Here is an elegant essay by Prof. Alan C. Kors, a sad reflection on how higher education has changed over the decades. The key point is that the focus used to be on thinking. Now it’s on political conformity.

I particularly liked his story on a professor he had long ago, who said that he was disappointed in the performance of the class on an assignment because the students had just told him what they thought he wanted to hear. So, to challenge them, the professor assigned a book he told them he disagreed with — and told them to present its arguments as accurately and sympathetically as they could. The book was Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and for Kors, reading it was an intellectual turning point.