Almost Half of College Students Surveyed Are Afraid to Disagree With Professors
This isn’t how higher education is supposed to work.
CNS News reports.
Survey: 49% of College Students Feel ‘Intimidated’ When Expressing Beliefs Different From Professors
Forty-nine percent of U.S. college students admit they feel “intimidated” when they express beliefs or opinions that differ from their professors, according to a new nationwide survey of 800 undergraduates.
When researchers asked: “Have you felt intimidated to share your ideas, opinions or beliefs in class because they were different than your professors and course instructors?” 49 percent responded that they did, including 14 percent who said this happens “frequently”.
Fifty percent of survey respondents also said they felt intimidated by classmates when sharing different or unpopular beliefs.
The vast majority (95 percent) of students surveyed said that the issue of free speech is “important” to them, and 87 percent agree that listening to those with whom they disagree has educational value.
However, despite their strong support for free speech, a majority (51 percent) of students favor on-campus speech codes even though only one in 10 believes that colleges should regulate speech even more than they do now.
Survey: 49% of College Students Feel ‘Intimidated’ When Expressing Beliefs Different From Professors (CNS News)
Comments
Are they too stupid to know that campus speech codes are against freedom of speech? I am astonished that students of today do not really comprehend the concept that free speech really means that, and not some kind of ban on hurt feelings. We are really in trouble if our college-educated offspring do not understand the most important right we have.
I’d say that most of the few conservative professors that have a significantly different worldview from students are afraid to disagree with students. They have more power than they realize and it’s a total mad world.