In “The Coddling of the American Mind” the moral dilemma surrounding college speech codes is discussed. While some people see speech codes as a way to protect students from discrimination or from reliving past traumatic experiences, I believe that they take this too far and damage the learning environment. From a moral standpoint it is critical to protect students from being subjected to racist or sexist verbal attacks, but the accusation that your speech is a microaggression or threatening can lead to huge consequences including the loss of your job or place in school. These overly protective speech codes have the potential to ruin the lives of students and teachers who never intended to cause offense, while not having one at all can allow …show more content…
It is even more difficult to regulate this in the classroom. If students are sheltered while in college they lack the valuable exposure to different ideas that will help them later in life to work with people they do not necessarily agree with. When teachers are forced to use trigger warning and discouraged from using material that may trigger students the academic integrity of the system is threatened. If students are never forced to face their fears or read about discrimination, learning about controversial issues is nearly impossible. In the adult world, you cannot avoid topics that make you uncomfortable, and by learning to confront this in college, students would be better prepared for the real world. Speech codes at colleges need to be reevaluated and loosed to allow teachers and fellow students the challenge beliefs and debate tough issues. While allowing more freedom, colleges also have the moral obligation to prevent hate speech and discrimination, just not in a way that focuses microaggressions and forces students to watch everything they
Charles R. Lawrence intended audience in his article “On Racist Speech” is college students and universities. His sense of tone is forthcoming. Lawerence word choice sets the tone by using the words conspicuous,dissenter, and bigot. The article gives examples of how universities do not protect minority college students. Lawrence states that universities should protect their students He also gives an example of how universities have tried to have rules to ban racist speech yet they have proven ineffective in stopping racial slurs. The regulations have not stopped the verbal brutality yet it has stopped the occurrences of physical fights. He mentions how students do not have any need to be hurt verbally.
They should start discussions about rape and sexist cases because it’s going on in today’s society and for people to know it’s okay to talk about it if it ever happened to them. Colleges need to prepare students for the real word so they need to have real life discussions in class for the students that are growing up and entering the workforce. College campuses are going through the mircoagression theory and professors fear to talk about trigger warnings in class when both students and professors should have freedom of speech in classrooms. “One of my biggest concerns about trigger warnings,” Roff wrote, “is that they will apply not just to those who have experienced trauma, but to all students, creating an atmosphere in which they are encouraged to believe that there is something dangerous or damaging about discussing difficult aspects of our history.” (49). Professors try to avoid teaching material that will upset sensitive students, but instead they should start warning students about the materials they are going to teach and set boundaries so students can know what they are about to learn to prevent teachers from getting in trouble or risk getting fired from their
In “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff they say “when students come to expect trigger warnings for any material that makes them uncomfortable, the easiest way for faculty to stay out of trouble is to avoid material that might upset the most sensitive student in the class”. Instead of teaching, teachers are focusing on not upsetting students and getting rid of anything that might trigger someone. Haidt and Lukianoff also state that “demands for trigger warnings on reading assignments with provocative content is an example of fortune telling”. This is because a trigger warning is like predicting that something bad will happen or that things will get worse, when really there is no way to know unless you experience
Today, there are student laws regarding disruption that were brought about because of the court case (Sternburg). If what is said is not disruptive in the classroom, create chaos, or invade other 's rights, it is considered acceptable (McPherson 86). The students involved in the Tinker case were lucky since they were protected because they were not disruptive, nor was there offensive speech (“Tinker v. Des Moines: Establishing the Right”). It is important for students to avoid disruptions to prevent offensive speech that could be taken as
The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, is an article published by the Atlantic Journal about the negative effects trigger warnings and microaggressions have on students in college. Trigger warnings are disclaimers about any potential emotional response from a class or its material. (44) Microaggressions are words or actions that have no sinister intentions, but people take as such. (44) Greg Lukianoff is the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. (47) As the leader of the foundation, Greg Lukianoff has witnessed and fought many legal occasions of trigger warnings and microaggressions resulting in the masking of freedom of speech. Coauthor Jonathan Haidt is a professor at New
In the world today, Freedom of Speech is taken to a different level than what one may imply verbally. With social media, political debates, and the outpour of sexual orientation the First Amendment is exercised in its full capacity. Protecting Freedom of Expression on the campus is an article written by Derek Bok expressing his concerns regarding the display of a confederate flag hung from a window on the campus of Harvard University. The Confederate flag to some is a symbol of slavery and to others it is a symbol of war, or perhaps known as the “Battle Flag”. In this paper one will review Bok’s opinion of the First Amendment, clarity of free speech in private versus public institutions and the actions behind the importance of ignoring or prohibiting such communications according to the First Amendment.
Through the 1980s to the 1990s many colleges and universities has developed speech codes which was a set of not to do rules for decreasing discrimination. The key idea that is being conveyed here is that even the biggest of any federal departments such as education have already been ce...
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 becomes limited via “free speech zones.” Free Speech Zones are areas allocated for the purpose of free speech on campus. These zones bypass our constitutional right to freedom of speech by dictating where and when something can be said, but not what can be said.
Some colleges are considering speech codes and regulations on campus due to allegations of racist speech and harassment. Although the reasons are legitimate concerns, these codes should not be placed on students because they do not only violate The First Amendment, but also promote administrative abuse of power, along with causing students to self-censor their speech, while teaching them to hide and or suppress their unpopular beliefs. There are some such as, Cinnamon Stillwell and Charles R. Lawrence III, which are in favor of speech codes because they consider some of the actions a form of harassment. While others such as, Harvey B. Silverglate, Greg Lukianoff, and Howard M. Wasserman oppose the codes and regulations because they insist that
Unlike many other countries America has freedom of speech. Even in other countries in Europe people are not allowed to use “hate speech” and they can be sent to prison for it. Fortunately, the American constitution defends people’s freedom of speech, no matter how controversial it is. Political correctness diminishes people’s free speech. It may not be direct but even indirectly the knowledge that someone might have adverse consequences; such as losing a job as a result of their speech is unacceptable. People have the right to state their opinions without others infringing on them, it was the principle in which America was founded. The first amendment of the constitution of the United States declares that: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” (US Const. amend. I, sec. i). While the first amendment only affects congress’s control over free speech, it indicates that free speech is a right that people must have. Some people are of the opinion that if something can be found offensive
An article in The Atlantic, The Coddling of the American Mind, the author talks about how the mindset of younger generations has changed on sensitive topics. The author attributes a lot of this new sensitivity to generational changes. Older generations had more freedom from their parents but with the increase in reported crime these children grew up to be more protective of their children, and what they were exposed too. In this way, the new generation has come to be over sensitized and thinks that adults will always try to protect their feelings. This affects the quality of education that students are getting in a college setting when professors have to censor information in order to prevent emotional distress for some students. Many students
The question of whether or not college students have become too “sensitive” is one that is currently being debated in the United States. This issue, which has seemed to increase in the past few years, is one that has angered many due to the fact that what this world needs is straight-forward commentary. In “The Coddling of the American Mind,” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, the issue of college students being too “coddled” is discussed in many different aspects. Similarly, an article published by Scott Stump in Today Parents shows an example of how the effect of political correctness on these students has caused a realization that we are in dire need of some desensitizing. Validating one another, these two articles prove that the coddling
"Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus” by Derek Bok, published in Boston Globe in 1991, is an essay about what we should do when we are faced with expressions that are offensive to some people. The author discusses that although the First Amendment may protect our speech, but that does not mean it protects our speech if we use it immorally and inappropriately. The author claims that when people do things such as hanging the Confederate flag, “they would upset many fellow students and ignore the decent regard for the feelings of others” (70). The author discusses how this issue has approached Supreme Court and how the Supreme Court backs up the First Amendment and if it offends any groups, it does not affect the fact that everyone has his or her own freedom of speech. The author discusses how censorship may not be the way to go, because it might bring unwanted attention that would only make more devastating situations. The author believes the best solutions to these kind of situations would be to
the usual folder. It determines the way we frame everything . . . the attitude
In the article The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, the authors go into great detail of describing the effects of trigger warnings. Using real world examples, Lukianoff and Haidt describes how college students are oversensitive and carried along the school year. The authors explain how this is a negative thing for the college students going into the work force in the future.