Ross: A safe space, fear, and the college classroom
Sep 21, 2018, 7:07 AM
Frank Furedi, who teaches at the University of Kent in England, is an expert on fear. Fear of bullying. Fear of sexual harassment. And lately, a fear of discussion, which has students asking “where’s my safe space.”
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“The implication of that is that everything outside of it is unsafe,” Furedi said. “I don’t blame students. We’ve created that horrible culture that exists on campuses now.”
A culture that has defined a kind of academic gluten intolerance which requires students to protect themselves. But Furedi argues it only makes them more insecure.
“So insecure and so fragile, that the slightest hint of criticism is a threat to their very existence,” he said.
His approach to the safe space movement?
“We just ignore it,” Furedi said. “We think that students are not just passive children, but are capable of intellectual independence.”
And to that end, he is completely upfront on the first day of class at the University of Kent.
“I’m going to give you a hard time,” he said. “This is a high-pressure class.”
For some students, it’s too much.
“Five or six people stand up and leave the class, and they take a different class,” Furedi said.
But then he says, five or six others will sign up on the hunch that it’s better to be ready with an answer, than to run from the question.
Professor Furedi’s latest book is “How Fear Works.”
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