The Role of College Educators Is To Teach Students How To Think

"There are always good arguments on both sides of any real issue."  
—Bertrand Russell

Here is the 1915 inaugural statement of principles by the American Association of University Professors (A.A.U.P.) on page 405 of Norman Finkelstein's I'll Burn That Bride When I Get To It!

The university teacher, in giving instruction upon controversial matters, while he is under no obligation to hide his own opinion, under a mountain of equivocal verbiage, should, if he is fit for the position, be a person of a fair and judicial mind; he should, in dealing with such subjects, set forth, justly without suppression, or innuendo, the diverget opinions of other investigators; he should cause his students to become familiar with the best published expressions of the great historic types of doctrine upon the questions at issue; and he should above all, remember that his business is not to provide his students with ready-made conclusions, but to train them to think for themselves, and to provide them access to those materials, which they need, if they are to think intelligently.

The teacher ought to be especially on his guard against taking unfair advantage of the students immaturity by indoctrinating him with the teachers own opinions before the student has had an opportunity fairly to relate to examine other opinions upon the matters in question, and before he has sufficient knowledge in ripeness of judgment, to be entitled to form any definitive opinion of his own. This is not the least service which a college or university may render those under its instruction, to habituate them to looking not only patiently but methodically on both sides, before adopting any conclusion upon controverted issues.

To which Finkelstein adds: "A lectern is not a soapbox, a classroom is not a political rally, a professor should not serve as a conveyor belt for a party line. His responsibility is to stimulate, not dictate."