A genuine Independence: Young people are not natural rebels. We can help them think for themselves
Deseret | Robert P. George
Princeton Professor and FAIR Advisor Robert P. George dispels the notion that young people on college campuses are independent, rebellious thinkers. Rather, he paints a picture of conformists more concerned with being regarded as smart and sophisticated, aided by universities’ systemic mechanisms of indoctrination. The answer, he writes, lies with professors intentionally encouraging and modeling free thinking.
“There is a widely believed myth that young people — especially college students — are ‘natural rebels’ and ‘nonconformists.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” he writes.
“I have taught thousands of young men and women in my 37 years as a professor at Princeton. The vast majority…are the opposite of free-thinking nonconformists….[they] more or less uncritically to subscribe to the dominant beliefs on their campuses and among their peers... They believe what they think they are supposed to believe, what people who are regarded in their communities as ‘smart’ and ‘sophisticated’ believe. After all, they themselves want to be — and to be regarded as being — smart and sophisticated.”
George talks of the ramifications of not parroting the party line—a “culture of fear prompts students to self-censor both in and outside of the classroom — something toxic to the educational enterprise,” and how the dogma isn’t limited to students, but to the entire enterprise of the university—”the college experience begins at many institutions with indoctrination sessions disguised as ‘freshman orientation’ programs, during which new students are bombarded with presentations designed to make clear to them what the party line is on questions of race, class and, especially, sex.”
“Even worse,’ he writes, “Many universities lack meaningful formal commitments to free speech, viewpoint diversity and academic freedom that would provide students with mechanisms for legal recourse when they are discriminated against for their dissent or sanctioned or deprived of opportunities for expressing dissenting ideas.”
The answer? Universities must step up and uphold their responsibility to develop free-thinking individuals—”There is one thing all professors can and should do…make clear in writing…that students in their classes are permitted and, indeed, encouraged to think for themselves and speak their minds, even when their views dramatically contradict campus orthodoxies....[they must] help them become truly independent thinkers…by modeling and encouraging our young men and women to think deeply, think critically (including self-critically) and think for themselves.”
