The Cost of Education

All over the country, state legislators are considering bills that would allow students in universities to sue their professors. The latest such bill was introduced in the Florida legislature by Rep. Dennis Baxley, who says that professors should be teaching alternative academic theories in the classroom and should not use their profession as a "platform" to encourage only one viewpoint. The bill gives students who feel they are subject to ridicule in the classroom because of their opinions standing to sue their universities in court.

As the blogger called Billmon has pointed out, this is the sort of thing that Mao encouraged during the cultural revolution; revolutionary Chinese student zealots got to "criticize" their teachers. Sometimes the criticism was so constructive that the professors wound up in work camps, or dead.

I doubt that sort of thing will happen here. All that will happen if the law passes is professors will get called into meetings with the dean, who will tell them to be extra careful. Some teachers will dutifully tone down their rhetoric; others will be rebels and get called in to multiple meetings with the dean. This second group might get denied tenure or, in a few cases, fired. But that will be it.

So it's not going to be so bad. And, in the end, the Supreme Court will probably rule these laws unconstituional, so the laws won't be with us forever, either.

However, some damage will be done. A few excellent classroom debates will fail to develop. Some education that could have taken place will not take place. A few people who would have been inspired will not be inspired. Some essays that would have been interesting will turn out boring instead. And one or two truly brilliant ideas will simply not occur.

I have always felt sympathy for the few conservative students who argue with liberal professors. Young people are passionate enough about their ideas, but lack the self-confidence and experience to debate a professor. The liberal professor, a seasoned student of thoughtful discourse, always ends up making the conservative student look like a hothead. Many professors do allow themselves to become bullies, to the point of foreclosing meaningful classroom debate; professors sometimes criticize the student's debate technique without addressing their argument. The professor thereby looks like they've got the better idea, when really they're only better at talking.

But allowing students to sue their schools for this sort of thing is a terrible idea. One thing the conservative legislators pushing these bills haven't thought out is that the sword will cut both ways; there are enough conservative professors out there that liberal students could do the same thing. Would these legislators really want liberal eighteen-year-olds seeking out these professors and taking their classes, hoping to goad them into a debate, getting them to say more than they should, and then suing them? That's what's going to happen, to liberal and conservative alike. A pox on both houses.

The professors who shut kids down in class, or, worse, who give them bad grades because they disagree with their ideas, are just bullies. But we've all lived through such teachers. I had a government teacher in high school who gave me a bad grade because I wouldn't admit that Bill Clinton should be impeached, and I had a history teacher in college who gave me a bad grade because I wouldn't admit that Stalin wasn't such a bad guy. These guys were rotten teachers, and I'm glad to be rid of them.

But I'm also sort of glad I took classes with them; it's a good life lesson. The world is full of people who aren't going to give your opinions a fair shake, and you need to learn how to deal with that. It's also not a bad idea to learn how to stand up for your principles even when they cost you. Plus, if you work really hard and hone your debating skills, by the end of the semester you might have earned your professor's grudging respect, if not a good grade. Personally, I'd much rather have the grudging respect of an adversary than a victory in a petty lawsuit.