Date: May 5, 1931
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
Reports that the student body of some educational institution has proposed to take over the authority vested by law in the board of trustees and the faculty are no longer novel, but they are none the less disquieting.
Charitable and devout persons have made gifts to provide our youth with an opportunity for education. The government has contributed taxes. Parents send their children there often at considerable sacrifice. Some of our best men and women give their services as trustees. The result is a great charity for the benefit of young people. The object is mental and moral discipline through obedience to rules as well as application to study. The whole plan involves submission by the students to duly constituted authority.
Yet every little while these opportunities are ignored and these principles are rejected by a student revolt. The seat of the trouble is back in the home. Real reverence and obedience have not been sufficiently taught there. But institutions of learning cannot for that reason disregard their duty. If they meet their obligations they must train their students to realize that liberty comes only through obedience to law and devotion to truth. To teach that lesson is worth great sacrifice.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Craig Eyermann who prepared this document for digital publication.