The Coddling of the American Mind

In Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” they explain the nationwide phenomenon that plagues colleges all across America, students now-in-days are more sensitive to “jokes” and microaggressions. In their article, Lukianoff and Haidt define a microaggression 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.” (46) My opinion of the article is that I agree with the fact that they believe colleges and their students have become so insensitive when it comes to casually speaking, but I’d like to point out that not every student or college is that way. (62) I am happy that people are beginning to stand up for harsh criticism and destructive language, but at the same time, it seems as if no one can take a joke. I’ve always been a fan of satirical TV shows such as South Park and Family Guy, who all sputter nasty jokes against a variety of shaky topics. (24) These shows are given huge ratings and contain a large amount of followers who appreciate the jokes. This reveals that not everyone is so sensitives on microaggressions. But on the other, Lukianoff and Haidt have found that college kids are insensitive about these microaggressions. Throughout the article, the authors show us instances where college kids overreact about a meager joke. For example, what drove me crazy was when they brought up the story about a teacher’s daughter wearing a Game of Thrones’ shirt. The T-shirt read “I will take what is mine with fire & blood.” For most people, they would read the shirt and laugh that a young child is sponsoring a huge block buster TV show. But in this case, the administrators came to believe that when the word “Fire” was introduced, it could refer to AK-47s. Now, even if you didn’t know the show, I highly doubt most people would imagine an AK-47. In my opinion, that irrational reference is completely over thought and profound. Common sense would believe that with such bold claims, most people would believe that you should just take this case and sweep it under the rug, but we’ve become so sensitive and scared that we must analyze every little detail. (24) Another example of college kids overreacting is when Lukianoff and Haidt discuss the comedian issue. They say that iconic comedians such as Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Maher “have publicly condemned the oversensitivity of college students, saying too many of them can’t take a joke,” thus, refusing to perform at college campuses. Have we come to such debauchery that we can’t even watch a comedian at our college anymore?

The end of the article was very interesting. I enjoyed how Lukianoff and Haidt had composed three ways to fix this issue. They believed that students had been sheltered throughout their lives due to crime and violence and that shows through how people act today. This issue has led to kids not leaving their shelter and seeing what the world is really like. Both Lukainoff and Haidt believe that in order to grow ourselves and get rid of our sensitive nature, we must follow these rules. First, they set up the belief that colleges themselves should take action about this behavior by promoting that, “Rather than trying to protect students from words and ideas that they will inevitably encounter, colleges should do all they can to equip students to thrive in a world full of words and ideas that they cannot control.” This is understandable because when college is over, these students must be ready for the real world, which is “full of words and idea that they cannot control.” Next, Lukianoff and Haidt believe that professors shouldn’t be put under such harsh scrutiny for what they say, they describe “Professors should be free to use trigger warnings if they choose to do so, but by explicitly discouraging the practice, universities would help fortify the faculty against student requests for such warnings.” This means that proffesors should be allowed to add any language and input that they believe is beneficial to the student learning without being under the scrutiny of being fire or harassed. Last, Lukianoff and Haidt look exactly at the colleges for the change in students, they proclaim that, “universities should rethink the skills and values they most want to impart to their incoming students.” (47) If universities rethink their ethics and mission statements, students can then pick what college they want to belong to that shares the same beliefs and thoughts as them, and likely not join one that causes them to be upset with the schools verbalization.

 Lukianoff, Greg, and Jonathan Haidt. "The Coddling of the American Mind." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, Sept. 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.

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