Not true. I've written papers that might be considered as unorthodox, where I included topics such as existentialism and absurdism into my writing. I presented what I wrote in a professional, academic manner and in my eight years of college I never received any grade lower than a B (on a paper, mind you...doesn't include exams! ).

There's nothing wrong with investigating a topic with deep, philosophical thinking. If anything, professors love it because it shows how immersed and interested you are in the subject.

That's horrible. What if you just don't talk about Religion,politics,etc. and/or just agree with the progessor?

Don't ever agree just to agree, and that goes for anyone you talk to. About 90% of my professors have been competent, learned individuals, but some other professors (adjunct professors, usually) don't know what they're talking about. Always listen with a critical ear and don't be afraid to argue. I've done it many times, successfully too, and I didn't ever feel like I received a grade I didn't deserve. Public college is a free, open forum both in and out of the classroom. Besides, if you ever have a dispute, the Dean is the person you want to see. They'll come down hard on any professor who isn't treating students fairly. Universities won't tolerate it.

The real problem with that quote is the way he's presenting America's motivations. The idea that the main motivator for America in WW2 was the holocaust has some serious problems with it, to say the least.

I responded in a PM for the sake of the thread.

As others have noted, a professor can't (in theory) fail you because you have views that conflict with their own.

In all my years of schooling, I don't think I've ever had a professor fail me because of my views (or, rather, never had a professor lower my grades because of my views). And I've had a lot of schooling so far. That being said, I've definitely had a few professors who I subjectively felt didn't like me / my views and did grade things a little tougher. No way to prove things like that, usually, as grading in many disciplines can be rather subjective.

The one major issue with your professor's quote is that the U.S. did not (likely) know about the concentration camps until troops arrived at said camps. The U.S. did know of Germany / Japan's imperialistic motivations via the Blitz against Poland and other countries, etc, and the attack on Pearl Harbor basically forced the U.S. to enter the war.

As for the whole issue of agreeing / not agreeing with a professor: The good professors will be happy to debate with you, but if you don't have a (well) reasoned argument in your favor, they will likely make mincemeat out of your views. The bad professors, of which I've never had any, will likely not be able to act in such a professional manner. In that case I'd recommend simply keeping your head down and not getting into it with them, unless it is an egregious issue. They will only likely be affecting your grades for a semester or two.

Oh, and professors do talk about students with whom they've had trouble with. So don't go making any unnecessary enemies.

You may if you go to a crappy university, but normally that should not be the case. I'm a history student myself (going to hand in my MA thesis in a week or two in fact) and at my university almost all the professors are great, very nice guys (and a handful of gals) who don't let their personal view on things get in the way. There's two I really don't like, but they are still very professional and something like that ridiculous Holocaust story in this thread could never happen with them. As long as you always present all sides of the debate and are able to come up with good arguments for your opinion, you practically cannot fail (unless you really svck at writing). In fact, with a research paper I wrote in my second year I got the comment from my professor that, while he completely, 100% disagreed with my conclusions I still wrote a very good paper, and gave me an 8,5/10.

Of course, things can be different if you go to a poor university with bad professors. Like in Tilburg for example, which has had some really bad publicity lately. It even made it to the paper when a guy who wrote a BA thesis, which was average at best (and complete trash in my opinion), got a 10/10 because he catered to the political views of his professor. Maybe not surprising it was also related to fascism and some contemporary politicians, that always brings out the worst in people.

Just to add being someone said no one could argue Hitler was evil: I've actually met an old man from Germany who was there during the Holocaust. He still to this day believes that the whole thing never happened.

......

Yeah.

That's actually a very common reaction to the Holocaust with people who lived through it in Germany and the occupied countries. There's also lots of old people who adamantly deny that during the war they knew anything about the concentration camps and the gas chambers, while research of diaries has shown that most people at least suspected it. I suppose it's a mechanism to help deal with the guilt, because practically nobody did anything about it.

No, profs will/cannot fail you for writing papers that do not line up with their interpretations of a subject. However, you MUST present a clear arguement and back it up properly. Unexplained verdicts will result in failed grades.

Furthermore, history cannot be unbiased. In fact, and you will learn this quickly from reading articles in historical journals, almost every "topic" on history has various "schools" of thought. Different people interpret historical events/people in different ways. The schooling of history in University is learning how to properly dissect and develop these interpretations. A dry reading of "facts" of history would be both dull and useless. Anyone can go to wikipedia and understand the "facts" behind a historical event, but it takes much more time and effort to develop justifiable interpretations about complex events. Really, historiography or the "history of history" is taught just as much as history itself.

Thanks for the input Reneer, Medivh, Wolfcp11. I'll keep it all in mind.

It's like friends. You may have differences, but it's how you go about explaining your point of view that counts. You won't (normally) lose a friend over a disagreement, but if your point was poorly made then obviously it's going to knock your 'friendship grade' down a peg. It gets harder to make a clear argument, however, when the other person has an emotional connection to the topic. To argue Hitler was anything less than a monster to a Jewish professor, whos family was harmed in the Holocaust, is foolish and should be avoided simply out of courtesy.
Certain professors have let me mess around with a similar subject, and the one of the papers ended up being kept for future classes. http://pastebin.com/FgucmmL7, if you want to read it.

Always glad to help, I hope things will work out for you.

I always give all possible point of views in my essays, however, I would already know what my lecturer agrees with, or what the conventional point of view is, and I think I've always chosen that one.

Sure, I might actually get higher marks for giving a differing opinion, but I'm not there to gamble. I just want to get a standard mark and get the exam over with. Besides, I've only had 3-4 exams where the content wasn't factual (ethics, principles vs rules based accounting, and something else) and I just regurgitated information I studied.

You have to get to know what the prof wants in your essays. As far as I know they can't outright fail you and at least in my country if you suspect a mark is unfair you can request for it to be marked again by a different person.

I once had to write a book review which included a personal opinion about that book. I gave my personal opinion which was not favorable, and I not only lost a mark, but the prof left a nasty little note disagreeing with my personal opinion that we had to give. I never was able to make sense of it but I figured it was due to the book being written by one of his former colleagues. (All the options were written by former colleagues.) Some professors will mark you down if they disagree with your opinion, but if it's excessive or if they fail you, contest it.