Let’s start with the easy part. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was wrong to harangue Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her Supreme Court confirmation hearing about books allegedly used to teach critical race theory at the Georgetown Day School, where Jackson serves on the board of trustees. It had nothing to do with her suitability for the court and everything to do with Cruz’s attempts to smear Democrats and — not incidentally — to draw attention to himself.
But subsequent reporting about Georgetown Day — an expensive private school in Washington — has revealed that it’s hardly the left-wing indoctrination factory that Cruz imagines. To the contrary, it makes explicit efforts to expose students to multiple points of view.
That’s a lesson our institutions of higher education could all stand to learn, especially right now. Too many of our colleges and universities are afraid to engage ideas that might challenge or upset the dominant wisdom on campus, especially around race. And that inhibits knowledge and learning, for all of us.
