To the Editor:
An incident involving a student becoming upset, and leaving my Recent American History class, taught by David Stradling, provoked this letter. We were told by the student that she no longer felt comfortable in the class, and because of her philosophical differences with the professor, she feared she was in danger of failing. The results of this were damaged feelings of some students and the professor, and inevitably the class shutting down to discuss, without David present, what had happened. What disturbed me is that time had to be taken to try and rectify this situation while more history could have been learned. I am not saying that after what took place the time should not have been taken, because these discussions were absolutely necessary.
I do not question the individual's anguish, because it was real, but rather our place as students at this or any other institution? We do not make the courses, professors do. At any school, courses are offered based on what teachers choose to teach, for better or worse. We as students have a duty to respect this as long as we demand that we know what angle the Prof is coming from, and in history we must know the difference between fact and commentary. In David Stradling's class, we didn't have to demand anything, everything was told up front.
The first day of classes, Dave told us exactly what his political views were. His politics are completely different than mine, but I respect him tremendously for putting them on the floor. Furthermore, in the syllabus a detailed description of the goals and themes of the course, of grading criteria, and a description of each day's lectures were given. On the basis of what was to be discussed in this class, students knew what they were getting into. If they didn't like it, two weeks are granted by Oberlin College to drop a course. We in addition were told, however, that we could question anything, and were encouraged to participate in class, even if our views were not that of the professor. Dave Stradling was always honest and treated us with the utmost respect.
I am not blaming the student, for she was uncomfortable, and you have to honor that. This is a general complaint that sooner or later we as students on this campus need to learn to respect certain "establishments". We spend a lot of time being upset. My conservative politics have often been met with opposition on this campus, but I have never felt disrespected for my views. It is unfair to require someone to see things the way you do. It is also unfair to assume that a professor will be able to lecture without any of his or her personality in the material. We all put our own spin on things and it seems that student to student we respect that.
It's time to respect this of professors too. In this case, a good, young, concerned professor has been blind-sided and hurt. Some things in this world aren't to our liking, but sometimes you have to roll with the punches!
It is unfortunate that this incident happened, but it is an example of the lack of respect that many carry into the classroom. It is also presumptuous to assume that a professor would fail you because of your beliefs. We owe it to our professors to think higher of them than that, and to give them the respect they give us.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 12; December 13, 1996
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