蜜桃影视

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When U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened prosecution of 鈥溾�� in the wake of Charlie Kirk鈥檚 assassination, many on the political right responded with disbelief. Conservatives and libertarians have long warned that labeling speech as hate speech was often used as a way to silence their views. Debates about the legal limits of free speech may ultimately be settled in the courts. But in education, the issue is not only what teachers and professors are legally permitted to say 鈥� it is what they are morally and professionally obligated to do.

Shortly after starting my career as an assistant professor, my dean received a troublesome email from a former public school superintendent. The influential educational leader was demanding my dismissal. My sin 鈥� I advocated for pension reform. Fortunately, I had a dean who understood what academic freedom was, and, though I did not yet have tenure, said I was free to make arguments, conduct research, write and talk about academic issues even when those arguments challenged the dominant paradigm. 

There were no grounds for firing me simply because I believed 鈥� and could demonstrate 鈥� that the state’s teacher pension system was underfunded and unfair.

Academic freedom is granted to professors by their employers not as a matter of right, but as a good practice for facilitating the advancement of knowledge. It is necessary for the pursuit of truth. And tenure, formalized job protections for academics, can serve a valuable purpose. Yet, too many teachers and professors seem to have lost the plot. They see academic freedom as license to say whatever they like without repercussions. They fail to recognize that rights also confer responsibilities.

First and foremost, as those entrusted with educating the next generation, teachers and professors have an obligation to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the positions they hold. They must steward the trust of parents and society by honoring the fact that education is not their private playground, but a public responsibility. Academic freedom does not mean K-12 teachers can close the classroom door and teach whatever they like.

Nor does it mean that a college professor can inject ideas into the classrooms that are not called for by the course description or syllabus. Imagine if a physics professor decided to lecture on gender ideology instead of Newton鈥檚 laws, or claimed that gravity was merely a social construct. Educators are not entitled to use required courses as platforms for whatever ideas strike their fancy. Their content must align with the approved curriculum and the professional standards of their discipline. To abuse the classroom in such ways is not an exercise of freedom, but a betrayal of a sacred trust.

Second, educators at all levels must be committed to the pursuit of truth and open dialogue. This means that both students and professors must be free to ask difficult, even unsettling, questions. In his book No Adult Left Behind: How Politics Hijacks Education Policy and Hurts Kids, political scientist Vladimir Kogan asked, 鈥淚s the loss of democratic control sometimes necessary to do what is right for kids?鈥� In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner famously asked whether legalized abortion contributed to the decline in crime during the 1990s. These are controversial questions 鈥� but they are legitimate. They can and should be investigated and debated. Too many educators today, however, are not interested in the pursuit of truth; they are interested in propagating only their truth. When education becomes a vehicle for ideology rather than inquiry, it ceases to be education at all.

Finally, teachers and professors have a responsibility to form the character of their students. This requires cultivating habits of intellectual humility, honesty and respect for human dignity. When educators glorify acts of violence or trivialize evil, particularly while in the classroom, they betray this calling and corrode the moral foundations upon which genuine education rests. Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an of and college professors reveled in his murder, making vile comments online. When rightly challenged on these disgusting statements, they used their rights as a shield. They claimed they were protected by academic freedom or the First Amendment鈥檚 free speech guarantees. And maybe they are. That may be up to the courts to decide.

Regardless, in posting such comments, they forgot their responsibilities as educators. Teachers and professors, like all citizens, have free speech 鈥� they can publish articles, write blogs or stand on a streetcorner and say what they want. But academic freedom does not entitle them to a paycheck, especially from a government institution. Nor does it entitle them to conscript students into hearing their personal views in courses those students are required to take. Educators who celebrate murder have demonstrated they do not have the moral framework for the positions they hold.

Our rights as citizens have corresponding responsibilities. We have the right to vote, so we have the responsibility to educate ourselves on the issues and candidates. We have the right to religious freedom; therefore, we must honor the freedom of others to believe or not believe differently. We have the right to free speech, so we have the responsibility to avoid deliberate falsehoods, slander or reckless speech that undermines civil discourse. This same framework extends to those entrusted with the title of teacher or professor, especially those who serve in public institutions.

Preserving the integrity of schools and universities means recovering a proper understanding of the responsibilities that come with the rights of educators. Academic freedom is indispensable, but it was never meant to be a license for recklessness, indoctrination or moral corruption. 

It is a trust extended to those tasked with forming minds and shaping citizens. When teachers and professors embrace that trust with seriousness 鈥� seeking truth, modeling virtue and respecting the boundaries of their calling 鈥� education flourishes. When they abandon it, both students and society pay the price.

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