The Coddling Of The American Mind

Erwin Chemerinsky describes the main opposing views on this issue in his book Free Speech on Campus, “One derides all efforts to protect students from the effects of offensive or disrespectful speech as “coddling” and “politically correctness.” The other side

The purpose of my research is to explore and offer analysis of the controversy over the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces on college campuses, in order to understand when, where, and most importantly, regarding what subjects their use is appropriate.

In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” writers Greg Lukianoff and Jonathon Haidt address today’s college campus culture of oversensitivity and how targeting microaggressions by shielding sensitive topics from students may be modeling cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortion is a way our mind twists words to convince us of something that isn’t true to reinforce negative thinking. Since college administrators changed ways to try and block out microaggressions on campus it is actually teaching students to think in distorted ways. As a result, students are learning lessons that are bad for themselves and their mental health. However, Lukianoff and Haidt believe that cognitive behavioral therapy is the next big thing to teach good

College is a time when most individuals are experiencing major changes and begin to explore new perspectives. The transition in becoming more independent, creating new insights and peer influence are key factors in changing the perspective of an individual. Students are faced with new ideas from their professors, family and fellow peers. Through that acquired knowledge many students decide that they either agree or disagree with the perspectives that they are taught. Allowing the right of ‘Free Speech’ on public college campuses has become an important issue that many public colleges are starting to address. In college students are capable of

Bridges’ argument in Why students need trigger warnings failed to address how some students might use trigger warnings to avoid a reading or an assignment. His personal experience with a student with trauma, though, helps incite sympathy and suggest to readers that trigger warnings are necessary to avoid further physiological harm to students. However, AAUP’s argument still sustains credibility because many professors have similar views that trigger warnings marginalize topics like sex and race and they react by avoiding those topics.

In The Coddling of the American Mind, logos used throughout the article. Logos is an appeal to logic from the author, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason. One logos example is the different generation statement the article provided. Childhoods has changed a significant amount during the past generation. The generation growing up before and a little after the 80’s remember riding their bicycles around their hometowns, unsupervised by adults, by the time they were 8 or 9 years old. In the hours after school, kids were expected to keep themselves busy and learn from their OWN mistakes. They made this claim because parents from this generation are more protective about their children. It is hard to see kids out in the streets riding

It is always important to think back to the Buddhist and Stoic beliefs about thinking clearly and working through emotions (Lukianoff and Haidt 6). The college students mentioned in “The Coddling of the American Mind,” need to learn these crucial principles in order to live a life where they can positively overcome discomfort and offendedness. People need not be punished for causing minor emotional inconveniences. Once cognitive

“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.

The authors examples help explain why trying to control what people do and say has a negative effect. On several college campuses, associations are trying to stop people from being offended by anything that did not make them feel comfortable or welcome. One example was in Florida when an instructor used the phrase “It looks like you guys are being slowly suffocated by these questions” (Lukianoff & Haidt) and students turned in his statement causing him to get suspended. Adults and students are both being affected from these ridiculous rules. This rule is “creating a culture in which everyone must think twice before speaking up” (Lukianoff & Haidt), but not everyone is going to agree or like everything people say.

Author Aaron Hanlon gave his version of why "Coddling students aren't the causes of a mental health crisis on campus, they are just paving in the culture war." (Hanlon, 2015). Studies held in Atlantic colleges "Coddling of the American Mind" by Lukianoff and Haidt is what Hanlon counter claims. He finds their article offensive, argumentative and liberal. Hanlon goes on to talk about a movement going on at college campuses is to get rid of the terms or slurs that can be seen as harmful and offensive. He states "campus culture devoted to policy speech and punishing speakers" is saying students on campus might have a higher chance of being depressed or having anxiety while attending college. Hanlon speaks on an academic and professional pressures increasing accessibility and reducing sleep, sexual epidemics, all these and more are factors that

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.” Indeed, free speech is a large block upon which this nation was first constructed, and remains a hard staple of America today; and in few places is that freedom more often utilized than on a college campus. However, there are limitations to our constitutional liberties on campus and they, most frequently, manifest themselves in the form of free speech zones, hate speech and poor university policy. Most school codes are designed to protect students, protect educators and to promote a stable, non-disruptive and non-threatening learning environment. However, students’ verbal freedom

It isn’t the overall content of the essay I wish to address; it is one sentence

Freedom of speech is a fundamental American freedom and a human right, and there’s no place that this right should be more valued and protected than in colleges and universities. A college exists to educate and to advance a student 's knowledge. Colleges do so by acting as a “marketplace of ideas” where ideas compete. It is important to be able to compare your ideas with everyone else as it helps to open your mind to other people’s views and can give you a different perception on things. In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukiankoff talked about how too many college students engage in “catastrophizing," which is in short, the overreaction to something. They also said that “smart people do, in fact, overreact to innocuous speech, make mountains out of molehills, and seek punishment for anyone whose words make anyone else feel uncomfortable.”(Haidt) Many colleges have the belief that prohibiting freedom of speech will resolve such issues. But instead, colleges should take a different approach on the matter by teaching students how to properly utilize their Freedom of Speech which will help to resolve future conflicts and misunderstandings.

The true substance of this editorial comes from the authors use of logical appeals and its relatability to students. [These are two different ideas—which is going to make your paragraph rather jumbled. How could you reorganize to make sure each paragraph is focused on a single unified idea?] The author argues the importance in not going “so far in protecting undergraduates” (n.p.) from controversial or touchy subjects. A substantial part of education consists of understanding your opinion, as well as, the

In his editorial, “The Year of the Imaginary College Student,” Hua Hsu asserts that “alarm about offense-seeking college students say[s] more about critics than the actual state of affairs.” Hsu begins his article by discussing James O’Keefe’s attempt at Vassar College to depict that college students are as politically sensitive as they appear. He goes on to demonstrate that college students are getting increasingly more “hypersensitive.” Hsu then questions the “surge of interest in campus life,” wondering why people who are not in college are questioning the behavior of those in college. Next, Hsu states that this panic about “offense-seeking college students” says more about the people criticizing rather than the system. Elucidating, he