Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for The Heritage Foundation, Jude Schwalbach takes a look at free speech on college campuses and why students have thrown aside civil discourse and debate for yelling and shouting matches.

· How has free speech and civil discourse dwindled on college campuses recently? What has caused this? What can be done to encourage civil debate and engagement?

· Learn how college students are paving the way for civil discourse on campus by starting with preschoolers. 

More than a half-century ago, Coretta Scott King addressed Harvard University students in the wake of the assassination of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr.

Today’s student is a serious-minded, independent-thinking individual who seeks to analyze and understand the problems of our society, and find solutions to these problems, which are in keeping with the highest traditions and values of our democratic system.

Students, according to King, were the future of a more thoughtful and equal society, and one of the most important tools at their disposal was the freedom of speech.

Yet, today it seems students have changed.

Finding solutions to the problems of society remains a dominant feature of modern universities, but many students have rejected the former spirit that valued solutions, as King noted, “in keeping with the highest traditions and values of our democratic system.”

In fact, instead of engaging in civil dialogue, students now express outrage at controversial speakers and demand the resignation of faculty members who refuse to conform to progressive creeds or do not immediately condone students’ threatening or pernicious actions.

Worse, often they do this with campus administrators in tow.

Read the full article about civil discourse in education by Jude Schwalbach at The Heritage Foundation.