What Are You Do Here Edmundson Analysis

Welcome to the University of Sheltering Students, where the cost is high, and the education is low. It is where life is taught through a textbook, but is not actually taught at all. Some universities in the 21st century are being forced to rid the campuses of words, ideas, and subjects that might create tension, discomfort, or offense to the students that pay to learn there. Twenty-first century students are beginning to become a more sheltered society, where an uncovered truth is difficult to come by. University education explains the basics of school; such as the Periodic Table, how to write an essay, and how letters magically appear in math equations. Conversely, it does not even touch upon any subject that could be deemed “controversial”;

including, woman’s rights, rape culture, and religion. However, the world is full of controversy, and the universities are unfortunately conforming to the student’s demands to be sheltered from it. Students prefer to hide from the truth rather than educate themselves and expand their knowledge. A true university or college education to the students could help fix the problems our world faces today, but instead we choose to pretend these problems do not exist. A university education should teach the students about the real world, rather than sheltering them from it.

The Duke Controversy is an example of a university trying to expand the student’s mind, while students remain focused on remaining sheltered from different views of the world. Duke University’s class of 2019 was faced with controversy while given the opportunity to read, Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel. Fun Home is a book that focuses on Bechdel’s parents, and their role in her life. Bechdel writes about the events leading to and resulting in her father's death. Some of the students felt uncomfortable reading the book, due to religious or moral beliefs, and turned to boycotting the book, rather than learning from it. This action was extremely unnecessary. The summer reading, for one, was not mandatory. There would not have been any test, or any grades for reading the book. According to Duke’s Vice President for Public Affairs, Michael Schoenfeld, “The summer reading is entirely voluntary - it is not a requirement, nor is there a grade or record of any student's participation. With a class of 1,750 new students from around the world, it would be impossible to find a single book that did not challenge someone's way of thinking” (Duke11). Reading, Fun Home, was completely up to the student. Fun Home was part of the Common Experience summer reading program. The program allowed the students to find a common book that all (or most) of the freshmen class would engage in. This would allow the first year students to feel more comfortable when it came to their English and literature courses. Furthermore, college is probably the best opportunity in life to experience growth and diversity. College is not for sheltering students from the world, and it is not for verification of the student’s faith either. College is supposed to allow the student to expand their understanding of the world around them, and to teach the student how to survive in the world we live in.

Along with the controversy at Duke University, Mark Edmundson’s article, “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here”, argues what a university education is supposed to teach, rather than what it actually teaches.

The article states, “Education is about finding out what form of work for you is close to being play- work you do so easily that it restores you as you go” (8). Edmundson believes education should help someone find exactly what he or she wants to do with their life. Education should not limit a student of finding who they are or how they can help our world, just because another student feels uncomfortable with the subject. A higher education should be for learning about the world we live in, yet students demand shelter and run from the truth. Edmundson explained in his article, “The idea that the courses you take should be the primary objective of going to college is tacitly considered absurd” (3). In other words: partying, clubs, and friends are found to be more important than classes while at school. Anyone who thinks the courses taken are more important than having a good time are considered out of the ordinary. Edmundson wants to be influenced, taught new things, and “thrown off [his] course and onto another, better way” (6) while reading. Many twenty first century students would find this absurd. Any Twenty First century student who wants to learn the truth will have to fight for edification. They will have to be assertive and aggressive in order to get a true education. If they do not, then they will not get the opportunity to obtain an education that could help not only their future, but the future of others. Learning about the problems our world faces would help students fix the problems, instead of turning heads away from the issues at hand. Lives can be saved if students just listen, learn and

act.

Higher education, according to Lukianoff and Haidt, should stay away from sheltering students and should, instead, show the truth about the real world. In the article, “The Coddling of the American Mind,” by Lukianoff and Haidt, it was stated, “rather than trying to protect students from words and ideas that they will inevitably encounter, colleges should do all they can to equip students to thrive in a world full of words and ideas that they cannot control” (24). Students believe trigger warnings should be used in schools. Trigger warnings are alerts that professors use if a certain subject may cause distress or an emotional response. Students believe the trigger warnings will protect themselves from uncomfortable topics and words. Unfortunately for the students, life itself does not come with trigger warnings. Eventually the students will have to leave school and will enter the real world. If they keep insisting on being sheltered from the truth of the real world, then they will be blindsided when they enter the world on their own for the first time. Since the education they gained from university or college never set them on track for the real world, they have to learn the truth on their own, which could pose even more difficult than it would have been in school. Duke University is trying to show their students the real world through Bechdel’s book, but students prefer to be coddled. The students do not want to learn about anything that would possibly go against their moral or religious beliefs. Universities are caving in to the student’s demands, when they should be standing up for their own expectations. Students are going to learn the truth of the world one way or another. They can either learn about it first in the safe environment of school, or they can be forced into in when they have to see the truth face to face.

Universities are supposed to teach students what life is all about. Life is much more complex than what can fit inside of a textbook. If a textbook can explain some part of life in only a few sentences, then the authors of the book did not explain it correctly. Life cannot be explained in only a few chapters. If university education only sticks to what can be taught in a book without causing controversy, then nothing about the world we live in will truly be taught to the students. The words on the pages will be wasted if the truth cannot be expelled. Sometimes, life can be explicit, and the students need to realize that life itself does not come with any trigger warnings. There are no “watch out” moments in real life. Once a student graduates from a university, they will have to face the world on their own. The students might as well learn how to do that, and what to expect from the world in a safe environment, rather than being forced to dive right in. A university education should be honest and true. The education should entail everything our world encompasses, and should not be held back from one student because of another student’s discomfort. If a student is uncomfortable, then they have the option to sit out, but they should never have the right to take an education away from another student.