Due to a temporary over-enrollment of graduate students one year, at a well-known university in Washington, D.C., I was hired to teach a course in statistics. It wasn't long, however, before I was teaching courses in family issues and public policy process. Now I have a reputation as the program's most conservative faculty member. You'd think students would shun my courses. They don't. In fact, my courses are usually full and my course evaluations routinely positive.

So how is it that I am able to successfully teach at a university where my beliefs are often in direct opposition to those of many students and other faculty?

You might think the answer is hiding my values and beliefs. On the contrary; I routinely share my views on such matters as the importance of faith in the public square, the destructive consequences of society's retreat from marriage and the two-parent family and the promise of school choice programs. Not only do my students tolerate my expression of these views, but I usually pick up a convert or two along the way. How? Here are some lessons I have learned along the way.

Be of Good Cheer
In 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us that "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor 9:7). I have found that students love a cheerful professor as well. Even though it can be a challenge to be cheerful in a world frequently hostile to my core beliefs and values, I strive to never lose my cool, and instead employ humor — and especially self-deprecating humor — to keep the atmosphere friendly.

Just the Facts, Ma’am
"Don't confuse me with the facts" seems to be a popular tenant of our secular culture. Consequently, many of my students are completely unaware of important facts about the family.

Few know, for example, that marriage benefits both men and women. They have been taught that while marriage may benefit men (marriage is, after all, a patriarchal institution, right?), it most assuredly does not benefit women. They are often shocked (shocked!) when told of the vast research literature, published in highly respected, peer-reviewed journals, attesting to the fact that married women as well as married men are happier, healthier and wealthier than their unmarried counterparts.

I also shock them when I talk about cohabitation. As children of a divorce culture, many of my students either saw their parents divorce or have close friends whose parents divorced. In an effort to avoid the pain of divorce in their own lives, they live together first, as a sort of "trial marriage." What they don’t know is that government statistics show divorce rates are actually higher for those who live together before marriage than for those who don't. When I tell them that, they’re stunned. "Why hasn't anyone told us this before," they ask. (I often wonder the same thing.)

In 1770, in defense of British soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre, John Adams said, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." He was right. That's why many professors focus more on ideology than facts. But in the end, facts do matter, and I find my students are hungry for them.

The Best Offense Is No Defense
It is human nature to argue. Just ask any parent of a teenager (like me, for instance!). The problem with arguing is that it rarely convinces the other person of the correctness of your view. Instead, arguing is one of the fastest ways to solidify opposing opinions and defeat consensus. A better strategy is to respect the other person's opinion and hear them out. Listening to them, is the best way to ensure they will listen to you.

Nowhere is this advice more useful than in public policy discussions, especially public policies involving family issues. Shouting and interrupting doesn't achieve very much. Attentive listening does. But you have to mean it. Merely pretending to care what the other person is saying comes off as patronizing. You have to really want to understand what the other person is saying. Only after you have paid careful attention to what the other says, is that person inclined to carefully listen to what you have to say. And who knows. By listening carefully, once in a while you might even learn something.

Patience Is a Virtue
It is very common for students to enter my classes with a firm belief that social conservatives are nuts. And why not? They are told this repeatedly — by the media, the broader culture and even by some other professors. It’s not possible for a social conservative to be a reasonable, thinking human being, they reason. If conservatives were really thinking, students conclude, they would, of course, be a liberal secularist.

By the end of my course, however, a remarkable transformation often takes place. Not total conversion, mind you (although once in a while even that happens!), but a new and healthier respect for the viewpoint of social conservatives. A frequent comment written on my (anonymous) course evaluations reads, "I may not agree with everything you said, but for the first time I have come to appreciate the conservative point of view."

This is a student who will no longer reflexively reject the conservative point-of-view in policy arguments. Realize that my course is often the first time many of these students have been exposed to the conservative viewpoint in a realistic and understandable fashion. While they may not take up the conservative banner, by gaining an appreciation for the conservative point of view, they are now ready to engage in healthy debate on the issues, respecting not only their own, but the other point of view as well.