Some comments to my class.

Class,

To call an essay “biased” is to say that it is slanted, or really, that it has a particular point of view. To tell your readers that something is biased is useless unless you identify the nature of that bias. I know very well that the author in question is "biased";sure, he believes in something, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, his arguments draw much from the intellectual foundations of Leftist thinkers like Karl Marx, and more modern ones like Barbara Ehrenreich, among others––all political thinkers with strong opinions and academic writing styles. 

The world is a political place. There is no way around it. As your teacher, I am not going to tell you what to think, that is not my job. I will give you some indication of what I think if you ask, but that’s it. I will not use my position of authority to tell you what you should believe (I am your instructor, not your priest). 

What I want you to understand that objectivity in matters of social life is not possible, practically speaking. Objectivity is an issue for graduate philosophy seminars and for formal methods in the natural sciences, stuff like that. But for most issues that people care about, sorry to tell you, it doesn’t exist. No one can escape their point of view when discussing matters of morality and social life––none of us are omniscient. We cannot escape our own skins.  

What I want you to do is to both identify an author’s point of view and then evaluate it; then, if you disagree, tell me why. Over time, you will learn to develop a point of view of your own––this is not an easy task, though. Developing a fully formed opinion takes work and even sacrifice. It means learning to be patient and to evaluate the evidence and the claims to truth that are presented before you. 

My job is to give you the tools to become critical, independent and self-reliant thinkers. In other words, as Neil Postman once said, my job is to try and teach you to detect B.S. You must learn to recognize when an author is saying something important and when he or she is not. You must learn to train yourself to judge between truth and falsehood, between balderdash and profundity. Part of my job is to train you in intellectual self-defense against all the forms of nonsense and misinformation that you will be confronted with for much of your adult lives.  

When it comes to answers and small "t" truth, I will do all I can to give you the tools for you to begin to make your way towards your own personal truth and answers, but you must patient, these things take time. The German poet Rilke once wrote, I'm paraphrasing, that young people must not seek answers, yet, because it is much too early in their lives for that. Instead, the young must be very patient towards all that is unresolved in their hearts and try to love the questions themselves. For now you've gotta live, that was his point. Because someday, in your living and searching, you will live your way into an answer. Live now you guys––live now and question.