Do you think colleges are indoctrinating students?

I’m probably going to upset some people who usually seem to agree with me. I’m not sure if coordinated indoctrination is happening within the classrooms. I suppose it is happening anecdotally in various directions depending on the leanings of the faculty member. In my own college experience, I had an English professor who was [i]very[/i] liberal and was not bashful about incorporating his opinions in the lectures and even favored students in discussions who agreed with him. Conversely, I had a Philosophy professor who was extremely right-leaning, and he would constantly link Aristotle with Reagan in the most positive light while deriding Plato and Socrates and drawing unfavorable comparisons to Clinton. My learning experience in both courses suffered due to professors who thought it was more important to soapbox and sidebar than it was to teach the material.

Here’s where some might take umbrage with me. Even though I disagree with the far right on many things, it bothers me to see their speakers shouted down, attacked, and run off campus. Instead, people with opposing viewpoints should challenge them and debate them civilly. The idea that college students need safe spaces where their thoughts and ideas aren’t challenged seems counterintuitive to what college is supposed to be about. This is the time that these students should be developing their critical thinking and honing their debate skills. They should emerge fully developed to enter a world where not everyone sees everything the same as they do. I think colleges that don’t encourage free speech and rigorous yet civil debate aren’t living up to their responsibility.