Short form student contest: response to Greg Lukianoff on campus censorship

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEyZE42nDZU

Greg Lukianoff’s video on campus censorship supports the importance of free speech on campuses and ultimately raises the question of the purpose of higher education. If education is a means to form minds that will work within the existing professional and social constructs, then free speech is secondary, and complacency is paramount. If, alternately, academic institutions strive to challenge the status quo and develop freethinkers who will evolve social norms, this goal would be impeded by codes that restrict freedom of speech. I believe that public debate plays a fundamental role, enabling society to progress and flourish. Censorship in any form limits rights and decreases innovation, and has no place on campus.

From its earliest involvement in a child’s life to its highest levels of postgraduate work, the education system should play a central role in shaping an individual’s participation in deliberating societal issues. Early on, the system should be responsible for teaching a child not only the established systems, but also the reasoning behind those rules, and finally, how to question these norms. Each student should be challenged, engaged in a high level of debate as they follow their academic course, rather than relying on memorization of standardized information.

If individuals trained by the public education system are unable to participate in an informed debate, we are likely to see the gap between the wealthy few in positions of power and the submissive masses increase. This would represent a decline in democratic deliberaton and ultimately personal freedoms as protected by the First Amendment will fall by the wayside.

To defend one’s ideas against those of others serves to strengthen one’s stance; doing so allows Americans to remain viable on the international stage as we immerse ourselves in public discourse where geographical boundaries become more and more obsolete. Indeed, saying that campuses are a unique location for public discourse disregards the significance of virtual space for discussion and debate. The advent of internet-based communication in the last two decades has created a culture in which the individual has the daily opportunity to participate in uncensored public discourse on a global level, in the form of blogs, forums, commenting on news articles and connecting with others through social media. Americans need to be primed to engage in this level of debate.

I spent my formative adolescent years attending French public schools, where students are required to discuss and deliberate established conventions, and where it is commonplace for a student to repeat a grade if they are not achieving a sufficient academic level. The result of this is clear when you observe various areas in French culture, be it the political realm, engaging a peer in conversation or turning on your television: a high level of intellectual debate takes place at all levels and a diversity of opinions are represented on the public stage. Americans could only benefit from the empowerment of being exposed to unlimited ideas and perspectives.