Tales from the Classroom XII: Called Out

Posted on February 11, 2004 @ 11:43 am

We discussed the establishment clause of the First Amendment today in class and ended up on the topic of the controversy over the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, and I couldn’t help but think back to covering the same topic last semester. During that discussion, much like this morning, I brought up the fact that “under God” was not originally part of the pledge, but rather was added by Congress during the Eisenhower administration. As I said this, I noticed that one of my students made a snorting sound and rolled his eyes. Curious about his response, I asked him if he had a comment. It turns out that he did.

“That’s not true. I’m pretty sure it was always in there,” he said.

Honestly, I was more than a little taken aback. Had he just called BS on me in the middle of class? When teaching, I try to encourage critical thinking and I’m accustomed to having students question what’s in their readings as well as the opinions expressed in class. I’m not, however, accustomed to having them challenge me on the facts — especially when I had double-checked before class and knew that I was correct. Still, I was at a bit of a loss as to how I should respond to the student.

“Um, uh…” I stammered. “I’m relatively certain that the phrase was added during the Eisenhower administration.”

“Whatever,” he said, rolling his eyes again. “I don’t think so.”

Evidently, he wasn’t buying it. To make matters worse, the rest of the class apparently wasn’t familiar with this particular historical tidbit either and therefore couldn’t offer any backup.

Ultimately, I settled for telling him he could look it up and confirm it if he wanted and decided to press ahead with the discussion. Still, the remainder of the discussion was colored by the fact he had introduced doubt among the class regarding a central point of the debate over original intent, essentially creating a scenario in which it was basically my word against his.

Looking back, I guess there wasn’t really a better way to handle the situation. Of course, I could have just yelled “Wrong!” when he challenged me, à la John McLaughlin of The McLaughlin Group fame. Or, perhaps a simple, “You — never talk again!” would have sufficed.

I never found out whether or not the student got around to checking the facts and came around to my point of view (if you can call a clear statement of fact a “point of view”). I have to admit, though, that I was definitely on the lookout for any rolling eyes when I repeated the fact in class today — just in case.

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