My freshman spring at Asbury, I took the first Old Testament class of my life. Rather than using texts written by Christians, the professor decided to require a textbook written from a very objective point of view, each chapter always careful to end with how different religions interpreted the specific texts of the Bible that it had talked about. For the first time in my life, I was reading the Old Testament analytically as a piece of a larger ancient history.
The whiplash with my New Testament class the next semester could not have been stronger. Rather than focusing on the larger context of the world it was written in, my new professor focused on the words and messages of the Biblical text itself, bringing it alive with modern applications to our lives and world. There was such a difference that I could not help questioning my experience in the first class. Was that really the right way to look at the Bible? Or was this? Were neither?
Over my time at Asbury, I have grown accustomed to having professors with different perspectives and beliefs about the world. Without a doubt, the chance to learn from people who are different from you is one of the greatest things about the college experience. I am so thankful for two teachers who challenged me to consider why I think about the Bible in the way that I do. But what happens when things begin to go too far? What happens when professors’ opinions start being presented as the ‘right’ way to think?
Not too long ago, one of the classes I was in gave an assignment that took it a step further. After presenting us with a specific piece of religious art, our handout prompted us to discuss why that piece of art failed at what it tried to do. That assignment really caught me off guard. I did not think the piece of art was incredible. In fact, I found it fairly flawed, but I also respected its message and intentions enough that I never would have criticized it on my own. All at once, the opinions of my professor were no longer just a different perspective for me to consider. Instead, they were opinions I was expected to support.
As it turns out, this blurring of the lines is not confined to my own experience on campus, or even my own department.
“Within the Christian field of study, I’ve found that most professors love to express their studies to their students,” said one anonymous Christian Studies major. “After two weeks of classes, I have already had three out of four Bible professors advertise their own writings, two of which have added excerpts from their own works to our list of required readings for the course.”
That student’s experience is not a solitary one.
“I had a professor host a class discussion surrounding leadership in the church,” said another student. “My professor’s personal opinion was very obvious in how they directed the conversation and who they allowed to speak first, answer questions and how much time was spent on each side of the discussion… This one class discussion caused students to disengage for the rest of the class due to feeling that their voices and opinions were not heard or valued in class.”
Am I saying these teaching styles are intentionally malicious? Of course not. With the rare exception, the faculty at Asbury University is incredibly respectful and caring of their students. But any university faculty member is still human, and any human will always have blind spots.
“Most of the time, at least at Asbury, the professors don’t intentionally try to impose opinions,” reflected one intercultural student, “but they can accidentally do so through assuming a shared worldview that not everyone holds. For example, assuming ‘we’ are all Christian and thus ‘hold the same morality or worldview’ is a common one. While Asbury is a Christian school, it is not exclusively so, and thus students could hold a variety of beliefs.”
So what could be done to help in this area? For one, I think that it is important for students who have found themselves in these situations to have the courage to speak up, not only for themselves but for their peers. It is easy to think it is not a big deal if it only happens to you, but old habits die hard. What may seem harmless to you could shatter the confidence of the next person to sit in your seat, and you may be their greatest defender.
It is not wrong to have blind spots, just like it is not wrong to have opinions, but I believe it is the duty of professors to be intentional in considering how they are teaching as much as what they are teaching. Universities are not meant to make carbon copies of professors. They are meant to create adults who are capable of learning and thinking for themselves. To fulfill that mission, Asbury’s faculty should be a safe ear to the feedback of students who have felt pressured in their classes and take the time to ask the question for themselves: ‘Am I teaching my students so that they can grow, or so they can be like me?’
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.
