On Safe Spaces, Challenges and Higher Education

 I attended Carson-Newman College for undergrad, and spent about a year and a half in an education program at the University of Tennessee pursuing a Master's. Carson-Newman was and still remains a quiet little Southern Baptist institution that required all students to attend church services at least once a week to graduate. UT is a bit more...diverse and secular.

When I went to UT, one class I took was a sociology course with a militant feminist black atheist professor. This lady took one look at me from day one and referred to me as an "ignorant country bumpkin" and delighted in finding new ways to mock me and everything I believed. She challenged me repeatedly with every belief I had, and forced me into hefty debates on a number of subjects as we moved forward. At the end of the semester, she even sent me a parting email telling me that she was sorry I felt the course material was "full of crap" and that the students weren't as "enlightened like you with your Jesus-fueled nobility."

I fired back at this professor on numerous occasions and challenged her repeatedly. I will fully admit that was a day and time when I had a bit more piss and vinegar in me than now, but the point is that I respected her for her continued attempts to challenge me and my beliefs. I expected that at some point in my life I'd encounter a professor who made me explain why I thought the Bible was the infallible word of God, or why I felt cultural relativism (and relativism in general) was a flawed worldview. It was-and continues to remain-my understanding that colleges are a place where students can and should learn critical thinking skills.

Fast forward to today, and places like Oberlin College. I see a place here which is not a higher learning institution. Oberlin is a place where students are demanding "trigger warnings" be placed on syllabi. Oberlin creates "safe spaces" for students who can't stand to be exposed to ideas and speakers that may challenge their precious little opinions or hurt their special snowflake feelings. Oberlin's teachers have now even coined a term called "discursive violence."--words that can hurt, damage, or kill others--and it's working its way into the world of academic jargon.

Even law schools aren't safe from this crap. In the wake of the Eric Garner and Michael Brown grand jury decisions, certain law schools like Harvard and GWU began allowing students--after acquiescing to student demands--to defer final exams because they couldn't emotionally process the "injustice of the system" which they planned to devote their lives. Some professors actually rejected these requests for exam deferrals, which led to the students saying things like "you're proving our point that no one cares about us or how we feel."

There are some in academia that are fighting back. Recently a professor at Texas A&M Galveston, Irwin Horowitz, failed an entire class of his "Strategic Management" course, claiming they continually disrespected him and his class, and that none of the students in the course possessed the character or integrity to be an Aggie. Horowitz said that while some students were doing OK in the class, the overall environment was such that he had no choice but to walk away from the entire matter and show the students some "tough love."

Rather than abide by the professor's decision, the head of that department has taken over the class and plans to teach the rest of the semester, claiming that all who meet the "academic standards" will pass the class.

I miss the days of my militant professor who called me an "ignorant, Jesus-loving hick" and her being supported by the academic department. I miss the days of students being challenged to critically think. I miss the days of standards, the days when words mean something, and the days when people were taught to respect the beliefs of others, no matter how "ignorant" they were.

Because we're losing that to a nation of infantilized "adults" who need "safe spaces" to protect them from the big scary world.

Trial Debrief: DCS, Fear, and the Nanny State.

The trial yesterday was one of the most brutal I've ever encountered.  I don't want to go into details, but I will say that in this situation, the collective power of the State of Tennessee, Department of Children's Services and a Guardian ad Litem who had made up her mind and simply didn't give a damn was on full display.  As every argument the State had fell apart, the State put more might into their efforts--even going so far as to phone in witnesses who no longer worked with the Department to call my client a horrible person who wasn't deserving of her rights to see her grandchildren.

Fortunately, the Judge was a fair one.  Shockingly so.  The decision was far more beneficial to the Client than I ever expected, but that's largely due to the fact that I come into appeals situations with DCS involved very pessimistic.

I made a point during closing that I will reiterate here, and I think it's worth repeating.

I'm afraid of what decisions like the one handed down yesterday will do to parents.  I'm afraid of what our society has become when a call to DCS and a call to CPS becomes our first reaction for everything.  That's what they want, you see. The Department's personal representatives said so.  If you're going to be a good grandparent or parent, and you see your child abusing drugs, the first thing you should do is call Child Protective Services and turn your child or grandchild in.  If you attempt to handle it "in the family," or refuse to get the Government involved, then you're a Bad Person, and should be treated accordingly.

Lenore Skenazy puts it very well.  This is what is referred to as "worst-first" thinking.  She wrote it better than I ever could, so I'm going to quote her directly here:

"Worst-first" thinkers don't care about what is likely to happen. All that matters is what a bystander, cop, court, or CPS official imagines could happen.

Accidents can happen in your home, you see.  Your child might face the unfortunate grip of addiction, and you may be forced to deal with it by showing your child some tough love and sending him or her for treatment.  But heaven forbid you refrain from asking the State of Tennessee to intervene, because if you don't you're automatically one of the Worst.  And if the Department should enter your life, either willingly or unwillingly?  You're going to be subject to THEIR parenting decisions, not yours.  You take away your decision-making ability the moment you let someone with a title like CPS or FSW in the door, and then you get to make sure you're not on pain medication, if you are that everything is in the proper bottles, that you're taking the pain meds or anxiety meds stringently to the label on the pill bottle, that you have working fire extinguishers in every corner, child safety gates, and your smoke alarms all have current full batteries with full battery life.

Yesterday was a means for challenging that notion.  We fought because this stringent, ridiculously overprotective level of government intervention isn't necessary or even warranted among functional adults.  The Esteemed One of the Machine Gun Blawgosphere, Scott Greenfield, put it nicely here:

The variation between what is possible in the fertile imagination of fearful hand-wringers and what is so ridiculously far-fetched has closed to such a narrow gap that anything shy of bubble-wrapping kids is tantamount to neglect.  And if you don’t think so, don’t worry. There will be some other person close by to let you know that you’re not doing it right, as they are the authority of how all parents must behave...

...Rather, this is a challenge to the manufactured state of fear that is rammed down our throats daily, that anything that doesn’t reflect the most stringent safety and protection despite the wildest of long-shot harms, is a disaster waiting to happen. Prevent it! Be the hero! Save a child!

He's got it right, you know.  You don't have to live in fear.  You can actually be a decent parent without having the world inject their beliefs down your throat about how you SHOULD parent.  Kids make mistakes.  Accidents happen in your own home and elsewhere.  When the world starts to tell you that you're not doing a proper job, the appropriate reaction is to say "It's none of your business."

But make sure you keep the doors shut when DCS comes calling.  Don't let them in absent a warrant.
And record everything.

And call a lawyer.