Coddling

Charlottesville

Pi Day

I'm a big fan of Jonathan Haidt. Above is his response to Emma Camp’s article. Haidt has a unique perspective as he was a professor at UVa until 2011.

His view on the issue of self censorship is that in part we raised Generation Z to be less self assured than previous generations — helicopter parents.

He’s a bit long winded (my opinion) but this video was very helpful to me in understanding the students of today and the mistakes we’ve made.

Wikipedia condensed his views into this summary:

Lukianoff and Haidt argue that many problems on campus have their origins in three "great untruths" that have become prominent in education: "What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker"; "always trust your feelings"; and "life is a battle between good people and evil people". The authors state that these three "great untruths" contradict modern psychology and ancient wisdom from many cultures.

The book goes on to discuss microaggressions, identity politics, "safetyism", call-out culture, and intersectionality.[1] The authors define safetyism as a culture or belief system in which safety (which includes "emotional safety") has become a sacred value, which means that people become unwilling to make trade-offs demanded by other practical and moral concerns. They argue that embracing the culture of safetyism has interfered with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development.

Continuing on to discuss contemporary partisanship or the "rising political polarization and cross party animosity", they state that the left and right are "locked into a game of mutual provocation and reciprocal outrage".

The authors call on university and college administrators to identify with freedom of inquiry by endorsing the Chicago principles on free speech[2]: 255–257  through which university and colleges notify students in advance that they do not support the use of trigger warnings or safe spaces.[3] They suggest specific programs, such as LetGrow, Lenore Skenazy's Free Range Kids, teaching children mindfulness and the basics of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).[2]: 241  They encourage a charitable approach to the interpretations of other peoples' statements instead of assuming they meant offense.

In their conclusion, the authors write that there will be positive changes in the near future as small groups of universities "develop a different sort of academic culture—one that finds ways to make students from all identity groups feel welcome without using the divisive methods." They say that "market forces will take care of the rest" as "applications and enrollment" surge at these schools.