Events of the day are reminding me of the day I received a “D” on a college paper. The subject was “Communism.” I was attending the University of Missouri- St. Louis at the time, back in 1977. I was taking a class on “Communism,” because I decided that it important to be knowledgeable about a political theory that I often heard about, but didn’t understand. The class was taught by three teachers. One of them indicated that she was, in no uncertain terms, “a communist.” I was a straight A student at UMSL; I mention this only because it provides context to this story. I should also mention that I enjoyed the class. It stimulated me to think. Reading the actual words of Karl Marx helped me to appreciate that he had genuine passionate concerns for the mistreatment of workers. He worked hard to construct what he believed to be a better political system to protect workers.
The “Communist” teacher assigned a reading and required us to write a paper, which I did. I expressed my concerns that a communist system, though well-intentioned, would not work because it didn’t provide some necessary incentives. It was a short paper, about 6 or 7 pages. I received a “D,” with the comment that I didn’t show that I understood Marx, but I could re-write and re-submit. I decided to re-write. I’m not proud of what I then did, but I fully understand why. For my re-write I handed in a glowing uncritical tribute to communism. I still have the rewrite and one of my ending sentences was this: “The way of communism, for Marx, presents the opportunity of a better life for the individual and for society as a whole.” This same teacher gave me an “A-” on this rewrite, with this comment: Why has no communist society been able to achieve what Marx proposed?” I was tempted to respond: “For that answer see my FIRST paper!” I didn’t respond, though. I moved on, tarnished by my intellectual dishonesty.
This turned out to be a formative experience for me. I sometimes think of this bad grade when I hear of students and teachers who are being chilled or reprimanded for asking sincere questions, positing hard-to-hear facts or formulating arguments against any form of orthodoxy or ideology. If we don’t allow free speech in classrooms, including the free expression of views that some people consider unpopular or even offensive, we will turn our classrooms into churches. I am well-tuned to detect oppressive religious dogma that parades in intellectual clothing. I spent much of my childhood blunting my well-intentioned father’s attempts to save my soul by urging me to say absurd things. I never gave in, and my upbringing helped to forge me into the analytical and skeptical person that I am. I embrace free speech and critical skepticism as an important way to understand things that confuse me, and I’ve often stayed the course as others get angry with me instead of discussing facts and opinions that they consider “dangerous.” Hence, the name of my website, “Dangerous Intersection.” As Carl Sagan wrote: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.” Indeed.
The willingness to grapple with threatening ideas is strong good medicine for developing the kinds of human beings who I trust. Uncritically adopting a slogan or a platitude is not the same thing as thinking and doing this should never be tolerated as “education.” It is also important to make sure that everyone speaks up because the otherwise chilled speech might be the majority opinion of the group. Or it might be a small minority opinion which will someday become revered as great wisdom. Once we are well-informed, all of us need to speak up, especially when it seems scary. It’s for these reasons that I wrote this post on the classic social science experiments of Soloman Asch: “Why you need to be the one to speak up.” It’s for this reason that I have been hammering on free speech issues of late.
My eldest daughter was assigned a paper in 1995 as a college junior to explain why increased legal protections for workers was good for the economy. I told her there was a chance to do a comparative study using fairly reliable data from the EU. Draw a graph showing that as the strength of worker legal protections increases unemployment decreases. She did the work, produced the chart using the EU’s own data, and – no surprise, it was a perfect X. The greater the legal protection of a worker’s job, the less likely the worker was to have a job. She got an F. Today she owns her own company and has the graded chart on the wall of her office. Her employees get paid first, they’re rewarded well above average through simple profit-sharing, and she’s been offered seven figures for her company. She’s not selling, and the employees thanked her profusely.
My younger daughter, in 1997, came home from a local college class one day and told me that the reason for famine in the Sudan was that donor countries weren’t doing enough. I told her that the teacher could prove her point by providing examples of every form of government and economy that suffered famine. She asked the teacher the question the next day, was dismissed from class and given a failing grade. It seems that famine is a man-made phenomenon. Imagine my surprise. She reminded me of that moment the other day and said it was still the best educational experience of her life.
Bill, those are shocking examples. I enjoyed reading your accounts even though I suspected they were going to have sad endings. And then you surprised me twice with happy stories about your resilient successful daughters. Congratulations to all of you!