
I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me - jseliger
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/3/8706323/college-professor-afraid
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shanemhansen
I've thought about the topic of Academic freedom and the ability to challenge
students and how it's been neutered by the concept of "microagressions" and
"trigger warnings".

When I was in school, we watched Schindlers's List. Not when we were young,
but when it was thought we were old enough to appreciate it. Talk about a
trigger warning. It's literally a graphic portrayal of one of the most
terrible things people have done, but we watched it because it's important to
be challenged and grow. I worry that's no longer the case. I really really
hope I'm just being a typical "old person" and that I'm wrong.

The other area where I fundamentally disagree with the concept of
microagression and trigger warnings is that there is a popular concept that
people have the right to feel a certain way. They don't. Some people suffer
from "Lepidopterophobia", fear of butterflies. Their feelings are 100% real
and in fact, should you be around someone suffering from Lepidopterophobia try
and be considerate. However as a society we should make no attempt to remove
discussion of butterflies from public places or classrooms. People suffering
from Lepidopterophobia have no inherent right to keep the rest of us from
enjoying butterflies. Under the ADA it might make sense to provide them with
reasonable accommodations if a psychiatrist has determined they are suffering
from Lepidopterophobia but that's about it.

I'd implore people to try and keep some of these ideas separate in their head.
There are people suffering from PTSD and I'm sure there are situations that
trigger their PTSD (4th of July explosions, dimly lit jogging pathways, men)
and cause them to feel some terrible mental anguish. Society is under no
obligation to remove those triggers from their life.

I keep saying that society is obliged to do this and not obliged to do that. I
should clarify what I base this reasoning off of. When society decides to keep
people safe by outlawing their murder they are saying that a certain behavior
is basically never ok because it's intrinsically harmful. Second hand smoke is
intrinsically harmful. Peanuts are not, though for many people they are quite
harmful.

When somebody avoids a certain topic that makes people feel bad there's no end
to that slippery slope. If we decide that one person's internal state is
sufficient reason to censor people then there is literally no such thing as
free speech anymore. That's a price I'm not willing to pay for one person's
comfort.

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noir-york
Dreadful! But what do you expect when the student is the "customer".

Education is there to benefit the student, sure, but society has a very large
stake in educating its population. Its called a positive externality.

This is a matter of public policy and society should be regulating this stuff.
Now try doing that in a partisan political climate, where we can't even agree
that creationism should not be on any curriculum.

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NathanKP
I agree. However the problem isn't necessarily that students are "customers",
but rather that according to this writer the universities apparently have some
kind of "customer is always right" approach to teaching.

Ideally the college experience should be a transformative one in which the
student has a chance to progress beyond the worldview they grew up with in
their parent's home, by learning new things in a fresh, neutral setting.

But when it comes down to it there are always going to be some people who are
so entrenched in their current world view that they refuse to consider
anything outside of it. In that case there are plenty of options for them. If
someone wants to learn creationist worldviews in a college setting and have
professors tell him that evolution is "just a theory" then there are religious
universities they can go to for that. If they want to learn conservative
worldview or liberal worldview only they have options to make that happen. If
you are willing to pay money for a flawed, narrow minded education, and there
are enough others like you to create a market, then there will be an
institution that will serve you in order to get your money.

Of course if the student chooses one of these myopic routes they are wasting
their money by missing out on a tremendous opportunity for self improvement by
learning about the world and other people's viewpoints on it.

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norea-armozel
I'm split on the issue because I like it when a professor challenged me in
college, but I'm not keen on having a professor mistreating me (ex. being
treated badly due to race or gender identity). But I do think that people
shouldn't file bogus complaints for a professor trying to get a lesson back on
track.

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dudul
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness and not having their
feeeeelingzz hurt."

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paulkon
College's should have a complaint review system that goes through diversified
student and faculty boards before being deemed legitimate.

