but I’m going to massively quote his post anyways. Working with talented, creative and intelligent young people, this post resounded with me quite strongly.
And then there is this: When you’re young, and you come into some political consciousness, self-assurance, intellectual arrogance, and prejudice come easy. When I got conscious, I would have told you that the Egyptians invented airplanes, black people never had slaves, and that the cold made white people acquisitive by nature. And I would have told you this publicly, in front of a crowd of people. And I’d have slapped you with a Chancellor Williams tome if you dared to disagree. Thankfully, I had parents who protected me from myself. But more importantly, I had people around me who valued reading, listening and life experience over talking, writing and publishing. The dispensation of knowledge must be grounded by the acquisition of knowledge
If you’re a conservative and you care about this kid, you don’t give him a public forum. You give him your card, and you take his e-mails. You give him a list of books that he needs to read. Then when you see him, you quiz him on those books. You tell him that you’re glad he showed the initiative to write and publish himself, but his thesis is actually banal. That if he’s going to play in the big leagues, he should expect to get hit and prepare himself thusly. You warn him away from sideshows, and teach him to pride hearing over being heard. You teach him that these are his weapons and his shield in the great war of ideas.
Of course if you did all that, you’d risk turning him into liberal. But that’s the chance you take, and that’s what a person confident in their ideas does. They don’t urge their pupils to turn away from the challenge of foreign ides, but to embrace it, to attack it, relishing the possibilities of how they could ultimately come out. Conservatives should encourage the kid to take himself seriously. Challenge him, and make sure he understands that conservative ideology isn’t so rudimentary that a 14-year old could master it.
via Wunderkind – Ta-Nehisi Coates .
Related posts: