The Brian Mudd Show

The Brian Mudd Show

There are two sides to stories and one side to facts. That's Brian's mantra and what drives him to get beyond the headlines.Full Bio

 

Part 2: Cheat Sheet Q&A: Why are most teachers left-leaning & what can be done about it?

Part 2: Cheat Sheet Q&A: Why are most teachers left-leaning & what can be done about it? 

Bottom Line: Continuing with your questioning pertaining to why teachers are left leaning... You stated that probably 90% of teachers are left-leaning. You're more right than you knew. Verdant Labs studied this topic last year and found that among teachers who identify with a political party 79% are Democrats. In all of "academia", so including college professors - that figure jumps to 90% on the nose. Academia ranks as the sixth most liberal profession. The why is probably something that'd best be explained by a psychologist. There are professions, like those in energy for example, that are overwhelming conservative leaning. About 70% of pediatricians are liberals but about 70% of surgeons are conservatives. So that's a topic for a different day but the phenomenon of education being dominated by leftists is real - one just hopes that education, rather than advocacy wins out but we all know that too often that's not the case.  

You'd asked if I ran into issues when I was in school...Yes, though I grew up in a very conservative suburb of Atlanta (you reminded me of a school-wide student poll of who we'd vote for in the 1992 election - 89% of us voted for George H.W. Bush - if only the country had as much sense as the students in my school), so it wasn't pervasive. The first, and most memorable example I encountered in grade school (I had several major debates in college), occurred in 6th grade physical science. On a test that covered questions pertaining to creation, and centered around the "big bang theory", one question in particular stood out as problematic to me. The multiple choice question pertained to where life derived from but didn't include an option for intelligent design. I wrote God, circled it and pointed out the issue to teacher. She pushed back but after I made it clear that none of her theories could explain the origin of life but mine could (and drawing attention to it so other students didn't unwittingly deny God in the name of physical science) - she agreed to drop the question from the test.   

You'll hear me say that the most pervasive form of bias is omitting information, rather than what's presented to you in an overt way. My guidance for you would be to continue to learn outside of the classroom as well and lead on... 

If you have a topic or question you'd like me to address email me: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com  


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