"This class is changing my political alignment ."

Dec 23, 2022

Strange story in my office hours:

(*"office hours" , if you don't know, are what professors call time with students outside the class, ideally in an office --this is in my office at LMU, a liberal Jesuit university in a liberal, rich area of Los Angeles).

Ok, the brief, strange story:

I'm talking with this girl --a very pretty, non-white mixed race student --about the D on her last exam. We're going over what she wrote. She a very intelligent girl, but like many students, had trouble adjusting to the type of rigor in philosophy. Her mistakes are ones she could easily bounce back from with the right focus and guidance.

Then, she sort of stared into space. Like people do when they're thinking.

She said to me, slowly:

"This class is changing my political alignment ."

Those were her exact words.

I was puzzled how we went from her D (I was expecting complaints, crying, etc.) to ...that.

I thought back to the class lectures , trying like hell to remember what she might be talking about from my lectures .

Then she continued:

"I dropped my Women's Studies minor. I'm thinking about adding an Ethics or Philosophy minor instead."

I just sat there. I grabbed an Ethics Minor pamphlet from the stack I keep. I gave her a bookmarker for the LMU Philosophy Dept (website, blog, benefits of the major, resources, etc on it).

And then she pensively smiled and said thanks and left. I think she just killed it on the final.

It's only getting weirder at work, folks. Fun, but weird. I hope to have a conversation someday about what that was all about.

The Republican Professor

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