"If a teacher does not involve himself, his values, his commitments, in the course of discussion, why should the students?"
About this Quote
Wellstone’s line is a rebuke to the fantasy of the “neutral” classroom - and, by extension, the neutral public servant. Coming from a politician who made a career out of retail, values-forward populism, it’s less a Hallmark defense of passion than a hard-eyed observation about human incentives: students don’t invest in what feels procedural. If the person with the most authority in the room is acting like a detached moderator, the safest move for everyone else is to treat the discussion as an exercise in compliance, not a live contest of ideas.
The intent is tactical as much as moral. “Involve himself” isn’t about turning lectures into confessionals; it’s about signaling stakes. Values and commitments function here like disclosure in journalism: they don’t automatically make you right, but they tell the audience what you’re willing to be held accountable for. The subtext is that pedagogy is already political, whether a teacher admits it or not. Refusing to name one’s commitments doesn’t eliminate power; it just hides where it’s operating, often leaving the default worldview - the institution’s, the canon’s, the culture’s - unchallenged.
In Wellstone’s context, this reads as a defense of democratic participation. He’s arguing that civic life doesn’t run on technocratic distance; it runs on modeled courage. If you want students to risk being wrong in public, to speak with conviction, to argue ethically rather than performatively, you have to show them what that risk looks like from the front of the room.
The intent is tactical as much as moral. “Involve himself” isn’t about turning lectures into confessionals; it’s about signaling stakes. Values and commitments function here like disclosure in journalism: they don’t automatically make you right, but they tell the audience what you’re willing to be held accountable for. The subtext is that pedagogy is already political, whether a teacher admits it or not. Refusing to name one’s commitments doesn’t eliminate power; it just hides where it’s operating, often leaving the default worldview - the institution’s, the canon’s, the culture’s - unchallenged.
In Wellstone’s context, this reads as a defense of democratic participation. He’s arguing that civic life doesn’t run on technocratic distance; it runs on modeled courage. If you want students to risk being wrong in public, to speak with conviction, to argue ethically rather than performatively, you have to show them what that risk looks like from the front of the room.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
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