Coddling of American Mind

The main argument in this article is that college students are overly sensitive and rules have been made because of it. These rules require people to think more thoroughly about everything they say, in order to avoid the possibility of offending someone. I have things I both agree with, and disagree with when it comes to this article. 

The article argues that the reason people might be more offended by things in this day and age is because of how they were raised, and I agree because I can compare how I was raised to how my parents were raised (8). Parents have sheltered the children of this generation more than their parents did for them. The article elaborates by stating the fact that, “free range childhood became less common in the 1980s. The surge in crime from the ’60s through the early ’90s made Baby Boomer parents more protective than their own parents had been.”

It seems even the smallest of things can trigger a negative reaction in people. We always have to be careful in avoiding microaggressions towards others. This article defines microaggressions as, “small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless.” The article then uses the example of asking a foreign person where they were born as a microaggression. 

I think that it is easier to believe in the idea of people being oversensitive when they are offended by such a simple question. People can avoid situations that cause them offense if it really means that much to them. For example, someone might avoid seeing a movie in which warnings were issued describing things that they may take offense to. If they feel passionate about avoiding offense material, they just have to look for the trigger warnings. The article defines trigger warnings as, “alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response.” The article often used classroom situations to describe scenes where someone would take offense in simple things. 

This article also elaborated on the fact that comedians come to college campuses and say things that students get offended by. The article gives specific examples saying, “A number of popular comedians, including Chris Rock, have stopped performing on college campuses. Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke.” It seems this is very likely to be true in most cases. But, there are people that take things to extreme levels when they simply need to brush things off and learn to take a joke. It is often said that if something upsets you, you should do something about it, but I don’t believe that should be expressed after seeing a comedian (24). 

At the same time that I believe people should not have to worry quite so much about political correctness in a classroom setting, I also believe people do need to worry about it in a public setting (25). Some classes talk about things that may make people uncomfortable, and that’s just how it has to be. Everyone should have enough common sense to know when they have gone too far, and because they know this, they should be able to speak their mind without worrying about the consequences. Common sense seems to dictate that people need to avoid offending people as much as they can, but it gives them the knowledge to know what they can and cannot say (24).

Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. They Say / I Say. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2015. Print.

Lukianoff, Greg, and Jonathan Haidt. "The Coddling of the American Mind." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 1 Sept. 2015. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/>.