Week 4: "The Coddling of the American Mind" Response

Joshua Rivera

Asian American Studies 2 – A01

Blog/Week #4

In “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, the authors propose a political dilemma that University students have to face in higher education. This dilemma centers on the sanitation of speech that goes on in university courses and affairs, created by the hypersensitivity that some students feel when subjected to certain words or phrases. From slight metaphors to political ideologies, students have begun to aggressively censor their own institution in an effort to safeguard their fellow classmates. This poses a difficult situation as this act of sanitation has begun to grow at alarming rates, preventing some professors from teaching their own desired material to uninviting guest speakers during events. Eventually, this sanitation will cause some students to grow “thin skin”, unable to bear the realities of adulthood once they graduate. The students are told to avoid their fears instead of face them which becomes problematic since they will be unable to overcome them in the long run. This isn’t to say that harassment should be allowed, but it is to say that sanitizing every word in the English vernacular can prove to be harmful rather than beneficial for the students in the long run.

Question: To what extent should universities monitor the usage of certain words or material in a university classroom?