ipl-logo

Summary Of Coddling Of The American Mind By Jonathan Haidt

1141 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis essay on the coddling of american mind article

The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, is an article published by the Atlantic Journal about the negative effects trigger warnings and microaggressions have on students in college. Trigger warnings are disclaimers about any potential emotional response from a class or its material. Microaggressions are words or actions that have no sinister intentions, but are taken as such. Greg Lukianoff is the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. (47) As the leader of the foundation, Greg Lukianoff has witnessed and fought many legal occasions of trigger warnings and microaggressions resulting in the masking of the freedom of speech. Coauthor Jonathan Haidt is a professor at New York University’s …show more content…

If the intended audience was exclusively for professors, then the article would have been published in a scholarly journal. The Coddling of the American Mind is not intended for students because it is condescending and disregards their viewpoint. While analyzing the origin of the problem in today’s educational system, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt conclude it began after the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. (45) Baby Boomers are people who were in higher level education during 1970’s, and the Gen Xers attended higher level education in the 1980’s. The authors create a tone for the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers as a “better” time. By referring back to a “better” time the audience experienced, a connection is made between the authors and the audience. The bond is strengthened by the frequent use first person, grouping terms such as “we.” When one feels a part of a group they will be more open-minded to other ideas because they are more susceptible to ridicule otherwise known as peer pressure. Trigger warnings and microaggressions taking away the rights of well-educated adults and professors is one of the …show more content…

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Hadit create a condescending tone in The Coddling of the American Mind by using harsh diction, quotation marks, and italicized words. The harsh word choice the authors choose expresses the lack of respect they have for the opposition. For example, when article explains the intentions of trigger warnings the authors add, “You might call this impulse vindictive protectiveness.” (44) Vindictive, meaning revenge, has a cruel and negative connotation which mutilates the opposition: trying to protect students. Also, the harsh tone the diction possesses makes others of the opposing view afraid to voice their opinion because they will appear equally sinister as the colleges who support of the use of trigger warnings. If the opposition is unable to refute the information stated, because they are scared, the audience has only one side of the argument to agree with. To undermine the purpose of trigger warnings, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Hadit insert quotation marks around the words “safe space.” (44) Just like the use air quotes, quotations in this article set a tone of sarcasm and express the author's’ opinion. The authors believe that sheltering from sensitive words, ideas, and topics the colleges do does not create a safe place for them; in fact, sheltering students makes it more dangerous to have an opinion. Italicizing certain words create emphasis. The article

Show More
Related
231 Words | 1 Pages

The Language Police, by Diane Ravitch, meticulously documents the authors search for solving the political mystery behind the unorthodox reasoning behind K-12 education. She always believed that textbooks were designed to help students gain beneficial information, and that tests were assessed on the knowledge from what they had learned throughout the year. Over many years, testing was reflected on a controversial language of screening and affairs that negatively were associated with all personable groups. What once had been commended had now developed far beyond the method of censorship. It was now, restricted as an approach for masking the reality of literal knowledge from students.

Read More
158 Words | 1 Pages

David Brooks writer of “One Nation Slightly Divisible,” tries to control the audience’s minds by using “we” in his article. Similarly, Jonathan Rauch, writer of “In Defense of Prejudice: Why Incendiary Speech Must Be Protected” argues in a biased point of view in an unique way to attract audience to believe his personal view towards prejudice. Even though both Brooks and Rauch share the same bias perspective, Brooks reveals a more pervasive biased opinion compared to Rauch. David Brooks stands out with a positive effect of bias and to convince the readers and help unfold his viewpoint and grasp the audience 's attention. Rauch also uses bias to convince the reader but was not as effective as Brooks ' tactics used in emotion, argument and

Read More
1140 Words | 5 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis Draft Three “The Privileges of The Parents” is written by Margaret A. Miller, a Curry School of Education professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. This woman was a project director for the Pew-sponsored National Forum on college level learning from 2002-2004. This forum assessed the skills and knowledge of college educated students in five states by a way that allowed the test givers to make state-by-state comparisons. Miller believes that “[a] college education has benefits that ripple down through the generations” and this has enabled her to work and speak on topics such as: college level learning and how to evaluate it, change in higher education, the public responsibilities of higher education, campus

Read More
103 Words | 1 Pages

People have the tendency to take the First Amendment for granted, but some tend to use it to their favor. Stanley Fish presents his main argument about how people misuse this amendment for all their conflicts involving from racial issues to current political affairs in his article, Free-Speech Follies. His article involves those who misinterpret the First Amendment as their own works or constantly use it as an excuse to express their attitudes and desires about a certain subject matter. He expresses his personal opinions against those who consistently use the First Amendment as a weapon to defend themselves from harm of criticism.

Read More
700 Words | 3 Pages

Ken Kasey’s One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a literary classic known not only for its superb style and captivating story, but also for a number of well-publicized attempts to ban the book from school and public libraries dating back to the 1970’s just after the initial publication of the story. In 1974, the board of education in Strongsville, OH was pressured with a lawsuit to ban One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The plaintiff in the case (five residents of Strongsville) presented a long and complicated argument for why the book should be banned from the school system in Stronsville, which was mostly based on violence. In the opinion of the plaintiff, the book, “glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains

Read More
294 Words | 2 Pages

This led to intelligent people in varying age groups becoming outcasts, and they began to hide or even lose their interest in academics. After the author’s analysis

Read More
511 Words | 3 Pages

The essay “In Praise of the ‘F’ Word” by Mary Sherry explains some flaws Sherry has noticed in our education system. These observations are from her teaching perspective, and from her son’s own experience in high school. Sherry claims that some students that have earned a high school degree should not have because they are “semi literate.” She starts out her essay by stating this bluntly, but further explains herself as it goes on. Sherry is an adult literacy grammar teacher, and often faces students that wish they could have had a more beneficial experience in high school.

Read More
1869 Words | 8 Pages

Therefore, reading uncomfortable literature might help students gain crucial social and emotional skills. Also, it might inspire students to consider their opinions, past experiences, and biases. By exposing students to uncomfortable literature, we can foster their intellectual and emotional growth and equip them to be active and responsible citizens. Yet avoiding

Read More
1549 Words | 7 Pages

Since overprotective parents converted their children to become more fragile and emotional those kids that went to universities took with them their weak-minded and pampered attitudes. Which resulted in the much controversial topic, whether professors trigger warnings should be mandatory for all lectures in order to avoid any student to be bombarded with any unwanted discomfort on memories. Trigger warnings prevent professors from teaching certain topics which allow students to avoid those controversial lectures will end up preparing the students poorly for their future and as well as preventing them from discovering who their lives and their minds true potential. However some people might argue that trigger mornings are only meant to warn

Read More
708 Words | 3 Pages

Though there are some exceptions, the young generation at large today has been brainwashed by politically correct culture. That culture shuns complex thought, and makes any dissent from the PC mainstream punishable by shunning, yelling, and attempts to silence. It runs rampant on college campuses, and Hofstra is no exception. Trigger warnings are unfortunately a major aspect of this culture, and there is little remedy other than to save the minds of those we can still sway. As best summarized by the American Association of University Professors, “The presumption that students need to be protected rather than challenged in a classroom is at once infantilizing and anti-intellectual”

Read More
1053 Words | 5 Pages

In the op-ed titled “I came to College Eager to debate. I found Self- Censorship Instead.” written by Emma Camp, she argues that educational institutions, specifically universities, must take initiative and implement policies that encourage free speech by students. Camp incorporates her personal experience of self-censorship to make an emphasis on the unbelievable amount of students who remain silent due to fear. This fear is due to withholding unpopular opinions which differ from other classmates leading to harsh criticism to arise.

Read More
1015 Words | 5 Pages

Censorship in schools concentrates on creating a non-beneficial and unhelpful learning environment for students. Americans should be aware that textbooks often only present a positive image of US history because it doesn’t tell the truth about how we came to be as a nation. In Denver, Colorado, students are protesting about a review of the AP history curriculum which

Read More
967 Words | 4 Pages

In her article, she refers to college as a place to broaden knowledge, “It is, hopefully, a space where the student is challenged and sometimes frustrated and sometimes deeply upset, a place where the student's world expands and pushes them to reach the outer edges – not a place that contracts to meet the student exactly where they are” (Filipovic). From this previous statement, we can conclude that the unexpected in college challenges a student to push their knowledge; however, we should not adapt the learning process to meet students’ needs. A trigger warning serves as protection against a wide range of controversial categories. It is true multiple things could trigger an emotional response, even things as little as skulls, blood, or pregnancy. The discretion on whether a topic can send a student into emotional turmoil is unpredictable.

Read More
905 Words | 4 Pages

The idea of free speech on college campuses and the complications of it stem from those on campuses expressing views that don’t align with popular views. Implications for students who use the idea of free speech as a method for hateful actions and comments should be reprimanded, but the question remains as to whether schools should enforce tougher limitations. The freedom of speech on college campus expands to the freedoms of religion, assembly, press, and protest as well. Freedom of expression allows students to show their own political, social, and cultural views. Removing freedoms of speech and expression have consequences deeper than surface issues.

Read More
933 Words | 4 Pages

When one hears "school security" these days, the word that goes with it is "tighten." Indeed, given both external threats and unruly (sometimes violent) student behavior, it makes sense to think that the most sensible course of action is to err on the side of more stringent measures, harsher sanctions and less permissive administration. It largely comes down to liability - whenever an individual with a history of troubled or criminal behavior snaps or becomes involved in an incident severe enough to attract government or media attention, many of the questions asked in the aftermath are variations on "why was this person not in jail. " The same applies to schools, where administrators often end up having to justify themselves to parents and

Read More

More about Summary Of Coddling Of The American Mind By Jonathan Haidt

Related Topics

Open Document