“The Coddling of the American Minds” Questions – for 9/4
A trigger warning is a warning about content that may cause an issue to someone. A microaggression is actions or the use of certain words that do not have a bad intent but may come across as harmful. This matters in education because of the amount of students who have been coddled throughout their lives and feel like difficult topics are things that should be kept in the dark and not talked about. The authors talk about the generational differences of how children are raised and how different the younger generations are because of it. They talk about the compromise, especially in politics, becoming more difficult. “What exactly are students learning…. in a community that polices unintentional slights, places warning labels on works of classic literature, and in many other ways conveys the sense that words can be forms of violence that require strict control by campus authorities, who are expected to act as both protectors and prosecutors?” I agree with the authors completely in the sense that my generation and the few years above and below me are very sheltered. We grew up differently with especially different rules and standards and generally have closed minds to people and situations around us. No one in these generations seem strong enough to handle the real world if they cannot openly learn about the horrid things in our world.
Our generation is very sheltered and closed minded. “In a variety of ways, children born after 1980—the Millennials—got a consistent message from adults: life is dangerous, but adults will do everything in their power to protect you from harm, not just from strangers but from one another as well.” Due to situations like this, these children and young adults are not prepared for the real world and stressful situations dealing with these topics.
“The Coddling of the American Mind” shows many examples of Dweck’s idea of a fixed mindset. These new generations are very close minded to the real world things that happen around them, just because they may cause distress. These things do happen and may be more likely to happen to them if they are not well informed. Both articles reference these generations’ childhood and upbringing. Dweck says, “How are we raising our children? Are we raising them for now instead of yet?” and “The Coddling….” explains how “Childhood itself has changed greatly during the past generation.” Both quotes from both suggest how differently the generations are being brought up and how it may be causing more harm than good. While Dweck explains growth vs fixed mindsets, “The Coddling….” does a good job at showing examples of the fixed mindset part of it.
