cliches, cliches

I wish they would stop with those cliches that Middle East people did not know that they can think for themselves until American opened school in the region and told them that they can think freely. What is that about? Many of the freest thinkers in the Middle East have never studies in Western schools. "“For a lot of the kids here, the idea that you are supposed to have your own ideas is a novelty,” said Lisa Anderson, the university provost who is on leave from Columbia University. “There was nothing in their previous education that would have exposed them to these standards.”" (thanks N.)