Today’s Wall Street Journal has a superb op-ed piece by Helaine L. Smith, who teaches English at Brearley School in New York City.

It’s entitled “High-School English Without the Politics.”

(My guess is that the piece is subscriber only content, but read it if you can.)

In her class, she writes, “We talk about books, images or word choice, and as we construct arguments about theme or reach conclusions about character, we back everything up with details from the text. What I hope my students are learning is a lesson that is not political but is essential for politics: that one must support assertions with proofs, that one must consider counterarguments, that it’s necessary to listen to what others say and that doing so may allow you to strengthen, or force you to alter, what you think.”

Sadly, Ms. Smith is a member of an endangered species — an educator who puts clear thinking and writing ahead of everything else. No activism on behalf of causes and no demonization of those who don’t agree with you. If we had more teachers like her, we wouldn’t have the rampaging problem of intolerance on college campuses, as exemplified recently at Williams.