Lying damages relationships in classroom

Joseph Ellis, a Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor, is taking a year off from lying.

Ellis was suspended for one year without pay by Mount Holyoke University, in South Hadley, Mass., where he taught, among other things, history and falsehoods. Ellis lied repeatedly to his students in the classroom and to reporters in published interviews. Among other things he talked of being on a tour of duty in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne, while, according to his tall tales, simultaneously protesting the war here in America and serving on Gen. William Westmoreland's staff.

The Ellis case though, has brought about some debate as to the proper conduct of professors in the classroom. As students, we pay to learn from professors, trusting them that the knowledge they impart is the truth.

Even if Ellis fabricated only anecdotes about his past, and nothing he taught in the classroom, it still calls everything he said into question. After all, if he lied about something simple like his past, why not more complex things? Though it is a difficult thing to attain, university faculty need to remain beyond reproach — especially in the things they teach.

Interestingly enough, Ellis has had a full and interesting life without needing to fabricate a past. He wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation," and served as dean of faculty and history department at Mount Holyoke.

A study by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in the early 1990s showed that the average college student lies twice a day while the average community member lies only once a day. The practice is uncomfortably frequent and damages the social interactions between everyone in our culture. These lies make our lives easier for us, yes, but they have an effect. Ellis has affected the professor-student trust bond, and now his career. Though it is easy to condemn Ellis' practice, it should make us all consider how often we deliberately mislead others, whether we're a professor or a student.

Because trust in the classroom goes both ways.

n Editorial Board: Keith Thomas, Tom McHenry, Erica Sagon, Matt Poston, John Wakefield.

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