![](https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1280px-Student_protesters_with_placards_at_the_Morristown_New_Jersey_student_protest_March_24_2018_9_of_15-670x300.jpg)
Similarly, one education reformer observed the irony of the recent anti-gun school walkouts, “protests” that were effectively sponsored by the school’s own administration. “If students have permission to walk out, it’s no longer student activism at all. It’s a field trip.”
I have no doubt that the some of the kids from Parkland and elsewhere will do amazing things some day. Some of them already have, but they’re not here to talk about it. The rest will go on to accomplish much in their lives, eventually. But they will start to do that only after they emerge from under the protective wings and ideological influence of their teachers and parents and decide what they think on their own. Then maybe some of them will dare to launch protests without the permission and support of their elders.
Robert Tracinski is a senior writer for The Federalist. His work can also be found at The Tracinski Letter.