For yourself

Robert P. George is a law professor at Princeton University. He posted this on Facebook:

"Here's something I've learned in thirty-six years of teaching super talented and high achieving, highly ambitious young men and women: A great many people believe what they believe because they believe it is what smart, sophisticated, high achieving people are supposed to believe; and they want to be smart, sophisticated, and high achieving.

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"Of course, smart, sophisticated, high achieving people can be wrong, and indeed are wrong about many things. That is why thinking for oneself is so critically important. It is a teacher's duty, or so it seems to me, to encourage students to shun intellectual conformism--groupthink--and think for themselves.

"The best way for a teacher to do that is by setting an example. What a teacher says is important--very important; what a teacher does is even more important. Every parent knows this from his or her own experience in bringing up children. Do you want your young charges to be courageous? Model courage for them. Do you want them to question conventional opinions? Question them yourself. Do you want them to think for themselves? Think for yourself."