The mighty can fall. We have witnessed this reality recently. Two presidents of elite universities have been driven from office: first Elizabeth Magill of Penn and then Claudine Gay of Harvard. Magill resigned directly after her disastrous comments about antisemitism on campuses during testimony at a House committee meeting. Gay, who also testified, received scathing calls for her resignation. However, the Harvard president’s demise came from accusations of repeated plagiarism in her scholarship.
Conservatives have cheered these outcomes. But we must show caution and wisdom as to our continued response. In his classic work The Spirit of the Laws, French political thinker Montesquieu declared that attempts to return ancient Rome to freedom after that freedom was lost failed. They failed, he observed, because “all the blows were struck against tyrants, none against tyranny.” Particular dictators were removed. But the system of tyranny lived on, perhaps damaged but ultimately unbeaten.
In this moment of opportunity, we might fail in a similar manner. Magill and Gay represented some of the worst aspects of our contemporary universities. They perpetuated ideologies tied to ultraprogressivism, an ideology that denigrates our founding, denies essential aspects of human nature, and treats its dogmas as replacements for actual religious faith. These views, while in error, might have been acceptable if they were part of a larger intellectual ecosystem of free, respectful, and open discussion. However, these and like presidents made things even worse by undermining, diminishing, and even obstructing differing views on these matters, with diversions from a more “woke” ideology shouted down as hate speech and mere mindless bigotry.
But if all we have done is cut a couple of heads off of a Hydra, then we will strike blows against persons, not against the broader system. That mythical sea monster was said to grow two heads for every one cut off. We might experience the same if our goal is headhunting and not that of building and reforming.
Thus, we should strive for real, lasting structural and ideological change. Building will involve establishing new institutions and systems for American education. We see these acts of creation already taking place. A vibrant system of classical education continues to grow in numbers and quality at the K-12 level. Colleges and universities have arisen, too, taking up the mantle of a different approach to learning.
This different approach respects our past. It seeks out what good we can find in ancient histories and philosophies. It understands the benefits derived from the American founding and its subsequent working out over the course of our history. Yet it also remains deeply committed to free and open inquiry. It does not shout down critics of the West and of America. Instead, it respectfully engages and even acknowledges where these critics fairly lodge complaint. In fact, this approach sees one of the goods stemming from the West and from America as each one’s ability to stand outside itself enough to self-observe. The West and America have thrived in part because this self-observation has taken place according to a more objective standard of justice and good than self-serving self-congratulation.
But these new institutions should not be our own focus. We must be about reforming the old structures where possible and to the greatest extent possible. Most of our elite institutions contain deep, pervasive rot. But many contain pockets of sanity. They still attract many of the best and brightest. Many of them still hold the capacity to move toward the excellence that includes moral and intellectual virtue.
We must bring our efforts to bear on this reform as well. For those with children and grandchildren, they should make demands of how institutions educate before our young ones enroll. For those with deeper pocketbooks, they must demand better commitments to a free, respectful, and thoughtful approach in the classroom and elsewhere on campus before sending more donations. Finally, for public schools, from kindergarten to university graduate programs, we as voters can demand our tax dollars come with appropriate strings attached.
We should see the resignations of Magill and Gay for the opportunity it is. Let us seize this moment and prepare for the long efforts required to realize its potential. Let us strike blows for a better future for American education and, thus, for America herself.
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Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.