Week 7

Alex Truong
Section 2

In "The Coddling of the American Mind" in The Atlantic it discusses the growing amount of controlling parents and the over protection of students. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt brings to attention the growing conflicts within colleges regarding what professors should and should not teach. This is due to the growing fear that it may trigger or offend some of the students. The article touches upon how the generations have changed from children and kids playing outside are now children and kids being inside on their iPads and laptops. This can be attributed to the more controlling and strict helicopter parents. The author's of this article view trigger warnings and attempting to protect students is in turn actually hurting them. They see that by exposing them to more of these "harmful" and "touchy" topics that it can actually be beneficial.

In my opinion, I do believe that trigger warnings and shielding students from offending topics has gone too far. This is due to the fact that in the real world people are not going to care what offends you and what is harmful to you. I believe that being exposed and being able to say what you have on your mind without having to worry about offending others should be encouraged. The outside world is not a safe space, colleges should not be implementing a safe space mentality.

How can we make a learning environment better by minimizing the amount of trigger warnings but at the same time accommodate the students that are triggered by some of the more touchy topics?

Lukianoff, G., & Haidt, J. (2015, September). The Coddling of the American Mind. The Atlantic. Retrieved May 14, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

http://archive.tcpalm.com/opinion/cartoons/leaving-safe-space-3218d6c2-73d2-1066-e053-0100007ff577-379172791.html