Imagine places where it is considered racist to speak of the rights of the individual when they conflict with the community's prevailing opinion. Where it is taboo to debate the moral fitness of homosexuals as parents, and sexist to order a Domino's pizza because the chain's chairman donates money to an antiabortion group. Imagine institutions that insist they absolutely defend free speech but punish the airing of distasteful views by labeling them unacceptable "behavior" instead of words -- and then expel the perpetrators.
Imagine a literature class that equates Shakespeare and the novelist Alice Walker, not as artists but as fragments of sociology. Shakespeare is deemed to represent the outlook of a racist, sexist and classist 16th century England, while Walker allegedly embodies a better but still oppressive 20th century America. Finally, imagine a society in which some of the teachers reject the very ideas of rationality, logic and dialogue as the cornerstone assumptions of learning -- even when discussing science.
Where is this upside-down world? According to an increasing number of concerned academics, administrators and students, it is to be found on many U.S. college campuses. And it is expanding into elementary and secondary school classrooms.
For most of American history, the educational system has reflected and reinforced bedrock beliefs of the larger society. Now a troubling number of teachers at all levels regard the bulk of American history and heritage as racist, sexist and classist and believe their purpose is to bring about social change -- or, on many campuses, to enforce social changes already achieved.
This new thinking is not found everywhere, to be sure, but in many places professors contend it is becoming dominant. While American universities and colleges have always been centers for the critical examination of Western assumptions and beliefs, the examination has taken a harsh and strident turn. At times it amounts to a mirror-image reversal of basic assumptions held by the nation's majority.
To the dismay of many civil libertarians, the new turns of thought are fostering a decline in tolerance and a rise in intellectual intimidation. Says Leon Botstein, president of New York's liberal Bard College: "Nobody wants to listen to the other side. On many campuses, you really have a culture of forbidden questions."
Obfuscatory course titles and eccentric reading lists frequently are wedded to a combative political agenda or outlandish views of the nation's culture and values. At Duke University in North Carolina, an English-department course uses plays and films to pursue the theme that organized crime "is a metaphor for American business as usual." Another Duke offering condemns a heterosexual bias in traditional Western literature; its professor has written about such topics as "Jane Austen and the masturbating girl."