Clarence Thomas Is Right, reads the headline to Fish’s New York Times op-ed. (Recall that newspapers headlines generally aren’t written by the authors of the articles, but here the headline is an accurate summary of Fish’s view.) An excerpt:
Although Thomas does not make this point explicitly, it seems clear that his approval of an older notion of the norms that govern student behavior stems from a conviction about how education should and should not proceed. When he tells us that it was traditionally understood that “teachers taught and students listened, teachers commanded and students obeyed,” he comes across as someone who shares that understanding.
As do I. If I had a criticism of Thomas, it would be that he does not go far enough. Not only do students not have first amendment rights, they do not have any rights: they don