“Prove Me Wrong.” These were the words stenciled on the tent canopy under which Charlie Kirk was intentionally and heinously murdered. “Prove Me Wrong” was Kirk’s challenge to college students to make and defend their best, good faith arguments, especially on contentious issues that have bitterly divided our families, neighborhoods and country.
While vigorous debate is the hallmark of a civil society, too many universities oppose the free exchange of ideas. More than 7,000 people signed petitions demanding Utah Valley University and Utah State disinvite Kirk from speaking on their respective campuses because his presence would work against “fostering an inclusive space for all its students and faculty.”
To their credit, both UVU and Utah State honored Kirk’s invitation and demonstrated an actual commitment to inclusivity and ideological diversity. UVU affirmed their “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue,” by allowing the event to proceed.
Unfortunately, a young man took UVU’s invitation not as an opportunity to discuss his differences of opinion with Kirk, but rather to fire a high-power rifle to deliver an assassin’s bullet.
For the moment, I want to focus not on the one killer who resolved his disagreements through violence, but the more than 7,000 who wanted to resolve their disagreements through silence. It is the latter that predictably and ultimately leads to the former.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression recently surveyed 68,510 students from 257 colleges and universities. The percentage of students saying it is “acceptable to shout down a speaker or block entry to a campus speech” all increased since last year and are at record highs.” Stunningly, one in three college students said it is OK to use violence to stop a campus speech.
As the founder of a virtues-based, public charter high school in the Bronx, my job is to prepare teenagers for the next stage of young adulthood. The goal is to instill a sense of personal agency, a belief they can lead self-determined lives with meaning and purpose. It also means immersing them in an environment that values viewpoint diversity and recognizes our common humanity, regardless of race, religion, political affiliation or any other identity marker that divides our nation.
Our school is organized around the four cardinal virtues of Courage, Justice, Temperance and Wisdom. Cardinal comes from cardo, the Latin word for hinge, meaning “that on which other things depend.” The cardinal virtues are the root character traits upon which all other standards of moral excellence rely.
Each morning, students recite “I Statements” for each virtue. For Justice, our students say – I uphold our common humanity and honor the inherent dignity of each individual. These words spoken out loud, in unison, become a collective commitment for how we live and thrive together as a community.
Through a partnership with High School Law Review, students study constitutional law and learn the value of agreeable disagreement. We have launched the Thomas Sowell Celebrating Wisdom Award where students write essays to engage a range of ideas from thinkers such as Glenn Loury, Shelby Steele, Roland Fryer and Coleman Hughes.
I call on my fellow school leaders, especially high school principals, to recognize that this intolerance by college students to listen to opposing ideas is a problem that does not originate on campus. It’s more likely a function of seniors graduating from high school unschooled in the ways of civil discourse. According to the Knight Foundation survey on the Future of the First Amendment, only 40 percent of high school students believe that “people should be allowed to say whatever they want, even if it is offensive.” It doesn’t help that according to the 2024 National Assessment For Educational Progress, the average scores for twelfth-grade students in reading hit their lowest level since 1992.
While the authorities apprehended the killer who stripped Kirk’s humanity through murder, it is up to us to address the academic pipeline that created the 7,000 who wanted to strip his humanity through canceling his voice. Regardless of your political views, silence can never be the answer. The first step in disavowing one’s humanity is disavowing one’s ability to speak, which undermines our democratic ideals. That is why the First Amendment protects the freedoms of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the government.
When Kirk was asked why he visits college campuses specifically to engage those who vehemently disagree with him, he said “I go to have challenging conversations. What is so important to our country is to find our disagreements, respectfully, because when people stop talking, that’s when violence happens.”
At this moment when our political divides run the risk of rupturing even more, let’s prove one thing right: more dialogue, more healthy disagreement, more talk, is the path forward, not less.
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