Justin Ling writing for Bug-eyed and Shameless: Leave Those Kids Alone

I’ve had a rule for a long time. It’s a simple rule and it goes like this: What students do on-campus is none of my business. Campus politics is a weird and insular business, and it should be the primary concern of students and student journalists. The provincial grievances and ideological spats that have always defined higher education are a big part of how young people come to shape their worldview, and serves as a sandbox for students to figure themselves out — having the rest of us crowd our way in to police those conversations mucks all that up.

All I’ll say on the matter is that when I was in college, I was figuring out what I believed and in retrospect I am very thankful that my actions weren’t as obsessed over as some people seem to be about college kids today. University was a wonderful place for us all to figure things out together, and I learned a great deal about the world, about other people, and about myself while I was there. I held strong beliefs back then that I no longer believe today, or that I even believed year to year while I was there.

This is all coming after a number of years of grown-ass adults spending a remarkable amount of broadcast time and headspace trying to dictate and complain about the intricate details of what happens inside schools. “You can’t read these books. You can’t teach these subjects. You can’t protest things I don’t like.” We’ve got an election coming up in a few months and I’m sure there will be more outrage from one segment of the country that’s upset with how kids are expressing their beliefs.