The battle for Free Speech

‘If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear’
George Orwell

There is a Free Speech battle brewing at Eton, one of Britain’s prestigious all-male private schools, after it sacked one of its teachers, Will Knowland, because he was about to challenge the radical feminist ideology of toxic masculinity in one of his lectures. Knowland was intending on telling his students not to be ashamed of being a man.

The school has trained some of Britain’s most famous people including the Duke of Wellington and George Orwell. But to see how far it has fallen from the days of George Orwell, who wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, two books that challenged totalitarian regimes that don’t allow people to think differently than the overlords is disquieting.

Breitbart explains:

Actually, it has been heading that way for quite some time under its grisly, new-ish Head Master Simon ‘Trendy Hendy’ Henderson — the dripping wet creature responsible for the rainbow flag now fluttering limply above the school’s 15th-century buildings.

But Henderson’s latest move really is the final straw for this once mighty institution, which has been training the British elite since Henry VI founded it in 1440.

The Telegraph has the story:

The £42,500-a-year boarding school has been accused of “prioritising emotional safety over intellectual challenge” after it allegedly banned a presentation on the theme of masculinity from being delivered to students.

Will Knowland, who has taught English at Eton College for nine years, alleges that he has been dismissed for gross misconduct following a dispute over a lecture he was due to give pupils earlier this year.

The lecture, titled “The Patriarchy Paradox” was part of the Perspectives course which is taken by older students to encourage them to think critically about subjects of public debate.