Since the rise of the counterculture in the 1960s and the idealization of rebellion for its own sake, it’s been awfully hard for young people to rebel. How are you supposed to be a rebel or a maverick when everybody else is one too? The Scrapbook solved this problem, as a university student on a left-wing campus many years ago, by wearing a tie to class. But we acknowledge that this was an extreme measure to which most peaceable young people would be reluctant to resort.

In the Washington Post this week, we read about a Boston College professor of philosophy who’s found a way to encourage real rebellion: She challenges students to ask someone on a date. Just—a simple date. She includes only two requirements: no alcohol and no physical contact.