Is America’s youth too sensitive? Based off recent trends it would appear that they are becoming more perceptible to even the smallest unintentional comments. It would seem that the growing protectiveness and paranoia of parents is taking a growing toll on our youth’s mental processing. This trend continues to become a problem on university campuses as Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt point out in “The Coddling of the American Mind.” They analyze the negative results that the growing trend of coddling, microaggressions, and fortune-telling, seeing negatives in an everyday situation, are having on the future of America’s youth; and how universities need to stand up to their historical value of “freedom of the mind…to follow truth wherever it may lead” (Lukianoff 13). …show more content…
They start with recent examples of the growing trend of the collegiate sensitivity: “Last December, Jeannie Suk wrote in an online article for The New Yorker about law students asking her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape law…or.. use the word violate” (Lukianoff 1). Showing an example of the extremes of students in an attempt to avoid student distress, Lukianoff and Haidt then follow with two examples of articles written by professors, one who later had complaints filed on her by students and one too scared to even publish the article with his true name. In order to effectively prove their point Lukianoff and Haidt end their introduction with the fact that even professional comedians are too frightened to perform shows at universities claiming students “can’t take at joke” (Lukianoff 1). This introduction effectively drives their beginning argument that students have been coddled so much as to take everything offensively to the point that they even frighten their
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.
Fleming, Dana L. “Youthful Indiscretions: Should Colleges Protect Social Network Users from Themselves and Others?” Writing Arguments A Rhetoric With Readings. Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. New York: Pearson Longman, 2010. 440-43. Print.
In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind” the authors Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt express that college campuses in America are dealing with emotional discomfort every day. They point out whether we are too emotional on certain topics in our lives or we need to change something on college campuses to have students feel more comfortable. College student have experienced a lot in life so I think that campuses should help college students through traumatic experiences in their past instead of not acknowledging certain topics and banning them to discuss in class like rape and domestic violence which happens in our everyday life. Colleges need to step up and talk about these things so students can feel more comfortable.
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 chapter four of Johnathon Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind, Haidt talks about five different topics. Of these five, there are three that I am going to discuss; 1.) We do care about what others think about us, even if we do not think we do. 2.) We as humans will always tend to be dishonest when we think we can get away with it, and 3.) We will reason with anything to justify our original thought. His main thesis for this chapter is that our intuitions come first, then our strategic reasoning.
Overconfidence Phenomenon: The film featured Universities claiming they protect their students and their number one priority is their safety, yet when students were reporting their sexual assaults they were blamed and the types of questions were cruel. One student even stated, “my rape was bad but the way I was treated was worse.” Therefor the University has a tendency to believe that they are more accurate then they actually are to “show off” for the public’s eye.
Even at the most prestigious American Universities, a war currently wages. Around Halloween each year, there is often a debate on college campuses across the United States as to whether students should be allowed to wear costumes that could be deemed stereotypical or offensive. Just this past month a prestigious Yale lecturer, Erika Christakis, found herself at the center of a campuswide upheaval after she sent an email urging a dialogue on the controversy. Instead of inspiring that dialogue, Christakis found herself the target of an endless barrage of protests and backlash that eventually ended in her resignation from the college. The following is an excerpt from the email Christakis sent to the students of Yale’s Silliman:
Sander, Libby. "The Chronicle of Higher Education: Students Try to Break Taboo Around Social Class on Campus." BATTEN CONNECTION. ( ): n. page. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. .
It is unfortunate to see how ethics in the American culture are constantly declining. People’s moral values are below normal societal standards, which is why, the older generations are outraged by the way things are now, and become rather upset and feel disturbed towards society. Furthermore, religion has lost its value throughout the years. In the essay, "Do Kids Need Religion?" by Anthony Brandt, he underlines the idea of how religion is not properly taught or provided to children. In Wendy Shalit’s essay, "The Future of Modesty," she discusses how much modesty has reached its worst in the younger generations, however society is beginning to raise these standards once again. Nonetheless, education has also lost its honor code. Mark Clayton calls attention to how cheating is becoming incredibly common among students throughout the United States in his essay, "A Whole Lot of Cheatin’ Going on." In fact, it is obvious that American culture is declining fast in ethics, especially in religion, dating, and education.
Worthern has created a sincere and serious tone to persuade her audience the importance of etiquette. The use of word choices like “stand up”, “vigilant defense” and “protect” shows her passion of establishing etiquette to include the “disempowered minorities” as well as to be the “guardians of civilization” due to the positive and protective connotation of the words. She also adopts a calming and informative tone to explain the significance and historical background of maintaining a respectful environment for both students and professors instead of creating an authoritative tone to doctrine and warn the students to discontinue their improper behavior. On the other hand, Wade adopts a demanding and sarcastic tone insisting upon the reader the proper behaviors of college students through colloquial language. The use of colloquial language although is effective because Wade’s intended audience is direct to students, she begins her list of “10 Things Every College Professor Hates” by the admonitory word “Don’t” which creates a satiric mood for the whole article. Wade coerces the reader to admit and accept her argument by appealing to the audiences’ guiltiness and criticizing the audience’s behaviors in academic environment. For example, “No, you didn’t miss anything
the usual folder. It determines the way we frame everything . . . the attitude
Wilbur shows a good effort made to protect a child from fears because the fears are irrational. On the contrary, Collins juxtaposes a history teacher’s efforts to protect his students from historical truths and their ensuing behavior to show that the time he spends misguiding his students could be better spent teaching children to mature. Wilbur and Collins both demonstrate approaches to calming children; however the approaches differ in terms of protecting the children verses outright lying to them. Theses passages attempt to answer the controversial question of whether it is better to shelter children or expose them to the harsh realities of the world.
Brooks wrote this article to inform the new generation not to buy into the hype of the “baby boomers.” He uses a compare and contrast type of approach with contrasting explanations of people’s expectations versus reality. The author wants to convey a feeling of awareness, which almost feels foreboding. The intended audience is young American college students or those about to enter college. It's intent to them is to inform them of the dangers that follow graduation where expectations are concerned. This audience is comprised of both male and female readers of all races and
In the beginning of the article, Lukianoff and Haidt explain how one word can offend a college student really quickly, even if the person saying it didn’t intend to insult them. The authors then tell the audience how popular comedians, like Chris Rock, have stopped performing on college campuses, because the students cannot take a joke.
Youth individually is important in this society. If not, the youth of this society are just like everyone else, which discourage them to be themselves. A very humorous, intellectual man, author Mark Twain created a satire which became a lecture in 1882, to show the humor of society to the youth. In “Advice of Youth” Mark Twain informs the youth through logical appeals, irony, and parallelism.