Willpower Is Not Going to Be Enough

College students are being invited back onto campus after a summer of isolation and confinement, with strict instructions to stay apart. School officials, pleading with students to treat their new autonomy gingerly, are leaning hard on shame to get compliance. The president of Penn State recently admonished students, “Do you want to be the person responsible for sending everyone home?”

Meanwhile, elementary-school students are resuming the school year on Zoom, and districts are laying down new rules: Keep laptop cameras on; dress properly, as if attending school in person; stay seated for the lesson—even when, best-case scenario, sitting at the kitchen table instead of the math table.

[Julia Marcus and Jessica Gold: Colleges are getting ready to blame their students]

While the demands vary