| Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins with Robert George’s piece at Public Discourse on the important topic of free speech at America's colleges and universities. George argues that for the university to fulfil its central mission of truth-seeking, it needs to promote a capacious understanding of the right of free speech. “I believe that, for reasons both principled and pragmatic, university administrations should not prohibit and punish speech on account of the moral, political, or religious views expressed – no matter how fiercely I or anyone else judges those views to be wrong, evil, or even dangerous,” George writes. This means that universities must not punish views through policies that restrict viewpoint diversity, because such views may be harmful to the life of the university, which tends “to hamper both the discovery and the appropriation of the truth.” George contrasts his definition of what counts as speech with actual threats of violence, which he says need to be condemned and stopped. He concludes by arguing that campus speech codes need to be jettisoned, because they only further entrench “current campus orthodoxies” and further weaken the “protection for dissent and dissenters.” At the American Enterprise Institute, Beth Akers and Joe Pitts write that one takeaway in light of the antisemitism that has been exposed on college campuses in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7th attacks is the poor state of civics education. The “notable lack of civic education” many students “receive deprives them of the vocabulary and knowledge to properly engage as citizens.” Instead of classes on endless niche and trendy subjects, our colleges and universities should begin establishing centers of civic learning, following the model of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. “In a nation starved of formative institutions, universities are uniquely positioned to repair our civic fabric – if only they take their responsibilities to our country seriously,” Akers and Pitts conclude. In the News Carl M. Cannon, RealClearPolitics Lee Hamilton, South Bend Tribune Amanda Fitzpatrick, WHYY Star Parker, RealClearPolitics Diana Leyva, Tennessean Lauren Costantino, Tampa Bay Times Robert George, Public Discourse Elliott Drago, Front Porch Republic Carl M. Cannon, RealClearPolitics Beth Akers, Joe Pitts, AEI National Constitution Center C. Bradley Thompson, Substack Stanley Kurtz, National Review Daniel G. Currell, Federalist Society Jesse Wegman, New York Times Jack Miller Center A Conversation with Paul Carrese on Schools of Civic Thought: How Civics Can Remedy Higher Education's Decline... MSNBC Politico's Heidi Przybyla discusses the rise of "Christian nationalism" in the Republican Party during an appearance Friday... Carl Cannon's Great American Stories On this date in 1945, the U.S. Marines raised the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi on the island on Iwo ... Good morning, it's Tuesday, Feb. 20. Sixty-two years ago today, at 8:35 a.m., United States Marine Corps Lt. Col. John Glenn placed a ... It's Tuesday Feb. 6. I know it's Super Bowl week, and what I'm about to say is heresy to some ... | 
