Governance

Professors hear a great deal these days about how hard it is to get our students to listen to, much less to engage with, opinions they dislike. The problem, we are told, is that students are either “snowflakes” with fragile psyches or “authoritarians” who care more about their pet causes than about democratic values such as tolerance, compromise and respect for opposing points of view. Students at Harvard, where I teach, returned from winter break in January to an institution that appeared determined to tackle this problem head-on. An email from the undergraduate dean reminded them that “The purpose of a Harvard education is not to shield you from ideas you dislike or to silence people you disagree with; it is to enable you to confront challenging ideas, interrogate your own beliefs, make up your mind and learn to think for yourself."

A video recording from the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Askwith Forum on September 22, 2016, featuring Hanan Al Hroub, recipient of the 2016 Global Teacher Prize from the Varkey Foundation and a teacher at Samiha Khalil Secondary School in Palestine. Ms. Al Hroub delivered a public address on the topic of "Education as a Human Right" and discussed her experiences as a Palestinian educator and her unique approach to instruction.