The year I spent teaching in a small boarding school in the Berkshires just happened to be the year Kerry challenged Bush for the presidency. A short while before the election, classes were cancelled so that the students could all go register Democratic voters--not something they initiated, but that the faculty imposed. That fall, Paul Krugman came to speak at a nearby college. Every student in the school was required to go (I don't recall too much about the talk, except that it hinged on the "joke" of referring to Dick Cheney as "Voldemort"). The next night, as part of the college's effort to offer balance in its invited speakers, Dinesh D'Souza appeared. The boarding school, needless to say, ignored that. A colleague and I raised the issue of balance and free inquiry with the faculty. We were granted permission to personally escort any students who wished to attend the D'Souza event--which we did. A handful came, found the talk interesting, and found the contrast between the two talks more interesting still. They talked a lot about it, enjoyed trying to sort it all out and decide what they personally thought. Not a lesson the school wanted to teach--and not a move that made two new faculty members terribly popular among the old guard.