A few weeks ago, I had a substitute teacher in one of my classes. Now, given that our regular teacher was gone, the day was pretty uneventful. However, the substitute did say one thing that made me remember the class: “It’s such a shame how many of our teachers have a left bias these days.” I’m paraphrasing here, of course, but you get the idea. While I don’t fully agree that teachers are generally biased liberally, I do agree that there are many biased teachers out there–and this isn’t a good thing.

Teacher bias isn’t beneficial for education. If a teacher is going to teach me about an issue, person, event or something else of the like, then I want to be taught facts. In some of my classes, this does not happen. Instead, teachers will interject their own views in while teaching lessons.

When teachers mention their biases in lessons, it hurts students. I personally enjoy forming opinions about hotly debated issues, as do many other students. Many of my teachers even encourage us to form opinions on such things through assignments and projects. If these same teachers blatantly state their views while teaching students about such issues, it causes students to feel like their teacher’s opinion is the “right” one and possibly feel bad if their opinions are at odds with their teacher’s.

Now, by no means am I saying that teachers are not allowed to have or share opinions. I really like getting into discussions with some of my teachers about certain issues, whether our views are similar or different. When I have these discussions, though, I am willingly involving myself in something where I know the teacher might be sharing their views. While this is OK, teachers sharing their views to students without being asked is not.

Teachers shouldn’t be sharing their biases through their lessons. Instead, they should teach students enough information so that the students themselves can form their own opinions. While I may not have fully agreed with the aforementioned substitute teacher, I do echo some of her sentiments: it’s such a shame how many of our teachers have a bias these days.