I’ve told this story many times before. In fact I have it ready to copy and paste because I think it’s important.
I’m a teacher myself - I teach secondary school history to older students - 14-18 year olds. I am very careful to avoid promoting my own political beliefs in the classroom - with my oldest, most mature students, I will tell them if they ask, what I think and why, but I will also direct them to contrary arguments and encourage them to independently research things.
When I was at school in the late 1960s and early 1970s, one of my teachers, who was also the school’s Chaplain was very active in the anti-Vietnam War movement, and also a number of other left-wing causes (a couple of which I even agreed with him on actually). I was considering going into the military after I left school, and I sought out the teachers I trusted and admired for advice - I had lost my parents so I relied on certain other adults. When I went to him, I expected him to tell me joining the military was a bad idea. Instead, he told me it was a good career and he thought I’d do well in it. My surprise was obvious to him, because he went on to elaborate on his philosophy of teaching.
He told me that his mission as a teacher was always to try and teach his students HOW to think, not WHAT to think. And while he was always happy on some level, when a student agreed with him, that he would regard himself as a profound failure as a teacher if all his students did so. It would mean he’d failed to teach them to think for themselves.
When I became a teacher myself, I’ve tried to adopt the same philosophy.
“his mission as a teacher was always to try and teach his students HOW to think, not WHAT to think.”
Exactly, there is a similar quote from James Carville telling of teaching at Tulane. (That may be one of the few things that i would agree with him.)