Editorial: Teachers and Faculty Should Show No Bias

On Sept. 16, University of Kansas (KU) professor David Guth tweeted about the Navy Yard Shooting in Washington D.C. and has received much backlash for his comment. Guth’s tweet, “#NavyYardShooting The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters. Shame on you. May God damn you”, probably would have gone unnoticed along with the other tweets about the incident, except for the fact that he is associate professor of journalism at KU.

Educators must be conscious while posting on social media when they know students are following them. Being a professor, as well as a teacher or faculty member, comes with the responsibility of conducting oneself in a professional way. These people are an extension of the school.

Yes, Guth has the freedom to speak about the situation because of his First Amendment right, but he is still publicly known and associated as a professor at KU. He has the responsibility to be mindful of what he says publicly when he knows he might influence students. Guth is also paid by taxpayers, which means those taxpayers don’t want their money supporting someone who voices their opinions in an inappropriate fashion. The Harbinger believes that KU’s decision to put Guth on paid administrative leave was the right move.

Students should be taught in an unbiased environment at school. This means that during lessons concerning topics such as religion, history or politics, teachers should only be teaching the topic, not their views. In a poll conducted about the California public university system, 53 percent of responders said that they believe professors teach topics in the classrooms with a political bias. Only 24 percent believed that topics were presented in a politically balanced way.

Now, we’re not saying that students should beliving in a bubble. Instead, students need to learn how to think for themselves. When all sides of a topic are presented, this allows for students to make their own decisions which is especially important to learn in high school for later in life. Students must be be given the opportunities to develop their own opinions. The world is in demand of creative thinkers, and teaching children to feed off a teacher’s opinion will not allow students to be creative. There will come a time when we won’t be spoon fed information and ideas; and it’s now time to start thinking for ourselves.

Whether or not you are ready for it, we will soon be the people in charge. We will be running the government, making money and teaching the next generation. But we won’t be able to do all those things if we are still relying on others. There will be no progression. So do the future generation a favor, and don’t tweet and teach.