I asked Brandon, a Filipino student, “In the past decade the Philippine government has carried out thousands of extrajudicial executions, and I condemn this — does this mean that I am prejudiced against Filipinos? Am I creating a hostile classroom for you as a Filipino?” My students immediately understood the absurdity of this, that racial prejudice and criticism of a particular government’s policies are two very different things. Why is it that 17-year-olds can understand something that some modern critics of public education apparently cannot? Jews are among the most persecuted groups in human history, culminating in the Holocaust, and...