Best way to handle a problem with a Professor?

Question

Ok, as a student of a public university in Ill. and I'm under the impression that my prof. signed a contract stating to remain neutral or at least not use our class as a political advertisement. Now as a political science student, I understand that everyone tends to have at least a slight bias on things and I feel that discussing and debating opposing view points is always a good thing as it allows us to learn. It is something I enjoy doing. BUT, I don't feel that my English class is the place for it and that the prof. has been completely unprofessional in going about it.

For instance, so far this semester we have spent at most 10 minutes on actual English. The rest of the time has been he bashing the opposing party. And by bashing I mean completely making things up. He will state that Candidate X is said he will *insert made up claim here* which will hurt everyone, whenever anyone disagrees they tend to get cutoff and told they are wrong. Despite him never being able to back up his statements. Also during our 15 minutes he took to get ready to start class he used it to take low blows at the opposing party.

I've also been continuously told illegal immigrants pay no taxes. Apparently me and the social security administration, who claims 75% of them do, are both wrong.

Am I stuck putting up with this for an entire semester? Because I am paying a lot of money for this so called "higher" education and I would like my professors to adhere by there standards or at the very least use accurate information in their views.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this does happen. Most professors do not talk politics, and if they do it’s in theory, not their personal beliefs. I too had an English professor that made everything political, to the point of it affecting the grades of those who were members of the opposing party (I was one of them). All of our papers that semester were also on politics, compare and contrast on the candidates who were running for president, reaction paper on their confirmation speeches, etc. The first paper I wrote, I wrote it from the viewpoint of the political party I was associated with. It was a very good paper, but I received a ‘C’ on it. From that point on I bit my lip and wrote it as if I was a member of the opposing party and received ‘A’s” on every paper from that point on.

I would either hold my tongue and just get the most out of the class that you can, or change classes since the semester just started.  If you want to make a formal complaint, I honestly would wait until you have taken all the classes you need to take in the English department. I have found that a majority of English professors, as well as most professors belong to the same party. I’m not sure if that is everywhere, but it’s certainly a fact at my college, and I don’t particularly attend a Liberal Arts college.

One thing I will give my English professor credit on is he did teach us how to write good papers, every thesis, essay, and research paper I have turned in since then have all been 'A' papers. So, even though I couldn't stand the political talk as I felt it wasn't the proper place, I did learn more in the class than I had expected I would.