Posted on 05/22/2014 5:57:48 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
Its hard to know whether to laugh or cry over the demand by U.S. college students for trigger warnings to alert them that something theyre about to read or see in one of their classes might traumatize themapparently a new trend, according to the New York Times. Ditto for off-beat campus sculptures, placards displayed by protesters and more.
Poor dears. These are the same kids who would riot in the streets if their colleges asserted any form of in loco parentis when it comes to such old-fashioned concerns as inebriation and fornication. God forbid they should be treated as responsible, independent adults! After all, theyre old enough to vote, to drive, even (though its unlikely) to join the army.
Yet they want their professors to shield their precious eyes from anything potentially offensive. In the words of a course-syllabus guide produced by Oberlin Colleges Sexual Offense Policy Task Force, that means flagging all forms of violence and examples of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression. Although the Oberlin faculty has temporarily tabled the document, the schools Office of Equity Concerns already admonishes instructors to take steps to make the classroom more inclusive for individuals of all genders, gender identities, gender expressions and sexual orientations.
Just how, aside from inviting all of ones students to take their seats, is a teacher supposed to manage that? Does the history professor refrain from mentioning that Hitler killed homosexuals as well as Jews? Does the English teacher shun James Baldwin and George Eliot because one was gay and the other was a woman using a mans name? Avoid Toni Morrison because one of her books includes a rape scene? Not teach astronomy because just two of the 23 best-known constellations are recognizably female? When you think about it, almost any subject, perhaps save for pure math, could make some student feel less than fully included on grounds that have something vaguely to do with gender.
And thats not the end of it. In March, a pregnant prof at the University of California, Santa Barbara tried to wreck signs wielded by anti-abortion protesters showing aborted fetuses. The professor was charged with vandalismbut then was supported by 1,000 student petitioners who demanded the university crack down on potentially trigger-inducing content, according to the Times. Meanwhile, hundreds of young women at Wellesley College asserted this past winter that a piece of arta statue of an underwear-clad manshould be removed from the campus because it has triggered memories of sexual assault amongst some students.
For Petes sake.
Yes, obviously, abortion and sexual assault are serious, delicate issues, but part of going to college and becoming an adult is learning to deal with different points of view, unfamiliar kinds of art, conflicting opinions on the human condition. As a Wall Street Journal columnist reminded us the other day, No consequential idea ever failed to offend someone. Should colleges exclude such ideas in favor of political correctness?
These and kindred episodes are occurring just as a string of U.S. colleges have also been forced by their students to back away from potentially controversial commencement speakers and guest lecturers. (In some cases, would-have-been speakers simply withdrew rather than face protesters.) Prominent recent examples include Condoleezza Rice (Rutgers), Christine Lagarde (Smith), Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Brandeis), Robert Birgeneau (Haverford) and Charles Murray (AzusaPacificCollege). A few days back, Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean James Ryan, in response to student protests, defended forthcoming convocation speaker Mike Johnston, an alumnus of the school and now a Colorado state senatora Democrat, mind youwho has had the temerity to support such policies as student testing, teacher evaluations and tenure limits. Bravo for Ryan. But the campus norm is to cave rather than face down ones students, even when the most sacrosanct doctrines of higher educationacademic freedom, freedom of expression, the quest for truthare endangered.
American campuses havent witnessed this much activism since the heady days of the late 1960s, when buildings were being occupied, professors intimidated and deans confronted. Most of that had, at least loosely, to do with the Vietnam War. Todays version doesnt seem to be about any large national dispute so much as a generalized kindling of political correctness, self-absorption andyes, Ill say itspoiled-bratism.
These are kidsand were talking about full-time traditional students on four-year campuses, not the job-holding, family-supporting, career-minded folks more apt to be found in community colleges, trade schools and the University of Phoenixwho have long been accustomed to getting their own way with just about everything, hovered over and indulged by their parents, praised (and grade-inflated) by their teachers and carefully cushioned from every form of risk, adversity and hardship.
Whats more, they are not exactly consumed by academic obligations in their colleges anymore, where the average time spent actually studying has dwindled to a meager 15 hours a week, even as semesters get shorter, weekends lengthen and classes start later in the morning. So why not take some of that surplus time and energyfueled by copious food options in campus dining facilities and strengthened with the help of elaborate exercise and recreation facilitiesand deploy it trying to understand rather than protest things and people that irk them? Might they not make a better investment of their parents (and taxpayers and donors) many dollars by reading books containing knowledge (and conclusions) that they dont already possess? By seriously listening to, even talking withdare I say itthe likes of Condi Rice and Charles Murray?
Maybe not, for such unfamiliar and provocative views might make them, precious as they are, feel unwelcome, excluded, even distressed. And they surely dont want that. Lets face it. A growing portion of todays student population, at least on elite campuses, holds expectations that are both schizy and spoiled: They should be free to do absolutely anything they want without institutional barriers or interference of any kind, yet the institution must protect them from every conceivable sort of harm or upset. Try to thread that needle. While youre at it, write a very large check to pay for your childs opportunity to benefit from four years in such a high-status center of learning.
And consider what the nation faces when this crop of prissy, protected and self-absorbed young people start running for office, leading the country, making foreign and domestic policies. Who will shelter them from everything they dont already believe and welcome? How will they deal with a Putin or an Assad? A Snowden or a Madoff? Kiddie porn and hurricanes? Who will trigger their warnings, lest they become upset? Will they tackle such challenges, or just protest them?
You may laugh. Ive decided to cry.
I’m so glad my kids were homeschooled!
They need to get their faces slapped by reality.
The entire culture in America is going to Hell in a hand-basket. An act of God is needed, and soon.
Too many kids in college who would have been better served by trade schools.
Addled-brain LIB idiots. They want everyone to be a wimp and everyone to be a Freedom hater...just like themselves. Their inadequacy is stunning and disgusting. One can only hope that life hits them hard and often...whatever the result.
A very small minority play that game. I was an adviser for the largest club on campus for 10 years and I heard lots of “offensive” stuff. Everything bad was “so gay” and there were gays in the club.
They surf porn in the large lecture halls.
The world needs ditchvdiggers, too.
True, there are plenty of college students to whom this article would apply. But there are also many who are just keeping their heads low, ignoring the bulls**t, and playing the game to get that piece of paper.
And on that point about joining the army being unlikely, Army ROTC enrollment has increased by 50% since 2006, even as benefits are decreased.
I hope you are right.
I can practically hear the gasps of horror over the net when I suggest to college educated morons working at McDonalds that they should consider farm work for higher wages. (Generally $12 to $15 per hour these days)
They immediately inform me that they have a college degree. I tell them to keep their mouth shut about it and the farmer won’t hold it against them.
And WHY are they that way??? Its not inate to them. They were TAUGHT to be that way by the current generation of teachers and professors. People look at this problem as if its all the kids’ fault when the real problem is that the 60s Libs created an educational infrastructure that produces intolerant, mollycoddled babies.
Trigger warning: I don’t give a flying rip about your triggers!
I wish I knew a stronger word than “Molly-coddled”.
What is even more frightening is that this is a generation of wussies that will be fighting for the freedoms of this country against who knows.......
I wouldn’t hire a single one of them to water my horses.
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