Most instructors burdened with the sometimes thankless task of teaching an introductory survey course in American government wince at the suggestion that their class is somehow a primer in current affairs. No wonder, for most of us who teach that introductory course expend a great deal of effort to ensure that our readings, our lectures, and our class discussion carefully delineate the difference between political science and political speculation.

Yet I fear many of us are so cautious that we wind up throwing the baby out with the bath water. The vast majority of students in our survey courses will not go on to graduate school in political science; indeed, at many institutions, the majority of enrollees in the introductory class may not even be political science majors. Most will become bankers, lawyers, scientists, engineers — in short, “ordinary” citizens rather than full-time, professional observers of politics. In strikes me that the greatest legacy the survey course can provide these students is an inclination to think twice about politics —an appreciation that politics and political choices are rarely as simple or straightforward as they seem in headlines.