Protecting democracy, protecting the university (opinion)

Democracy and higher education have been good for each other. Although the first colleges on our shores were established in the British colonies, a remarkable growth of universities combining research, teaching and student education took place here as the country became democratic. Slavery became a great stain on the nation, and the fight to end this evil institution ended with promises that Black people should also enjoy educational opportunities, including in colleges.

The exclusion of women from higher education institutions began to decline at the end of the 19th century, and, as the right to vote was finally included in the 19th amendment to the US Constitution in 1920, women’s colleges were once again operating as public universities. registering women.

It took time, a very long time, but educational institutions finally realized that white supremacy, tribalism and the racism that accompanied them hindered learning because they forbade certain subjects to be investigated and excluded some from participation in research and teaching. During colonial times and immediately after independence, colleges aimed to train clergy, but later saw their role as providing the country with an educated citizenry.

By the end of the 19th century, the research university was coming into its own, which meant promoting specialized research in areas that professional scholars had decided were worth exploring. Professors valued their academic freedom because it allowed them to explore topics that those outside the institution’s walls might find disturbing.

Academic freedom has also allowed universities to create teaching environments free of official scrutiny or soft contempt for commercial interests. The classroom was a place for professors to share their expertise with students who could explore ideas and practices without fear of imposed orthodoxies. Of course, in recent years, teachers have been accused of imposing their own narrow views on their classmates. They are accused of abandoning their professional role and substituting their personal opinions for scholarly inquiry.

Colleges rely on the performance of their faculty to judge claims of bias in the classroom. At the best of times, teachers argue with each other about how to teach and what to teach, and the more advanced students are, the more likely they are to have their own ideas about what should happen in the classroom. In many subject areas (and especially in STEM and related fields), the subject of teaching rarely comes up. The class focuses on exploring the necessary methods and complex content.

Everyone knows that teachers are not perfect and that there are times when the classroom is not as comfortable and open as one would like. That is why there are ways to give feedback so that professors can adjust the way they teach. It would be worse to rely on outside groups—such as government agencies—for police training than to expect intelligence to adjust itself based on constant feedback. Education depends on democratic freedom, and this should protect it from political interference.

That is why what is happening now is very worrying. This election season, we have seen a dramatic increase in attacks on the independence of our educational institutions. This coincided with an attack on democracy. Both are directly threatened by populist authoritarianism in this country and around the world. When Donald Trump attacks his opponents as criminals and vermin and threatens to use the military against them, or when he proposes his national university to replace those despised because of his background, he announces his intentions to restore higher education in the image of the cult of violence he leads. Vice President JD Vance declared the university an enemy.

Some academics and public intellectuals may shrug their shoulders, saying “even some politicians are not that bad” or saying that politicians are not really saying what they are saying. They rely on their special status to protect them even as they ignore the serious threats to freedom of speech and inquiry on which their right is based.

The attack on higher education, democracy, law, threatens to sweep away the hard-earned freedoms of the last 100 years. Education is the process by which people develop their skills for evaluation, collaboration and creative work. They learn to treat new ideas with curiosity and respect, just as they are taught to critically examine these ideas. They learn skills that will be used in the workplace and habits of mind and spirit that will help them thrive throughout their lives. They learn to think for themselves so that they can become participating citizens of a democracy—not fearful subjects of a dictator.

During times of cultural and economic change, there is often great pressure on education because in such times people find it difficult to agree on what is meaningful, let alone admirable. Ours is one such era. But we it can be we agree that fear and bigotry are wrong and we must strive together to find ways to “develop the personality of the individual in ways that promote individual sympathy in society,” as John Dewey advised.

In the United States, education and democracy can continue to protect and enhance each other. In the coming days we must abandon the cultivated ignorance that is used to fan the flames of hatred. Instead, we must protect the freedom to study together in our schools, colleges and universities so that as a nation we can continue our search for democracy—we know we have a long way to go, but we are striving for a perfect union.