I don't feel that expressing an opinion is a bad thing. I do try to stay sensitive to my own feelings about the truth of what is expressed. I often hear or read broad statements, such as a sweeping statement about the nature of men or women. When I hear a statement about people or animals or plants, I often think that I might be able to find examples that are just the opposite of what is alleged to be the case. I think being sensitive to the various conditions and situations of people, places and things and the difficulties of accurately summarizing can make people uncomfortable, maybe even afraid that the world is too varied and too complex to be summarized. I realize that being too aware and observant about complexities can leave a person unable to make large sweeping statements while making such pontifications can be satisfying and ego-boosting.
If I try to be accurate, I can wind up sounding cautious and even insecure. How am I going to come across as god-like and super-wise if I steadily intersperse my sentences with sources and footnotes? Teachers know that variety and difference are everywhere. What is true about one child or one student or even one faculty member can be quite wrong about another. When I was asked to sit with a high school history faculty and try to get them to be more similar in what they taught, it became very clear that this group of people had very different convictions from each other about the best content to teach and the best language and activities and assignments to teach it.
