But do you notice how columnists who write about these problems cite one or two examples and assume it's happening all over? I don't think it is; I certainly don't see much of that where I am.
I think there's a lot of faulty/overzealous journalism about higher ed...
A recent
poll found that 63% of 800 surveyed nationwide college students favor the use of trigger warnings. This finding implies that the problem is widespread.
And honestly, there are too many reports for me to think that the safe-space and speech restriction stories are isolated incidents. Brown, Yale, Amherst, Claremont-McKenna, the Uni. of Louisville, Colorado College, Rutgers, Brandeis...the list goes on. For an example, look at
this list of disinvited speakers since the year 2000, and note how it's grown since 2009.
I understand that we can't blame parents for everything that their kids do, but that doesn't mean that helicopter parenting doesn't do damage. In my opinion, one way it can do damage is by creating thin-skinned students who shout down or disinvite speakers like Ayaan Ali Hirsi or Geraldo Rivera because they disagree with them.
I also understand that individual parents aren't acting in vacuum, and that our society's overly risk-averse posturing also creates thin-skinned young adults.
A striking example of both the parents and the society doing damage together is that many elementary school kids aren't allowed to walk home from school alone or with friends these days, because so many people are afraid they'll be kidnapped or abused (yet crime statistics show that the US is a
much safer place than it was when Gen Xers like me were running around town on our own as kids). The same is true for people not letting their kids play outside unsupervised, and people calling the police because they see kids walking alone. All of these things send kids a message, which is that the world is too dangerous for them (I met a 3-year-old once who told me that if she went into the hallway of the mall alone, someone would kidnap her and kill her). Given the circumstances of their upbringings, it's hardly surprising that a lot of newly-minted adults fear the world and want to run from people or ideas that aren't like them. Some of them must be both terrified and lacking in skills for coping.
