Should professors wear buttons endorsing candidates for public office while they teach their classes? Certainly not, says Stanley Fish on his blog.
George Lakoff uses his theory of semantics to analyze the message John McCain sent by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Juan Cole quotes a paper proposing Franklin Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor” policy in Latin America as a model for the next president’s Middle East policy.
Labor economist George Borjas hasn’t updated his blog since August, but what’s there is still interesting.
University of Michigan linguist Sarah Thomason occasionally blogs under the screen-name “Sally Thomason.” The drawing at the top of the post is one of hers.
acilius
believer1
lefalcon
losthunderlads
vthunderlad
Panther Red 
cymast
/ October 16, 2008Teachers have positions of real influence in a classroom setting. Of course students will slant their questions and answers toward an affiliation with their teachers’ political views to prove themselves worthy of a higher grade.
I remember when I first discovered newpapers officially endorse political candidates. I was blown away.
…..
I remember an incident in grade school- the class had one of those fill-in-the-oval tests, and the next day, the teacher told me I had to take the test over again because at her house, my test had gotten crayon marks all over it. I was so offended (I was around 10). But she let me copy from my crayon-marked test.
acilius
/ October 16, 2008Every election year I notice candidate stickers and other political badges on office doors around this place. How can anyone think that’s appropriate? Why not just put up a sign saying “If you come here wanting me to help you, you’ll be wasting your time unless you agree with me about X, Y, and Z.” It had never occurred to me that a teacher would think to go into class wearing a candidate pin.
lefalcon
/ October 17, 2008What about univ instructors putting up political cartoons on their office door.
On one hand: why touch on politics if it has no relevance to the class, e.g. math.
On the other hand: have we really gotten this close to Stalinist Russia?
I figure, univ instructors are rubbing elbows every day with colleagues and students. Politics will come up in conversations. Trumpetting a certain candidate with buttons and bumpstickers and such: that’s not cool. But what I’m discussing is the ability to give voice to casual political opinions, either in the form of a humorous cartoon on the office door…or a brief conversation about the latest bullshit betw McCain and Obama. In the formal classroom setting, watch it. But around the office: Sure you can be more free with colleagues than with students. I just find it staggering that a grad stu or prof cannot comment on the American electoral process in the presence of any undergrad…for fear that undergrad will go complaining about how Prof so&so is an agent of liberalism and is using his position to brainwash and propagandize the nubile young undergraduate minds.
These comments, btw, are not reacting to prior comments…I’m just reflecting on this topic.
lefalcon
/ October 17, 2008Also: the thing u linked to by Lakoff is truly great. An excellent analysis. It made me feel like I was not insane.
acilius
/ October 19, 2008Lefalcon, you make some good points. You and I don’t disagree.