1/ Something I've learned in 36 years of teaching super talented, high achieving, highly ambitious young men and women: A great many people believe what they believe because they think it's what smart, sophisticated, high achieving people believe and are expected to believe.

2/ Of course, smart, sophisticated, high achieving people can be wrong, have been wrong, and indeed are wrong about many things. That is why thinking for oneself--and not outsourcing one's thinking--is so critically important.

3/ It is a teacher's duty, it seems to me, to encourage students to shun intellectual conformism--groupthink--and think for themselves. The best way for a teacher to do that is by setting an example. What a teacher says is important; what a teacher does is even more important.

4/ Do you want your young charges to be courageous? Model courage for them. Do you want them to question conventional modes of thinking and dominant opinions? Question them yourself. Do you want them to think for themselves? Think for yourself.