My law professor is so bad at enforcing academic freedom. As defined by Stanley Fish during that seminar that I attended for him and a bunch of presidents/deans, and presumably in his book that I never bought (though I’m tempted to), academic freedom is the ability for academia to traverse all routes of truth with their students with the condition of refraining from affecting where those students go with their thoughts. And seriously, we can’t get through a class without him stating his views under guise of showing us where he’s coming from. It’s just unnecessary all of the time, and this is coming from someone who agrees with him.

Then again, we are studying law which is inherently political, unlike English, which is and was Professor Fish’s realm. My professor seems to think confirming his views over and over is necessary for some reason. It skirts dangerously close to making the classroom a sound board though, and I think all of the men sitting in that seminar would agree. They have, and would, all take a more way conservative take on teaching, even if it seems like the majority of them identify as perhaps middle-left, or middle-right. They would be authoritarian and respectable where my vegan, leftist professor is very conversational, even a little bumbling in a charming way. (He literally just said he was vegan.) I can’t imagine him being okay with the constraints Fish sets for academic tutors and for their pursuit of academia. It’s hilarious thinking about Mr. Fish trying to convince him that his teaching methods aren’t respectable, but I guess that’s why he teachers at my school and not at NYU or Yeshiva.