(thank you, robinphillipsblogspot.com)
An ex-professor/chair at a prestigious university sent mama an email the other day. It was a notice to professors at Oberlin containing all of the ‘suggested’ rules they should follow in the classroom so as not to ‘trigger’ unwanted emotions in students. (Oberlin has since backed down on some.)
Well, as mama read them to me and my fur starting rising.
There were so many possible ‘triggers’ that if I were a professor, I would turn in my resignation and start looking for more rewarding work. Is there nothing more rewarding than teaching, I asked myself, and myself said, ‘No.”
But if a professor has to edit his ideas about how he presents the curriculum to his classes and if The Thought Police are dictating the content and wordage of his discussions with his students so as not to offend or scare or otherwise disturb a student’s equanimity, he may as well walk out and take up fly-fishing or painting, areas in which freedom is esteemed.
What is education for if not to disturb and sometimes offend, and if it is a good one, push the student into places that might be temporarily uncomfortable but that in the end will stretch his abilities to cope with with trepidation and discomfort, both intellectually and spiritually.
Mama was really roiled about this movement to make sure no student is disturbed by ANYTHING he or she confronts in a classroom. When there are actually suggestions being discussed about books that might trigger unpleasant emotions in readers—The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, not to mention Huckleberry Finn—then our education system is in deep trouble. If students cannot hear or read about the violence, prejudice and racial injustice that exists in our society, then how will they learn to cope when confronted by it? And they WILL be confronted.
Are we now going to take all movies with blood, offensive language and all forms of violence out of theatres? Frankly, from what mama tells me about films that young people are exposed to, perhaps The Thought Police should start there rather than in universities! Kids see everything now, whether we like it or not, and to try to make them more ‘comfortable’ about reality will only lead to more ignorance and fewer tools with which to handle the potholes that everyone encounters at some time on their life’s road.
Mama and papa say anything and everything around me and I don’t get my back up or feel mistreated or traumatized by their words. I simply think for myself and if I am offended, I try to find out within myself just why that should happen, and if I’m in a place that doesn’t work for me, I move to another one that does!
In other words, I try to stay objective about things that might make me uncomfortable and not let my own personal experiences interfere with my higher education!
Well, let me think about what I just read and I’ll get back to you…
It’s hard for learners and hard for all teachers. Education (in the UK) has been taken over by this kind of nonsense. What happened to allowing teachers to be able to set a safe climate and create a safe learning culture where difficult issues can be openly discussed in an adult way? <—- the ape typed that lol
Loulou, we must be grateful we are cats and that we have all of the knowledge and wisdom of the world inside our minds. Purring keeps the world sensible!
Luff
Mungo xx
and the ranting ape xx
Pee ESS (sic) My ape Dad has a good aim too!
I really do not know what happened to those days in universities. But let’s hope this trigger thing will trigger OFF!!!
Things are becoming a bit strange everywhere now. Jan says she’s glad she’s not a student any more. For many reasons, including that in some places now boys and girls use the same restrooms.
Oh, my god, and you KNOW those anthro men cannot aim if their lives depended on it (papa excluded). If I’m around an anthro man who’s…you know…I move WAY out of the way.