Tara HolenmeIn some unfortunately not surprising news, Sanford College at Duke University is creating one of the nation’s first campus “safe spaces,” a room designed to help students cope with all the horrific and traumatizing life events they will have to endure during their college years.
What kinds of things you might ask? Well, maybe your roommate looked at you funny one afternoon and you felt it was a little aggressive. Or perhaps one of your fellow classmates pointed out that the answer you gave to an equation was incorrect and you felt personally victimized. Don’t worry – we’ve got a cozy little room for you where everything is pink and fluffy and smells like lavender and you can begin your personal journey of healing.
Since when did college become an extension of nursery school? I thought the idea behind an education was to broaden a person’s mind as they questioned the world around them and dealt with difficult ideas in an effort to grow as an intellectual and a human being.
Somehow, though, the college experience has been turned into something akin to a mom patting her 2-year-old on the back and telling him the monsters aren’t real and she’ll get him a juice box to help ease away the horrific memory of whatever nightmare he was facing.
Except now those 2-year-olds are 20-year-olds who expect the same coddling and care. “Don’t worry, sweetie. I know writing this paper is tough, but I’ll hold your hand through the whole thing, and if it just gets too hard don’t even worry about it – I’ve got a safe little room you can hide in until all the bad things go away.”
No wonder our country is going to hell!
We are “educating” a new generation of spineless “victims” who cry over a B or their roommate borrowing their hairbrush or the possibly judgmental look they received from someone in line at the cafeteria.
I even read about two girls who had to go to counseling because of the trauma they endured after finding a mouse in their dorm room. How is this real life??
According to Sanford organizers, the “Sanford Safe Space” will be “an experiment in helping people heal,” featuring an on-duty social worker to help students who are feeling “marginalized” or are dealing with complicated issues like “free speech” and “microaggressions.”
I personally favor the stance taken by the University of Chicago’s Dean Jay Ellison. In a letter to incoming freshmen he warned that “UChicago would not condone hiding from intellectual discourse or running to safe spaces to avoid encountering differing opinions.”
“Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called trigger warnings, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial and we do not condone the creation of intellectual safe spaces where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own,” he wrote.
Of course, the Social Justice Warriors took his aggressive and victimizing letter real well…
I’m all for people getting help when they truly need it. There are people out there who are dealing with some real problems. But for all of those who feel they need a safe space where they can take a time out from life because someone dared disagree with their opinion in a lecture hall, grow a pair or get out.
H/T: Heatstreet
