Freedom to Be Foolish

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It’s a Learning Process

“[F]ree speech is what makes educational excellence possible. ‘It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears,’ Louis Brandeis wrote 90 years ago in his famous concurrence in Whitney v. California.

 

“It is also the function of free speech to allow people to say foolish things so that, through a process of questioning, challenge and revision, they may in time come to say smarter things.” 

 

—Bret Stephens, op-ed columnist, “Our Best University President,” The New York Times, Oct. 20, 2017.

 
• Editorial Comment: We can only hope.

PeezPix by Ted Pease

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard