and readings and let them loose to dazzle the students via video-pod?

I'll be honest. This unnerves me because I did not become a professor to teach solely online, but I do see that's the direction of most universities because online education is a solid money-maker. And considering the speed at which things change nowadays, I'm wondering how long I have to create interesting, discussion-based, classroom-grounded environments in which my students can get to know me, each other, and some new useful material. Five years? Ten? More? Less?

I'm not averse to hybrid courses where students come to class once a week and then are responsible for a vast amount of work on their own time. That seems a smart compromise. But going online 100%? I'm not convinced that is the right direction to educate vast numbers of young people (undergraduates) who already spend too much time in front of their computer and TV screens.

Although, that would create the perfect workers who are content to sit for 10-12 hours a day at a computer screen in their pajamas...who would fit cog-like into the Widget Factory's concept of uncomplaining and controllable worker productivity at low cost, would it not?

Answer: Stamina, endurance, energy, and enthusiasm

Question: What do university professors need to teach a 4/4 load, be active scholars, and involved community members?

This is no surprise to me, really, but living it is so very different from anticipating it. My first day of teaching occurred today, although I have been having orientation activities and meetings for a week. Only Wednesdays will be this long, but here is a breakdown of my very first day as a university professor:

7:30-8:30am Awake, shower, prep, primp, chai, check bag for handouts, flashdrive, notebook, lunch, and water bottle.

9:00-9:50am Arrive at office, print assignment sheets and make copies, collect syllabus copies, chat with officemate and various other friendly faculty in copy room. Chug some water.

10-10:50am Introduce self and syllabus to energetic (and slightly scared) freshman in College Composition, give students time to partner up and interview each other and then introduce partner to class. Distribute first short assignment, dismiss class, field several initial questions and students personally introducing themselves.

11-11:45a Office hour during which one student from 10a class came in, sat down in the chair next to my desk and told me she's scared of writing and is very unsure about this first assignment. Also, that she doesn't have a user name, so can't access her KU email. In response to the latter, I picked up the phone and dialed the IT Helpdesk and sat on hold while talking her down and helping her to see how she could successfully write this brief assignment in a way that fit the parameters, but also used her language and expressions, and was possibly fun to write. Eventually had her leave a message for IT and encouraged her to email them as well since they are likely bombarded today. Told her not to give up on IT, be persistent, and also confirmed that she felt better about writing this assignment. Ate some petite sweet pickles, roasted red pepper hummus and wheat fiber crackers. Chugged some water.

11:45-55a Realized I didn't have enough assignment sheet copies for 1pm class, so made more.

11:55a-12:54p Comp Conversation weekly meeting with faculty teaching comp. Very funny and informative meeting - basically, I have amazing, smart, creative colleagues who are willing to share their expertise and ideas. What a fortunate place to have landed!

12:55-1p Walked to DeFran building and immediately got lost, circling various loops through hallways before accidentally stumbling upon my classroom.

1-1:50p See 10-10:50a - repeat.

1:50-1:55p Walk back to Lytle Hall and find classroom.

2-2:50p See 1-1:50p, except instead of introducing their partners to the class, the students spent 25 minutes talking to their partners, which must be continued outside of class in order to complete the first short assignment - Who is your partner? It's an exercise in identity creation/definition. This first part has someone describe and present who you are - the second part will be the student's chance to write his or her own story. Who you are according to someone else vs. who you are according to you.

2:55-3:15p Head to car, drive to other side of campus, get lost in a maze of parking lots trying to locate the Multicultural Center. Finally see it (very obvious place that I totally missed on the way in). Park, head to director's office.

3:15-4:30p Have delightful and supportive meeting with Director and Assistant Director and Graduate Assistant of the Center about 1) the feasibility of bringing two Native American stand-up comedians in my acquaintance to campus next fall (apparently, there is money and space for this sort of thing, so feasibility is high), and 2) developing a Multiethnic Film Series for next fall. Completely successful, early-in-the-process meeting. Lots of great ideas exchanged and a plan of attack. Sweetness!

4:30-4:50 Sit in sweltering car responding to a few emails, then drive to Betty's for a portabello pesto wrap, small three-cheese & mushroom soup, diet birch beer, and a peanut butter brownie...to go. Gaze out window while waiting for food, wondering how I'm going to make it through a three-hour class....

4:50-5:55p Head back to office with delicious dinner items, check emails while eating, load up bag so I can head home when class is over.

5:55-6p Walk into a sweltering classroom with melting students. Walk out mumbling "oh hell no" partially under my breath. Quickly scout two open classrooms, return to sauna and look at prof who taught in that room before my class. I say, "Room 212 is open." He responds, dripping with sweat, "GO." We do.

6-8:30p New classroom also has an oscillating fan, which I turn on high and position to cool the students down. This is my advanced comp class and already I can tell how on the ball all of these students are. Solid, smart conversations and debates, some teasing and joking back and forth. Good rapport right away. Several thank me for moving classrooms (I wouldn't want to teach in a sauna, as I explained). A handful even offered that they were excited about this class and the possibility of picking a social or cultural issue that they thought was important and to write about it in different ways all semester. No one looked at a watch, no one looked bored, conversations were lively. They gave me energy and I left class wide awake and just as excited at the end of the day as I was at the beginning.

8:35-9p Called mom to give her the day's overview (knew she was wondering) while driving home.

.....

10:58pm Bedtime and the sweet, calm dreams that are only possible when life is working in your favor. Realizing once and for all that yes, all that hard work, time, energy, sacrifice, heartache, frustration, obstacles, and annoyance was worth it. Yes it was. I'm there. It happened faster than I expected. :)

Why is tenure necessary?

In the wake of Amy Bishop's calm killing of her colleagues, lots of academic types are seriously questioning what has been an under-the-radar discussion for a long time: why is tenure necessary in our modern age? And why is the process seemingly so potentially unfair, unjust, and hazardous...not to mention time-consuming and stressful?

Story in Chronicle of Higher Education on the Bishop shootings: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Fatal-Meeting-Death/64295/

As a former journalist and creature of the business world and current PhD candidate trying to get a job, I wonder who tenure benefits? The scholar who survives the five-year obstacle course riddled with political maneuvering who then gains the right never to be fired unless something truly unlawful or grievous occurs? The students who, while the tenure process is underway, suffer a distracted, disinterested, and sometimes downright hostile professor who then may become relieved and equally uninvested in students' progress once he or she gains tenure? The university that demands all sorts of arbitrary proof that the scholar is actually a scholar (scholarly publications only, please) AND a teacher (your students best love you!), AND a good service member of the university community (can't say no to that "request" for Honesty Committee service!) and then judges the professor on how high he or she has jumped through these hoops in order to "approve" tenure?

I just don't get it. I didn't get it before I entered the system of higher education and I sure don't get it now. In fact, even though I am sitting on the cusp (or the abyss, if you will), wondering if I will even GET a job as a professor, I don't support the idea of tenure, regardless of how transparent the process may be at certain schools. Why shouldn't we, as teachers and scholars, be culpable and responsible to our students first, then our scholarship, then our service to the university community and the broader community - at all times?! Not just for the five years the tenure gauntlet takes? Why not require professors to continue being good teachers while encouraging creative and productive scholarship and service? What is so scary about eliminating tenure? Productive and worthy teachers and scholars will still be employed, will they not?

What is so wrong with transitioning higher education to a merit-based system where individuals must show consistency and regular growth (like anyone in any job that is NOT higher education), instead of going 150mph for five years and then slamming on the brakes? Which approach seems healthier for the professor and more beneficial to the students? Or do we in the academy even really CARE about maintaining a healthy and happy professoriate and a smart and encouraged student body?