Education demands a certain daring

Education demands a certain daring, a certain independence of mind. We have to teach young people to think. And to teach young people, in order to teach young people to think, you have to teach them to think about everything. There mustn’t be something they cannot think about. If there’s something, if there’s one thing they can’t think about, then very shortly they can’t think about anything, you know. Now, there’s always something in this country, of course, one cannot think about.

— James Baldwin, 1961

From the interview 1961 Studs Terkel Interview with James Baldwin