Disclaimer: This article is not meant to bash Emerson. This is happening in schools throughout the country.

I go to a very liberal school. I knew this when I was accepted, and I've been used to it. I've lived in Massachusetts my whole life, which has always been on left side of the political spectrum. For the majority of my life, I've had no problem with this. I've learned opposing views on many different issues from my mostly conservative family, and these views have stuck with me. It's not that I am incapable of making up my own mind, but I can say that my family did have an influence in the way I think about different issues.

I completely understand the desire to speak out about the recent events that have gone on in our country politically in the last few months. Everyone has strong views one way or the other, and no matter where you turn, it seems like you're being bombarded with opinions portrayed as though they are fact. Speaking out about one's own political views is freedom of speech, and I am completely in favor of it, but I also believe that there is a time and place to do such things. What I am against is a professor infusing their own political stance into their lessons.

I never really thought about politics being included in classroom settings. Even though my high school was also liberal, and at times, we would either get onto the topic of politics or have debates on political topics, I never had a teacher blatantly express his or her own beliefs to the point that they sounded like fact. Most high school teachers wouldn't even talk about their opinions if a student asked. Why? Because they were being professional. They were presenting actual facts in regard to laws and decision-making without trying to influence the minds of the children they were trusted with by adding in their own opinions.

Hitting college, I realized that I may have been lucky in that aspect. With the next election looming on the horizon, I was seeing political views everywhere, as one can expect. I managed to avoid a majority of the of the conversations by just brushing everything off. I never asked for any opinions, but received them anyway. And whenever I was asked my opinion, I kept it to myself. All of that changed, however, when I started my Political Science course (US and Latin America).

Of course, considering the class has the term "Political" in it, I knew we'd be talking about politics. Duh, right? But I had hoped it would be just politics regarding both the US and Latin America. Granted, a majority of the time was that. But as the election grew closer, it seemed that every day we began to talk about it more every day. Specifically, everyone talked about how horrible the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, was. I had been hearing this for months, but it was always from the students' prospective. This time, the professor was not only saying it, but encouraging an "open discussion" that was anything but open.

This professor would un-ironically say, "I'm sorry I keep bringing my own opinions in," or, "I know professors aren't supposed to talk about their opinions, but—" and would then proceed to talk (sometimes for longer than 15 minutes) about the reasons she didn't like this or that about Trump. The rest of the class would almost immediately agree and jump into the conversation, and encouraged the professor to continue speaking her mind, even if classrooms are meant to be a non-biased (or as non-biased as you can get) environment. I believe this was because the class figured everyone shared the same political views as them.

The alienation I felt in this class only grew as time went on. It got to a point where I essentially refused to participate in any aspect of the class, not just "debates" based on the election. The professor kept trying to make the environment "inclusive" for everyone, and would say after a long-winded rant about Trump, that "But, of course we should hear if others feel differently. If anyone agrees with Trump and voted for him, they can speak up and explain why". This made me want to laugh. Even if this professor wanted to hear another side of the spectrum, which it did not seem she did by what she would say, none of the students would be open-minded enough to listen.

I recently discovered a professor who is completely politically open-minded, despite having liberal views. He rarely mentions his own views in the class, but if he does, he does not speak as if the words are fact. He is willing to listen to other views, like mine, which is very encouraging.

While I believe fully in freedom of speech, I also believe that it is inappropriate for the classroom setting to be full of political bias (or any bias, for that matter). If someone pays $60,000 to receive an education, they should be sure that they are getting factual information, not just opinion expressed as fact.