Campus Extremism

Robert George, multiply-titled Professor at Princeton University, had some thoughts on how to deal with this.

So what should we do? The answer isn’t complicated, but acting on it will take determination and courage. Colleges and universities must return to offering a rigorous liberal arts education that refuses to engage in indoctrination and challenges groupthink. College courses must actively cultivate the virtues of curiosity, open-mindedness, intellectual humility, analytical rigor, and above all, dedication to the pursuit of truth.

He added this:

This might seem like an unattainable ideal, but it isn’t. I’ve seen firsthand that it’s possible. Twenty-five years ago, Princeton University authorized me to establish and direct a program in civic education dedicated to helping young men and women become determined truth seekers, courageous truth speakers, lifelong learners, and responsible citizens.

He succeeded in his small world, and he cited a number of examples at other schools. But these are anecdotes, not a general trend of success. At many of the other schools he touted, antisemitic and terrorist-supporting riots mostly peaceful protests seized buildings and common grounds, vandalized the buildings and generally prevented the sort of free-exchange of ideas George touted. Those destructive disruptions occurred while school managers meekly watched and many of the schools’ professors participated in the disruptions.

No. The only way to achieve George’s ideal, extremely worthy that it is, is to remove from schools those school administrators and professors, whether ideologues or simply too timid to oppose ideology over education. Both kinds are worthless wastes of payroll.

The detritus must be removed before cleanup can begin.

A Thought on Crimes by Children

Serious crimes are adult crimes, regardless of the age of the perpetrator. The perpetrator needs to be seriously punished for the crime, too. But sentencing a 14- or 15-yr-old to life in prison for a murder? What about the 6-yr-old who brought a gun to school and shot his teacher? I doubt if he understood the magnitude of his act, even though he likely knows the words to say and could say them.

I tend to agree with the Supreme Court Justice who worried about life sentences for children.

Serious crimes are adult crimes. Full stop. But who’s responsible for them, really? The child who did the deed needs punishment, as I said, but he’s also able to be reeducated, or at least worth the attempt.

However. It’s the parent or parents, whether biological or adoptive, who raised the child, who led the child astray or who let him wander astray through negligently absent parental attention.

I suggest this alternative: try the child as an adult for his adult crime, but put him into a juvenile detention and education environment. Adjudicate a suitable jail term for the crime; apply the sentencing guidelines for the crime committed, but apply the upper end of the guidelines to the parents—both of them if they’re present in the family.

Mom and pop should be in jail for the crime their child, for whom they are irrevocably responsible, committed.