One of the main goals of the so-called progressive movement, going back more than a century, was to capture our educational institutions and use them to shape the way people think. In particular, they wanted to extirpate individualism and replace it with collectivism. They have been highly successful in that effort.

In today’s Martin Center article, David Phillips writes about his experience with an elite school, the North Carolina Governor’s School.

He writes:

During that period, a general preoccupation with “social justice” found more precise expression in obsessions with “identity,” “intersectionality,” and “privilege.” These concepts were most firmly entrenched in the aforementioned “Self and Society” courses. But as calls for “diversity, equity, and inclusion” began to spread—aided by “critical race theory” and doctrines of “anti-racism” and “white fragility”—they became more prevalent in “Applied Philosophy” courses designed to teach “critical, creative, and philosophical thinking.” DEI also became more prominent in standard disciplines such as the social sciences and mathematics. And it increasingly informed more and more of the extra-curricular “optional seminars” offered by GSW faculty.

In short, rather than sharpening young minds in how to think, the school became a dreary place where students were told what to think. Dissent from leftist orthodoxy was hazardous both for students and faculty, such as Phillips.

At least, there has been a bit of a counter-attack, led by Phillips’s lawsuit over his dismissal. Moral of the story: Don’t accept that leftist dominance can never be undone.