Older students and the liberal arts

[alleycat]

This article from Town Hall (full disclosure: I'm not a liberal) got me thinking. The article lists a few questions and answers from a recent sociology exam, and the questions bear an obvious and significant anti-US bias. Those of you on the left may believe the bias is justified. But I don't think anyone could deny that the bias is there and the questions are not designed to elicit original thought by the student.

I took sociology more than 20 years ago, and it wasn't anything like what the article describes. But, as an over-40 EC history major, I did take some EC courses as well as ECEs in the social sciences (history and foreign policy), and there were times when material from my textbooks gave me pause. Sometimes something I read seemed like half the story, or at least slanted, and I would make a mental note to seek information from other sources one day when I had time. Other times, in writing papers and responding to exam essay questions, I felt I should refrain from expressing any opinion that might not jibe with the instructor's lest it affect my grade.

I wonder if anyone else has had similar experiences as an adult liberal arts major. It's one thing to be 19 years old, away from mom and dad for the first time, and have this distinguished instructor standing on an ivory pedestal telling you how you should view the world. It's quite another to be returning to school in your 30s or 40s, bringing your well-informed, carefully-considered, and oh-so-middle-class opinions with you.

My take on it is that as an older (over forty and fabulous) student that I could get away with so much more then the younger students in class. They actually noticed. I have taken many B&M classes and I feel that many of my professors noticed I wasn't 19 and noticed that I actually had a little life experience to back it up. I had one instructor that was OLD (I mean old) and she could not stand anyone's opinion but her own. Thank heavens she is gone now. I mean that for the new students coming into the program behind me. But she was a bit controlling with her behavior. Probably because of her underlying personality disorder. But as far as the rest of them went I actually think I had it easier then the young students.