Defending democracy, defending the university (opinion)

Democracy and higher education have been good for each other. Although the first colleges on our shores were founded in colonies controlled by a monarchy in Britain, the impressive growth of universities that combined research, teaching and education of the whole student happened here as the country became more democratic. Slavery was the great stain on the nation, and the war fought to abolish this vile institution ended with promises that Black people, too, should enjoy opportunities for education, including at colleges.

The exclusion of women from institutions of higher learning began breaking down at the end of the 19th century, and, as the right to vote was finally enshrined in the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, women’s colleges were up and running and public universities were enrolling women.

It took time, far too much time, but educational institutions eventually recognized that white supremacy, patriarchy and the parochialisms that went with them obstructed learning because they prohibited certain subjects from investigation and excluded certain people from participating in research and teaching. In the colonial era and shortly after independence, colleges aimed at training clergy, but over time they saw their role as providing the country with an educated citizenry.

By the late 19th century, the research university was coming into its own, which meant fostering specialized investigation into areas that professional academics had decided were worth exploring. The professors valued their academic freedom because it allowed them to explore topics and problems that those outside the campus walls might find disturbing.

Academic freedom also allowed universities to create teaching environments free of official censorship or the soft despotism of pandering to commercial popularity. The classroom was a space for professors to share their professional expertise with students who could in turn explore ideas and methodologies without fear of orthodoxies imposed from the outside. In recent years, of course, teachers have been accused of imposing their own narrow views on those who study with them. They have been accused of abandoning their professional role and substituting their own personal opinions for scholarly investigation.

Colleges depend on the professionalism of their faculty to adjudicate claims of bias in the classroom. In the best of times, teachers debate with one another about how and what they should teach, and the more advanced the students, the more likely it is that they will have their own views on what should happen in the classroom. In most subject areas (and most notably in STEM and related fields), the issue of indoctrination rarely comes up. The classroom is focused on exploring demanding methodologies and complex content.

Everyone knows that teachers are imperfect and that there are times when the classroom is not as free and open as one might like. That’s why there are mechanisms for providing feedback so that professors can adjust how they teach. It would be far worse to rely on outside groups—like governmental agencies—to police teaching rather than expecting faculty to self-correct based on feedback regularly received. Education relies on the freedoms of democracy, and these should protect it from the interference of politicians.

That’s why what is happening now is so concerning. During this electoral season, we have seen a dramatic escalation of attacks on the autonomy of our educational institutions. These have gone hand in hand with the attacks on democracy. Both are under direct threat from populist authoritarianism in this country and around the world. When Donald Trump attacks his opponents as thugs and vermin and threatens to use the military against them, or when he proposes his own national university to replace the elites so despised by his base, he is declaring his intentions to remake higher education in the image of the violent cult he leads. Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance has declared that the university is the enemy.

Some academics and public intellectuals may shrug their shoulders, saying either that “other politicians aren’t so great either” or that politicians don’t really mean what they say. They are relying on their privileged status to protect them even as they disregard the profound threats to the freedom of expression and inquiry on which their privilege is based.

The attacks on higher education, on democracy, on the rule of law, threaten to sweep away freedoms that have been hard-won over the last 100 years. Education is a process through which people develop their capacities for exploration, collaboration and creative work. They learn to treat new ideas with curiosity and respect, even as they are also taught to critically evaluate these ideas. They learn skills that will be valued in the workforce and habits of mind and spirit that will help them flourish throughout their lives. They learn to think for themselves so that they can be engaged citizens of a democracy—not the cowering subjects of a dictator.

During periods of cultural and economic change, great pressure is often brought to bear on education because at such times people find it hard to agree on what is meaningful, let alone admirable. Ours is one such period. But we can agree that fearmongering and prejudice are wrong and that we should strive together to find ways to “cultivate individuality in such ways as to enhance the individual’s social sympathy,” as John Dewey advised.

In the United States, education and democracy can continue to protect and nurture one another. In the coming days, we must reject the cultivated ignorance that is used to fan the flames of hatred. Instead, we must defend the freedom to learn together in our schools, colleges and universities so that as a nation we can continue our democratic experiment—knowing we have a long way to go, but striving toward a more perfect union.