In-Class Exercise: Guess My Politics

A while back I posted about the question of whether law professors ought to disclose their political convictions in class. There was a good discussion in the comments. As I wrote then, my personal preference has been to be plain about my beliefs rather than dance around them. 

It turns out that if disclosure is my goal, I'm doing a lousy job.

Some weeks ago in my Media & Entertainment Law class – in conjunction with a unit on political side-taking by the press – I decided to do a different sort of feedback exercise. I asked students to scratch down on a blank sheet of paper what they figured my politics were, and to hand it back anonymously. When students were done, I wanted to discuss the results right away. But since I didn't want to stop class to read all the papers, and since couldn't ask for a show of hands and preserve anonymity, I asked a volunteer to survey the class opinion while I was out of earshot.

I walked out of class, and then I came back about a minute later. When I opened the door, I had never seen my students having so much fun. They told me to go away – they were still discussing it.

When the verdict came back, I was told that students were all over the map. There was a weak consensus that I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative. A very animated class discussion then ensued.

After class, going through the written responses, I found that a few students thought I was conservative, a few thought I was liberal, many thought I was somewhere in the middle, and one thought I was a narcissist for undertaking the exercise.

I think that last student had a point. In doing something like this, there is a real danger of veering off into self-aggrandizing irrelevance. On the other hand, I think there is something healthy about students being invited to try to deconstruct, criticize, and even pigeon-hole their teacher's viewpoint. Especially since I do roughly that to many of the authors of our assigned reading.

But the real benefit to doing the exercise was what I learned about my own teaching. Like watching yourself on videotape, there's an opportunity through this kind of feedback to learn some surprising things.

The most shocking comment I received was from a student who wrote, "I think [you are] conservative (more or less) on family values in re: marriage and children, i.e. one man, one woman ... I think you're rather neutral on the subject of homosexual/lesbian marriage, i.e., you wouldn't go advocating for or against it, but maybe you rather would prefer it not happen."

I was floored by this. I am a strong advocate of marriage equality. And it concerns me greatly that students might see me as privately squeamish about gay relationships or marriage. It has inspired me to post a GLBT "safe space" sign in my office.

At any rate, I think it was a worthwhile undertaking. Given the imposition on the class and the attenuated relation it has to the subject matter, however, I think I'll hold off on doing it again for at least a few years.