I don't care for your opinion!

Amazing comment from a teacher, about what he expected in the mid-term exam paper...

So here is my opinion!

I was born and raised in a country where you learn how to affirm and to explain your opinion, where exam subjects look like:
<<"PR=PRopaganda" Do you agree? Explain and comment. You have one hour.>>

If you don't state whether you agree or not at least in the conclusion of your paper, you'd get only half of the mark.

So you learn how to criticize, and to speak up, and to never take a statement for granted. Any piece of news is the start of a discussion, that may turn heated and loud - so what? Isn't that what democracy and free speech is about?

Here in this American college, this is not how it works, despite the First Amendment. If you say what you think, you're in trouble, obviously. So you just read the news, repeat a few facts that seems interesting, most of the times about Britney, and that's it. You stop there.

Do not think, do not judge, do not analyze, just repeat what the TV says.

At another time, I had the same teacher, following another path, trying to extract some dynamics from the class. "And what do you think of this?" he asked.
Too late, the student froze in surprise, got out a "I don't know" then stayed painfully silent, eyes on the floor, until the teacher dropped and moved on.

Teaching you to stay silent. Is that the goal of the US education, after all?