In my experience, no student resents a professor being candid about what he thinks, as long as he is not a
bully
In general, I see nothing wrong with a professor expressing his opinion as long as he makes it clear it's his opinion and he encourages the students to draw their own conclusions. But the danger comes when he makes the students feel, whether rightly or wrongly, that you have to agree with his opinion in order to get a good grade in his class. It's not many professors who can give a well-reasoned paper which skewers the professor's views a better grade than a not as well reasoned paper which espouses those views.
Generally, I have found that many teachers, whether consciously or unconsciously (they have, they think, come to their views after careful consideration of all the factors, so any students who don't agree clearly haven't carefully considered all the factors, so don't deserve as good a grade) discourage creative thinking in favor of thinking within their box. Which IMO is contrary to the principle of a liberal education. Which is why in most cases it's better, IMO, for the professor not to express a view, so that the students really have to work to write papers that are well reasoned without having the benefit of knowing where the teacher wants them to come out. |
