The Coddling Of The American Mind By Greg Lakianoff And Jonathan Haidt
498 Words2 Pages
In ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’, authors Greg Lakianoff and Jonathan Haidt argue how by instituting trigger warnings and condemning microaggressions, universities are breeding a generation of students who are unprepared for the realities of the real world. To articulate this, the article begins with the definition of trigger warnings and microagressions followed by a brief history explaining why Millennials ‘need’ constant emotional protection. Subsequently, the article utilizes subtopics to outline the central arguments and concludes with a suggestion of how to better equip students for a successful future.
The first argument outlines how the education system, “embraces emotional reasoning” by allowing emotion and feeling to be used as unbeatable evidence. In correlation with federal law, students are told that their emotions cannot be questioned and if they are, the speaker should be punished. To support this, it is explained how the University of St. Thomas’s ‘Hump Day’ was cancelled as the use of camels offended people from the Middle East, and was stated to be animal cruelty.…show more content… Furthermore, students are demanding trigger warnings with the presumption that because something may offend them, the same outcome is inevitable for their classmates. The authors represent how this idea is faulty, by stating how implementing trigger warnings can nurture unhealthy mental thoughts for students without anxiety. Alternatively, it is suggested that student’s anxieties will be minimized when they are exposed in a safe environment, such as a classroom, to threating