If Mort Divine ruled the world

[Dak]

Where are you getting that number? And how does content "drown out" practice? And what bulletins are you talking about?

With some glaringly obvious anomalies like George Mason, universities are filled with professors who think more or less like Bernie Sanders when it comes to voting time. Even if a professor did lean conservative, they have to keep it to themselves in the interest of their job. Heaven forbid they might read a book by Buchanan.

While lite on specific policy support, I regularly heard professors blast the NC state assembly (which has been heavily Republican since 2010).

Petting an animal is something only four-year-olds do? Playing with animals for even just a few minutes can be a stress reliever. And maybe some of these kids are having stress reactions that are disproportionate, but that doesn't mean that every student is, or that the vast majority of students aren't there because, hey, they miss their pets from home and want to play with a dog for ten minutes.

Petting Zoos are generally a child oriented attraction.

There are a variety of stress management techniques that could be taught which don't require a pet day hosted by the school, techniques that students can even utilize midtest to deal with any persistent anxiety.

 

[Einherjar86]

With some glaringly obvious anomalies like George Mason, universities are filled with professors who think more or less like Bernie Sanders when it comes to voting time. Even if a professor did lean conservative, they have to keep it to themselves in the interest of their job. Heaven forbid they might read a book by Buchanan.

While lite on specific policy support, I regularly heard professors blast the NC state assembly (which has been heavily Republican since 2010).

I think you'd be surprised how little political beliefs can influence content, even in humanities courses. If they did, no one would teach Henry James.

Petting Zoos are generally a child oriented attraction.

There are a variety of stress management techniques that could be taught which don't require a pet day hosted by the school, techniques that students can even utilize midtest to deal with any persistent anxiety.

It isn't a petting zoo - these are dogs, not llamas. And why can't there be a "pet day"? Why does this fall under "coddling," while other measures don't? I have to admit, I see this as harmless. I think you're making a really big deal over nothing.

 

[rms]

What current measures do you see as coddling that we aren't talking about?

 

[Einherjar86]

That's mainly my point. I don't see the university as primarily a coddling institution, although it certainly has its moments (an example would be the occasional bending over backward that academic advising does for students who fall behind).

I think that our society wants to lay the blame of coddling at the feet of the university, as though it has somehow produced this culture and continues to nurture it. I do not think this is the case, and I think an argument can be made that universities began to adopt these kinds of policies only after they began to feel threatened by over-zealous lawsuit-hungry parents who wanted to be sure their children were safe away from home.

Teachers overwhelmingly are not taking excessive measures to make sure students are comfortable (beyond any common-sense notion of, you know, being cordial and engaging), and they aren't assigning texts that promote a culture of victimhood. My own opinions, all around - but I think the accusation of victimization is far more prevalent than the actual victimization itself.

 

[rms]

I think Haidt's point is exactly your fear of the lawyer parent. Consumers have shaped the University experience. He attributes this to less amount of children, and having them later, then argues that parents today are more protective than previous generations. I think he even advocates for a legal immunity thing for public universities.

I don't agree on the texts aspect, but it's such a small point/piece of evidence compared to the rest of it that I do not think we have to keep bringing it up. Nor does he provide any information that we can even counter.

I don't get your last statement though. The rise of the feminist "mindset" (social media, not academia) and the micro-aggression thing is pretty rampant, I would say. Sure I go to UC Berkeley 2.0, but I can't imagine most aren't this way.

 

[Dak]

the accusation of victimization is far more prevalent than the actual victimization itself.

I agree but I don't think that's what you meant.

At some point filters have to be installed again. I believe that there are two factors combining to create such a fragile student body. Coming from the one side are intelligent kids who have been coddled their whole lives and can't handle adversity, and at the other end are kids who shouldn't be in college and are in over their head. In both cases, the university has two options: Accomodate or show them the door. Since society has determined that everyone should get a college education, they can't do the latter, so they have to do the former, and have been doing so to greater and greater degrees at the undergraduate level. This atmosphere of accommodation attracted and was reinforced by SJWites. To be clear, I'm using that term in a very broad way to include all manner of leftism other than radical anarchists - not insinuating that every other humanities teacher accepts dragonkin as a healthily functioning person.

 

[SentinelSlain]

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Footnotes

Forumulating a change in discern researched in wikipedia. Forumulating a change in discern @ dictionary.com

 

[Einherjar86]

I don't get your last statement though. The rise of the feminist "mindset" (social media, not academia) and the micro-aggression thing is pretty rampant, I would say. Sure I go to UC Berkeley 2.0, but I can't imagine most aren't this way.

I don't know, guys... I'm being completely honest, I do not spend my time fretting over how not to offend students. As far as I'm concerned, forcing kids to think critically and not offending them aren't mutually exclusive goals. There seems to be this delusion that university professors are sweating trying to avoid destabilizing the fragile student brain, but I don't see this at my school and haven't seen it at others. Nor does this comprise any significant portion of conversations I've had with colleagues at other schools.

I agree but I don't think that's what you meant.

But you know what I mean, and that means you don't agree.

The assumption of victimology is more prevalent than actual victimology.

 

[rms]

History is not necessarily a field that has this kind of offensive behavior, so I don't have any experience of that in this field but the Lit course I took did have this kind of mentality.

We read a book that had male on trans female (man but not really trans, weird book) rape and we got the "trigger warning" before reading that segment. But the teacher, female, did not provide the same trigger warning for the same section of reading that had forced castration. I think trigger warnings do fall into this infantilizing/coddling atmosphere.

You are at a private Christian college. You're telling me you haven't contemplated the idea of "offending" their Christian belief in order to provoke critical thinking?

 

[Dak]

On the protective parents thing, there has been somewhat of a mini "backlash" on hyperengaged parenting by newest parents, so hopefully the reaction will correct things to some degree. I remember playing on metal playground equipment where you couldn't use the slide on a hot day unless you only touched it with clothed areas. The little Johnny too stupid to figure out a work around with a Mommy too protective who sues the city or something creates these padded public places and policies. Let em get burned. Give them Fs. There's no growing and learning without pain and failure.

Personal parenting example: One of my kids has a reaction to poison oak, and theres plenty of it in our area. Do I militantly cleanse the yard of it? No. I pointed it out to him, told him that's what caused the rash, and to not touch it. So he avoids it now. OTOH, I do militantly keep the yard cleansed of fire ants - totally different level of danger.

 

[Einherjar86]

You are at a private Christian college. You're telling me you haven't contemplated the idea of "offending" their Christian belief in order to provoke critical thinking?

It's crossed my mind a couple times (and by that I seriously mean twice, on two occasions that I can recall), but I don't alter my syllabus because of it, nor does it factor into my efforts to get them to think critically.

 

[The Butt]

I read an article some chick on my facebook liked about how calling ethnic food "ethnic" is "racist" and "micro aggression". The fuck. This shit is getting out of hand.

 

[rms]

It's crossed my mind a couple times (and by that I seriously mean twice, on two occasions that I can recall), but I don't alter my syllabus because of it, nor does it factor into my efforts to get them to think critically.

What courses do you usually teach anyways?

 

[Einherjar86]

Writing courses and 100-level English courses. Right now I'm teaching a course on science and literature.

 

[Dak]

I read an article some chick on my facebook liked about how calling ethnic food "ethnic" is "racist" and "micro aggression". The fuck. This shit is getting out of hand.

 

[Zephyrus]

I posted that on FB and a number of people actually took it seriously.

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

 

[The Butt]

I posted that on FB and a number of people actually took it seriously.

I don't doubt it. My facebook has a few militant SJW-type characters that would probably take it seriously as well.

 

[Einherjar86]

I really don't want to get into this, but that bitch is dumb (yes, I said bitch, and I called her dumb - misogyny in the flesh).

She's right that you can't lump everyone together who dresses in certain cultural attire. But you can lump everyone together who does it for Halloween because... well, it's fucking Halloween.

The point is specifically that we aren't celebrating cultures in an authentic way. We're (in many cases) buying costumes whose revenue doesn't go to the people of those cultures. We're walking around at night, getting drunk, and behaving like morons for a few hours.

All this is fine with me. I don't give a shit, even about the costume-wearing. But don't fucking try to call it "cultural appreciation."

 

[Dak]

We're (in many cases) buying costumes whose revenue doesn't go to the people of those cultures.

Man I wish I got a cut of every cowboy or barbarian outfit sold, every Dickens book reprint, etc.