Reaping What We Have Taught
Former Harvard College Dean, co-president of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, and author of the book Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education, Harvard professor Harry Lewis ‘68 argues that “unapologetic antisemitism — whether the incidents are few or numerous — is a college phenomenon because of what we teach, and how our teachings are exploited by malign actors.”
“The goal is not to give students a choice between courses reflecting different ideologies. Harvard should instead expect instructors to leave their politics at the classroom door and touch both sides of controversial questions, leaving students uncertain where their sympathies lie. Professors should have no more right to exclude from their teaching ideas with which they disagree than students should expect to be shielded from ideas they find disagreeable. All that is required is for faculty to exhibit some humility about the limits of their own wisdom…”
