Do people really read Coddling of the American Mind as a defense of free speech principles? It explicitly takes the speech of students and turns it into a psychological disorder. Hard to imagine a less friendly stance to free speech/inquiry.
Making a book length case that students shouldn’t be listened to because they’re gripped by a psychological disorder because the students disagree with the professors at elite universities does speak to someone being coddled, but it ain’t college students.
It is unsurprising that elite academics and public writer types think Coddling is a good diagnosis. It flatters those groups and puts their opinions (and feelings) above other groups. We can’t have students yelling at professors, don’t you know.
Rather than pathologizing students, faculty should have engaged with them. It’s what teachers do all the time. Of course lots of elite faculty conflate teaching with people sitting and listening to their opinions.
Yeah, I’m salty about this, but almost every day I see something saying how perceptive that dumb book is. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
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