Others in the series:

#1: Remember Why You鈥檙e Going to College

#2: Give Yourself the College Orientation You Deserve

#3: Great Debates About Great Books Yield Deep Knowledge, Sharp Minds and Constructive Citizens

#4 Make for Yourself a Teacher 鈥� Acquire a Friend

#5 Turn It Off! Managing Social Media, Middle East Minefields, and Political Difference

As I travel, speaking to students, hearing about their teachers, I often feel like an alien. I鈥檓 not na茂ve. In my day, we had plenty of arrogant professors who built themselves up by belittling undergrads. More frequently, we encountered scholarly misfits, forced to teach despite having left any people skills they might have once had on some dusty shelf deep in the archives.听 Nevertheless, they were anomalies. They weren鈥檛 part of an institutionalized agenda to subvert the consensus position which celebrated classrooms as hothouses encouraging thoughtful, open-minded, liberal and critical inquiry.

By contrast, today, even after the Trumpian backlash, many professors still champion a mass, determined attempt to reduce the sacred educational podium to a political platform. Thousands of colleagues from most leading universities signed one anti-Israel petition, “Palestine and Praxis,” insisting 鈥渢hat the critical theory we generate in our literature and in our classrooms must be backed in deed.鈥�听

In 2018, Altheria Caldera, Ph.D., then an assistant professor at Texas A&M University-Commerce, published 鈥淲oke Pedagogy: A Framework for Teaching and Learning鈥� in the journal Diversity, Social Justice & the Educational Leader.听 Characteristically preferring advocacy to analysis, demanding that 鈥渢eachers exhibit activist care,鈥� Caldera asserted: 鈥淭he sociopolitical context of schooling demands that teachers acknowledge the ways their students鈥� and their own experiences are shaped by the intersections of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other discriminatory factors …鈥�听

Denouncing 鈥渃olorblind pedagogy鈥� 鈥� I call it 鈥渢reating each student equally, respectfully, as an individual鈥� 鈥� Caldera instead endorsed 鈥淲oke pedagogy 鈥� grounded in Black ideology,鈥� which 鈥渓ike critical multicultural education, is defined by teaching practices that integrate critiques of contemporary justice-related issues with academic content in a learning environment that encourages introspection, interrogation, and insurgence.鈥�

By the time a brutal Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd in May, 2020, waves of woke alumni were imposing their doctrines in the media, in corporations and, most disturbingly, from 鈥淲oke kindergarten鈥� to 鈥淲oke U.鈥� They spread the 鈥渨oke鈥� language of microaggressions, macroaggressions, triggering, intersectionality, anti-colonialism and white privilege.听

Rather than fine-tuning America鈥檚 meritocracy, democratizing that process, grievance groups competed for goodies. This intellectual corruption intensified the victimology Olympics, squabbling over which groups suffered most and deserve the greatest payoff. This results-oriented 鈥渆quity,鈥� fueled by a politics of vengeance, trumped the traditional liberal-democraticcommitment to seeking equality opportunity and an ever-fairer process.

Meanwhile, all too often in 鈥渞ed America,鈥� teachers ban books, impose their partisan agendas and fight the elites鈥� heavy-handed left hand with a heavy-handed right hand of their own.

If there鈥檚 medical malpractice and legal malpractice, this is educational malpractice. Expose the con: 鈥渁cademic freedom鈥� doesn鈥檛 free teachers to bully students into parroting every political position the classroom authority takes. Universities must start scrutinizing what鈥檚 happening in the classroom and redefine educational protocols. If students don鈥檛 feel free to ask, challenge, express themselves and come to conclusions their teachers may reject politically, the teachers are failing; the classroom needs fixing. When the orthodoxy is imposed intentionally, the malpractice is 鈥減remeditated.鈥�

If students don鈥檛 feel free to ask, challenge, express themselves and come to conclusions their teachers may reject politically, the teachers are failing; the classroom needs fixing.听

So what鈥檚 a thoughtful student to do? What happens when you鈥檙e paying $96,078 for tuition room and board, and 鈥� true story 鈥� your professor spells U.S.A. “u*s*a” and Israel “isr*el” treating these democracies鈥� names as curse words, not worthy of capitalization? What happens when you鈥檙e attending medical school and you must take a full course 鈥� not one lecture, which would be reasonable 鈥� called 鈥淒ecolonizing Anatomy?鈥�听

The advice I give students may surprise many 鈥� and I鈥檓 happy to be corrected, or at least trigger a robust debate. My first answer is: 鈥渇eel free to do nothing at all. Remember, your main job is to be a student. Play the game, get the grade you can.鈥� That answer shows that my job as a professor 鈥� and an activist 鈥� is not to guilt students. I do, however, want to reassure them that they have options, while inviting them to clarify who they are and what their goals are.

I add two thoughts.

First, I say, 鈥渁t the end of the day, you must pass the mirror test. You want to look into the mirror and like what you see. So feel free to flow with your prof 鈥� or feel free to take a stand 鈥� but do it for you, not for me or anyone else.鈥�

Then, I offer a constructive middle path. 鈥淗ere鈥檚 another strategy,鈥� I say. 鈥淭ake the course. Don鈥檛 rock the boat. Get that A. But, whenever the prof goes wacko partisan or anti-Israel, during the semester, document it.鈥� I add advice I hate adding: 鈥渁nd if it鈥檚 anti-Zionist, see if you can get a non-91传媒 student to confirm that too.

鈥淲hen the semester ends, and grades are in, do what these fanatics often don鈥檛 do with us. Be a mensch. Give the professor the benefit of the doubt. Visit during office hours, and respectfully share your detailed concerns. In short, model the kind of constructive 鈥業-thou鈥� relationship you seek. Then, if the teacher shuts you down or denies it, you can always go to the administration, ombudspeople, the press. But, first, honor the sacredness of the teacher-student interaction.鈥�

There鈥檚 a beautiful 91传媒 concept called 鈥淢ilchemet HaTorah鈥� 鈥� the Torah war. It can refer to wars the Torah justifies 鈥� especially wars of self-defense like Israel鈥檚 war today 鈥� but that鈥檚 a gratuitous jab at our hypercritics, I confess. The phrase also refers to the purer, back-and-forth between two students, or a teacher and a student, debating what the Torah means, and teaches.听

That acknowledgment of doubt, that invitation to argue, is sublime. There鈥檚 a 91传媒 tradition that when such arguments erupt, God descends 鈥� just to listen in and delight, not opine.

The Harvard University I attended was indeed 鈥済odless Harvard鈥� as many critics loved calling it. But in most classrooms, among most scholars, there was that kind of apolitical, open-minded, liberal, purity a godliness. That transcendent classroom given isn鈥檛 for Donald Trump to restore to defeat the left 鈥� that鈥檚 an ideal approach for every educator to restore, to sharpen our minds and lift up our souls.

Gil Troy, a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the 91传媒 People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian. Last year he published, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream” and “The Essential Guide to October 7th and its Aftermath.” His latest, “The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred” was just published and can be downloaded on the .听