Following the diaper bomber’s attempt to blow up a plane with explosives in his underwear, there has been a flurry of news articles about what English universities have done or should do to curtail the radicalization of their students. According to this piece in the WSJ, the British government adopted a program in 2008 to curtail radicalization called “Promoting Good Campus Relations, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism in Universities and Higher Education Colleges.”
Reading about this I started to wonder whether the appreciation of liberty, tolerating the words and actions of people with whom one disagrees, is something that can be taught. Is the love of liberty natural in the sense that people will value liberty without any external encouragement or conditioning? If not, how do people learn to value liberty? Can schools play a role in promoting liberty? If so, what does a liberty curriculum look like?
I’m interested in hearing what everyone thinks.
Posted by Jay P. Greene 
Jay P. Greene's Blog 