Students Refuse Canon Over Dignity

Some students now decline to read canonical thinkers not because they disagree but because engaging with them is framed as a violation of personal dignity; professors report threats to report or discipline when they press for critical engagement rather than denunciation. This is happening even at ideologically conservative institutions and shifts classroom conflict from intellectual disagreement to moral accusation. — If widespread, this habit changes what can be taught and how universities adjudicate academic freedom, with downstream effects on civic literacy and the functioning of higher education.