Rhetorical Analysis Of 'The Coddling Of The American Mind'

In Lukianoff and Haidt’s essay, “The Coddling of the American Mind,” the authors contend today’s college students want to be protected from any words that might harm them. The authors argue doing so harms them in other ways.

If these students were practicing the art, they would not fall prey to emotional reasoning, or believing their emotions toward subjects trumps all logic. Instead, students are being coddled and treated as though their negative feelings toward something justifies changes and protection. On page seven of the article, Lukianoff and Haidt pondered, “What are we doing to our students if we encourage them to develop extra-thin skin just before they leave the cocoon of adult protection?” We are honestly preparing them to think their emotions and complaints will cause real life struggles and offenses to disappear, but this is not true. There are going to be times in everyone’s lives where they feel uncomfortable in a situation, and nothing will be done about it. College students need to be taught to deal with their emotions and accept discomfort by using critical-thinking skills learned through cognitive behavioral therapy.

“A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense” (Lukianoff and Haidt 44). Colleges are sheltering their students from words and ideas that students do not like or are found to be offensive. Affecting their education and cognitive skills, scientists are warning colleges to refrain from coddling the students and allowing other viewpoints to be spoken. People are speaking their minds, saying their own views; however, some people are over sensitive and take these viewpoints offensively. In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt successfully argues using rhetorical questions, specific examples, and affective visuals that protecting college students from words and ideas deteriorates their education and mental health.

I side with the argument that people should use trigger warning for an upcoming topic. Students do go to college to learn and given that there stressors that go along with college, giving a trigger warning is not bad at all. This serves as a reminder that people do care about whatever situation that the student that is affected is going through. This gives the student anonymity and a environment that does not have to keep the student in isolation because of the traumatic event. While both sides make a good case for their argument, it does not hurt to show respect for

Ethos, also known as credibility, is an ethical appeal the author or speaker uses, considering that, “we tend to believe people whom we respect”(Page 2). Martin Luther King Jr. uses Ethos when he says, “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must…” Ethos was displayed here by demonstrating expertness and authority that Martin Luther King Jr. reached out for to refine the opinions of the clergyman. Although ethos is an influential literary device, because it portrays the attitude of the author, Pathos plays a big role in

The professor is telling students on the first day of classes that he or she will understand if a student is not in class, which will cause students to take advantage of this. For example, if a student over sleeps and misses the first half of class, he or she will have an excuse for skipping the second half. This will diminish the students learning experience because discussing the readings in class is an important part of many courses as it provides students with a stronger understanding and an idea of other students’ opinions and interpretations of the piece. In addition, as Lukianoff and Haidt state, trigger warnings tell students that “life is dangerous, but adults will do everything in their power to protect you from harm, not just from strangers but from one another as well” which perfectly demonstrates how trigger warnings are acting as a security blanket to students (Lukianoff and Haidt).

Ethos is used to prove the credibility of a source so the audience will know that the author knows what she/he is talking about. In the article it states that that Marjorie Cohn “is a Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of law and a contributor to the journal the JURIST” (page1 paragraph 1). This show the reader that she is qualified to talk about law and is a trusted source to get opinions on how the Arizona’s law encourages racial profiling. She believes that the bill will cost the state to lose a major part of inexpensive labor from the undocumented immigrants, the

“The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt is a short work written to inform people on an epidemic that is affecting colleges and universities around America. The article talks about certain “words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense” (Lukianoff) and how students are asking for them to not be said. Much is covered on the topic including specific examples of how people were persecuted for saying such things and various opinions on if this trend is for better or worse. I believe the article highlights a problem in the educational system and in order for improvement these topics need to be taught and discussed.

Students everywhere are becoming more sensitive towards ideas that might hurt their feelings. This article really focuses on microaggressions and how these words or phrases have no malicious intent, but are still looked at by some students as offensive. It also looks at how students have a right to not be offended, and how this is having a negative outcome. When colleges try to adjust and make everyone happy so that no students get offended, they run into many problems like students being unable to have genuine discussions. There is also a negative outcome for students as well. Students who are protected will not be ready for the real world. The article also discusses trigger warnings and how they can become damaging to the brain, and are psychologically negative in the way students are using or avoiding them. “The Coddling of the American Mind”, shows how and why coddling college students has a negative impact on their education and mental

The article focuses on an audience of the academic community to inform them about the current problem of college students being thinned skin when it comes to discussing various topics, and give them a brief solution so this does not continue in the future. The article begins by describing two terms that have become prevalent in a college campus. First, microaggressions small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless() The authors began to refer to this term as trigger warnings, which alerts a professor that

As students amass themselves into the hallowed halls of universities all over the country, two essays discuss how a modern phenomenon will impact their environment. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt co-wrote the extensive "The coddling of the American Mind", a cover story for the Atlantic September 2015 issue, while Aaron R. Hanlon wrote a response essay with the New Republic, "The Trigger Warning Myth", shortly after. Lukianoff and Haiot define trigger warnings, as "alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause strong emotional response" (Lukianoff/Haidt , 2) and view them as negative influences on both mental health and curriculum. While Hanlon on the other hand views trigger warnings as a method to prepare students to a subject they might not necessarily be comfortable with unless given proper forewarning and that this is not a new phenomenon. Theses perspectives, although different, discuss how political correctness; in form of censorship derived from trigger warnings, can lead to changes in curriculum and classroom activity that in turn effect the student 's population 's psyche.

In our higher education society, many argue we are transitioning in the act of coddling today’s college students with their very own preferences and opinions (Addison, Peyser, Jackson). There have been instances today in which Student Associations are seeking to address the issues of coddling each other and other students throughout our higher education world. At Brandeis University, the Asian American Association “…put up an installation at the Rabb steps to bring attention to microaggressions (a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a

It is overwhelming that the original connotation behind safe spaces has gradually stemmed into different trajectories. In this vein, the sentiments and reactions that hovered the web in awe of the acceptance letter sent by Dean John Ellison, from the University of Chicago, to the incoming class of 2020 took coals to Newcastle. In the letter, the dean apprised the lot that, “Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called “trigger warnings,” we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual “safe spaces” where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.” Some people,

In this article, author talk about a controversial speaker students shouted on him last night and agitating the program and encountering the speaker that turned into violence and left a faculty member injured. President of the college, issued an apology to all people including speaker, who wrote the book ‘’The Bell Curve’’ linked to lower social and economic status with race and intelligence. Apart from that, Professor Ms. Paton said that the community had “failed to live up to our core values. Some of the protesters appeared and some students were also involved.

When somebody says a microaggression to somebody else they don’t know how it effects the other person’s mind, and that can go two ways in people’s mind, either they can laugh it off and act like they don’t care or it can hurt them bad and make them want to cry. Most of the time if people hold it in they really care but their pride is too high for them to say anything to the person. So that can end up messing up their mind by causing them to have bad thoughts about every little thing somebody says to them. When people let out how the microaggression hurt them, I believe they get a sense of relief because they don’t have to keep it on their mind for forever. If you keep it on your mind forever, it’s just going to bring you down every day you don’t say anything. During my first time hearing about microaggressions, I thought it was a small issue around the United States. But to my surprise, I found that microaggressions were a worldwide issue. When I learned the full meaning of microaggressions it made think of all the things I’ve ever said that could go in that category. I thought to myself dang that was pretty messed of me to say. As I looked into them more I saw that there were a lot of elements that tie into microaggressions such as trigger warnings and political correctness. Microaggressions, brought up unknowingly or on purpose can cause a lot chaos to college students and around college campuses by causing a lot of arguments and debates on what is and isn’t right to say.