Opponents of academic freedom misunderstand history

oneAcademic freedom in the United States is under attack, including State censorship educational materials and classroom discussions; ban Initiatives to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; and term of office and Faculty Management.

Many right-wing officials even accept conservative Higher education should be taken control and reshaped Serving extreme partisan interests and led by appointees from outside academia who are loyal to state power holders. 2023 Virginia Gov. Glenn Younkin director All of his appointees to university boards consider themselves “extensions of the executive branch.”

At recent oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, attorneys representing the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said: Taking this position to its logical extreme: “In the classroom, the professor’s speech is the government’s speech, and the government can impose all-round content restrictions on professors and restrict them from expressing opposing views.”

Organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation see these partisan takeovers as a way to restore “Classical Education” in college. However, this statement misunderstands classical education. In fact, the idea that teachers should be free to teach their subject without hindrance and students should be free to learn what they want has been an integral part of the classical educational concept for centuries.

Medieval protections for academic freedom paved the way for the flourishing of individual liberty during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. The idea of ​​academic freedom is older than Magna Carta, classical liberalism, and the modern Declaration of Rights. Indeed, like those seminal ideas and documents, academic freedom is directly tied to traditions of self-government and individual freedom.

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The first universities originated as autonomous entities. In 1088 AD, students founded the Studium in Bologna. (As the University of Bologna, it remains the oldest university in the Western world.) The Studium’s growing reputation attracted scholars from across Europe and helped turn the village of Bologna into a commune with municipal autonomy. Bologna soon became a metropolis, eventually becoming known as the Academic City because Deep ties between university and city. Both institutions—the studium and the commune—are Autonomous version This reflects “how people in the Middle Ages experimented with democratic representation, usually on a smaller scale.”

Later medieval universities, such as the University of Paris and Cambridge, followed this model.

In 1155, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I promulgated Real life or Academic privilegesestablished the first rights and privileges of a university. Frederick gave scholars a status similar to that of the clergy, classifying them as a privileged class and establishing similar rules of self-government. Frederick established these freedoms because the University of Bologna represented an innovative new experiment in the dissemination of knowledge, but scholars traveling to the university from other areas lacked the protection of the different spheres of civil and ecclesiastical authority through which they passed. The proper enrichment of knowledge for the public good, like the proper government of the church, required freedom of self-government.

this for real Thus granting scholars the freedom of movement and travel that is essential for developing cross-border knowledge networks. Muslim Arab Scholars Saved the work They were descendants of many classical thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, who were lost to many Europeans over the centuries. Thus, the first university emerged in a region of medieval Europe (Bologna in northern Italy) where there was a large Arab and Islamic influences. Pursuing academic freedom for cross-cultural communication Good for Receive a quality college education from the very beginning.

Finally, Frederick granted scholars the right to be free from retaliation. The state would not punish teachers and students for what they taught and learned. Scholars would have relative freedom to teach and learn according to their own academic goals. Frederick and other leaders provided immunity because the first university training A career that is valuable to society as a whole: lawyers, priests, doctors and scientists. To cultivate legitimate, autonomous expertise in these professions, which benefits the nation by improving the public welfare.

Soon after, the pope introduced similar regulations to the imperial protection. In 1179, Pope Alexander III decreed that teachers Teaching License It should be based on appropriate academic qualifications. Knowledgeable Parents (1231) was a more important affirmation of university autonomy: it gave qualified teachers “the right to teach anywhere without further examination.” In other words, Gregory stipulated that the expertise and qualifications of scholars should determine what they taught—a revolutionary idea at the time.

State and church protection of autonomy is intertwined with the fundamental ideals of the university WasBoth the empire and the pope seem to have realized that limiting their power over universities would give these institutions academic authority that would benefit society as a whole. Protecting scholars in their work helped to develop and improve both secular and religious power structures.

Medieval universities did not automatically lead to modern (and universal) declarations of rights and secular governance. They were largely confined to the privileged classes of society (as they still are in many ways today). Suppression of free thought and speech was also common in the Middle Ages.

However, over time, the origins of academic freedom sowed important seeds of revolutionary changes in Western modernity. The rediscovery of classical scientific knowledge in medieval universities created a community of scientists who Promoted the scientific revolution 16th and 17th centuries. The leaders of the Protestant Reformation in Europe, most notably Martin Luther, came from University Theology Courses There are historical links with medieval institutions.

University of the Enlightenment It also promoted the idea that education could be a source of freedom from political and religious dogma—a historical echo of medieval scholars who began to question those dogmas. Academic freedom fueled these revolutionary events, which greatly expanded individual freedoms by combining scientific knowledge, freedom of belief, and the values ​​of self-determination.

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Sadly, the values ​​of independent thought and autonomy that academic freedom represents are now under threat in the United States. Publicity Worker Refuting academic freedom is a fuzzy standard. expert The indispensable elements of academic freedom, such as tenure, are considered merely “perks.” The attacks on academic freedom that define universities as appendages of state power are less enlightened than some medieval doctrines in their understanding of the relationship between universities and political authority.

Yet these extreme partisan attacks also have a modern character. For centuries, authoritarian regimes have targeted the space for individual thought and conscience that academic freedom allows.

The right’s rhetoric of “reclaiming” higher education in defense of Western culture also misrepresents the history of the first universities. Multiculturalism — the main goal of this rhetoric — is integral to the origins of university education in Europe. The classical education that conservatives admire and claim to defend was made possible because academic freedom limited outside interference and reprisals in more restrictive societies.

We should view today’s violations of academic freedom in all their forms as threats to innocence and authoritarianism that undermine not only the public good of higher education but also the most important elements of the Western tradition.

Bradford Vivian is a professor of communication arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State University and the author of Disinformation on Campus: The Real Threat to Free Speech in American Higher Education (Oxford University Press).

Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Click here to read more about Made by History in TIME Magazine. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Time magazine editors.