Should teachers use personal opinions when grading homework?

Question

My sister's daughter has a history class where on a weekly basis she has write short response papers on current events. I was shocked at some of the one sided questions. The Questions that stand out: "what should we as Americans do to stop Globe warming?" and "How do you feel about the progress in Iraq?"
She wrote clear factual response to these two questions. Yes she is a smart young woman. she used facts to show some myths about global warming and quoted some positive accomplishments made in Iraq.
The teachers response was your facts are potently propaganda from the big business worried about their profits. Your facts on the war are suspect and sound like they come from Fox news. In the future use a none bi-est source like the NY time and MSNBC. on the flip side in a different question when she pointed out some good qualities of Barak Obama she was praised for good factual support to her opinion.
When you ask a opinion question is it even possible to have a wrong answer?

Answer 1

It is possible to have a wrong answer to an opinion question if that opinion is based on incorrect information or faulty reasoning. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, as the saying goes, but not everyone's opinion is equally valid, and an uninformed opinion is virtually worthless. Without having read your niece's paper I cannot say if this was the case.

However, I do not believe that a student should be penalized when expressing an opinion as long as she makes a coherent, logical argument based on accepted facts. A teacher should be helping students to learn to think for themselves, to look at the facts and come to a logical conclusion based on valid argument. A teacher's job is not to fill students' heads with dogma to be regurgitated upon command. This applies whether the dogma is of the left or the right.

Answer 2

Clearly the answer to the global warming question was wrong--from what you said,. There is plenty of information (objective) about strategies to compat global warming--so it wasn't an opinion question.

As for the second, I'd have to see the answer to judge--but, while that is an opinion question, facts cited to suport an opinion need to be just that--facts. From what you say, the student did not provide much in the way of facts.

As a history instructor I've had much the same situation arise. I do not care WHAT position a student takes. But if they dont offer a fact-based logical arguement to support it, their grade will suffer.

The cold, hard truth: subjective questions like this are a part of writing--intended to provide exercise in critical thinking and arguementation based on factual information. Your sister's daughter--and you --seem to regard this as license to engage in unsubstantiated propaganda. That is not what such an exercise is about.

Answer 3

It is hard to comment on this without having seen the assigment question and the homework itself. IYour niece's teacher sounds insensitive and not very constructive. I teach at a university and do make similar, but not so harshly worded, comments on students' work, whether I agree with their views or not, if their work seems to lack counter arguments to compliment their initial thesis, or if their references are irrelevant, dodgy or missing. It is NOT possible to give a 'wrong' answer to a political question, but the student should be aware that what teachers are looking for is an analytical answer that is backed up by good referencing and sources. Otherwise, the student is just spouting an opinion, which any idiot can do.

Answer 4

I am an opponent of subjective grading.

So, no, I think the teacher's opinions should be left out of it MOSTLY...Now, in case's where the student really needs guidance, the teacher could say things like "you should really talk to your parents about this" (i.e. for an essay about love that turns into the student's description of their first sexual encounter) or "i feel you should consider engineering" (i.e. for a paper that showed extremely gifted logic and mathematical prowess).

Also, teachers are human. They tend to have political leanings (left, right or center) and it gets worse in college, I'm told. So your daughter needs to be prepared for this.

I know I always cringe when a teacher expresses his or her personal opinion, even when I agree. It is not usually professional.

Answer 5

I think if it is an opinion question, it should be just that. To me it's not possible to have a wrong answer and I don't think anyone, teacher's included, should force their opinions on anyone else. Everyone has a right to their own opinion no matter what the issue is.

Answer 6

It should not be when a teacher goes beyond helping students to giving her personal opinions as part of their duty.If your sister"s daughter asked her personally for the teacher's opinion that would be different.

Answer 7

As lang as there are going to be bigoted, one-sided teachers, before tests you have to figure out what they want, or look for, and satisfy them and be happy knowwing at least 50% of the time, you may have one that agrees with you

Answer 8

Absolutely not! It is a well known fact that many of our teachers are liberally biased and I resent the fact that they can have an effect on our children with their personal opinions!!

Answer 9

I would take what she wrote and report it to the school principal. What does she mean by "Big Business" worried about profits? That kind of response if very broad and uncertain and I am unsure of what it teaches (?)

Answer 10

That she thinks the NY Times and MSNBC are not biased say sit all. This teacher is not teaching; she's indoctrinating. It's wrong.