“Ideally, you’d hope that professors would be open-minded and intelligent enough that if they hear a smart, interesting view that’s not their own, they’d respect that. Unfortunately, it’s just a reality that some professors will assume that if a student doesn’t agree with them, then the student is just not getting it or not impressive.”
Sabrina Guo
Assistant Editor, The Beacon
Recently awarded the Buckley Institute’s Lux et Veritas Faculty Prize in honor of her efforts to foster intellectual diversity in and outside the classroom, John M. Duff Professor of Law Amy Chua has long been recognized for her unwavering commitment to increasing open debate and free thought among Yale students and colleagues.
Yale freshman Sabrina Guo recently sat down with Chua to learn more about how and why she openly encourages students to challenge their perspectives and her own. Chua gave advice and tips on how students can succeed in an environment of political tension and polarization.
Chua began by emphasizing the importance of both having the courage to speak up and speaking with consistency: “Many students are afraid to open their mouths and share their opinion,” she said. “On the flip side, if you have a certain position, you have to ask yourself: ‘what is the operating principle?’ For example, ‘is it free speech?’—and then you have to be consistent even if you don’t like the outcome. That is one of the toughest challenges for all of us: trying to listen to the other side with a genuinely open mind.” Chua emphasized the importance of embracing diverse perspectives to achieve a greater understanding of the key issues of our time.
This raises the question: who should help to encourage such dialogue? Chua believes that faculty and students are both integral to creating a learning environment that is stimulating and enriching and allows students to question others’ premises and their own. When asked how she does this, Chua expressed, “As a professor, I’m a huge fan of structure.”
Chua organizes her classes in a way that incentivizes dialogue, making sure her classes touch on a wide breadth of topics, many of which are controversial—such as law and economics, Common Good Constitutionalism, and critical race theory.
Such intensely provocative subjects have become scarcer in classroom discussions. Yet, Chua expressed optimism, saying, “I feel that, generally, it’s freer to teach now than two to five years ago.”
Another obstacle Chua noted was the tendency to “present the other side as a caricature”—an exaggerated opponent that is then easily mischaracterized. To combat this, she tries to assign the best—not the worst—examples of readings from various schools of thought. She also gives the students thought-provoking discussion questions. “As a result, we’ve managed to have some amazing discussions about class, race, and upper mobility with students daring to offer views from all perspectives, and it’s actually been fun from all sides,” she shared.
Chua also noted the importance of getting to know people first as potential friends rather than along political lines—for such friendships, particularly those involving opposing ideologies, can often prove valuable to both sides.
Beyond fostering diverse dialogue in the classroom, Chua encourages student organizations or faculty groups to create situations in which people can socialize along nonpolitical lines first before engaging in potentially divisive discussions.
Despite her optimism, Chua recognizes the common dilemma faced by Yale students in the classroom: whether or not to conform to the apparent ideology or opinion of their professor for validation or grade. This hinders intellectual diversity, forcing students to participate less authentically in order to achieve results that should not be affected by their political ideology at all.
“Ideally, you’d hope that professors would be open-minded and intelligent enough that if they hear a smart, interesting view that’s not their own, they’d respect that. Unfortunately, it’s just a reality that some professors will assume that if a student doesn’t agree with them, then the student is just not getting it or not impressive,” Chua said.
Although it may be difficult, Chua emphasizes that it is important for all to push themselves and challenge others in order to advance as a society. “However, I would never want to ask students to be heroic and damage their own prospects,” she added. She also shared that she herself has voiced to her students that she does not agree anymore with some of the views she has expressed in her previous work—and through this, she encourages students to disagree with her and push back freely.
When asked about the faculty’s role in promoting intellectual diversity, Chua suggested that the burden of promoting intellectual diversity should be placed much more on professors than students, for leadership from the professor can set the stage for a more stimulating classroom.
Addressing what faculty can do, she said, “Professors can do a lot of work by putting a banner on the syllabus that says, ‘This class seeks to promote lively, respectful debate across all political divides. Each student is entitled to the benefit of doubt: if you disagree, please present your views respectfully.’ If you make that clear from the outset, it sets the stage.”
One method Chua herself has used is to encourage students to email her their views to share anonymously in class. “It’s sort of sad—I never had to do this in the past because students used to happily raise their hands and express their views. So having to share provocative views anonymously is definitely a second-best solution. But it has worked really well.”
She has seen people nodding and raising their hands as she reads the emails out loud. “I’d prefer to be in a world where we wouldn’t have to have people hide their identities and speak their truth, but it’s better than nothing that I can read these things.”
When it comes to her own research, Chua believes in the value of learning why the opposing side may have such a different opinion, what drives them, and what pushes their opinion to the other side of the political spectrum. “There’s no other way of getting at this than tapping into intellectual diversity. You have to ask left- and right-wing people,” she stated.
Chua’s parting advice was, “Be diplomatic and try to listen to the other side as open-mindedly as you can.” She added, “This may be wishful thinking, but I do sense that students are getting less risk averse. I hope they will be more rewarded for it.”