Mike Strobel
Toronto Sun
Sun, 19 Mar 2017 15:22 UTC
© Veronica Henri / Postmedia



http://www.sott.net/article/345688-Our-kids-are-enrolled-at-Mollycoddle-University
Back in my college career, it was considered a good day if you weren't teargassed.

No more. Sure there are still tears, but they are more crocodilian than courageous.

We mollycoddle our kids. Universities are turning them into cogs in the Age of the Victim. Two examples this week, one protecting the poor innocent dears from free speech, the other sparing them the fear of fat.

Oh, the humanities. Let's start with free speech 101.

If you have kids at Western, you may have heard that controversial prof Jordan Peterson is giving a talk there next Saturday.

Luckily, there's a safe haven to retreat to with their ravaged psyches after the awful man speaks.

"Sensitivity trained" volunteers are standing by in the university's Peer Support Centre.

Who knew pronouns could cause such pain? Who knew today's collegians were so easily traumatized?

Peterson is a University of Toronto psychology prof who refuses to refer to students by anything other than good old "he" and "she."

Thus, he contravenes a U of T policy demanding use of gender-neutral pronouns such as "they" or "ze" or "zir" or whatever a student wishes. Technically, I suppose, you can be addressed as "whozzit," if it suits your fancy.

Peterson thinks that's just silly. A lot of people do. But not the U of T or social engineers.

So students reportedly have complained they don't feel "safe" in Peterson's classroom, and activists have had a field day with online outrage.

Apparently, an expensive university is no place for free speech. The young souls in its tender care have enough trouble forging their own ideas — let alone having to listen to others.

Debate can make your head hurt. Free speech is, like, complicated. Hence the trauma.

A speech by Peterson — on "the psychology of creativity," his speciality — at the National Gallery of Canada last week drew 100 protesters. One organizer, a Carleton University student, mewled to the CBC, "Art has always been a safe space for queer people, people of colour and marginalized people in general.

"We don't feel safe coming to the National Gallery of Canada anymore."

I kid you not. Ze actually said that. Well, you know how dangerous an art gallery can be. A Rembrandt might topple off the wall onto your head.

Speaking of Carleton U, it is my alma mater and the source of the past week's second case of college coddling gone crazy.

The university gym has removed its weigh scale to avoid offending folks with body issues such as, dare I say it, fat people. This is no joke.


Comment: Fearing that sensitive students will be triggered, Canadian university removes scale from gym


"Scales are very triggering," a student told the school paper, the Charlatan. Which is true. They might trigger you to ... GET FIT!

The good news is Carleton's more sensible students are pushing back. "Next it will be mirrors," criminology student Riley Main warns on Facebook.

Weighty matters, indeed. We are teaching our kids to be afraid of their own shadow.

What happened to universities as wonderful bubbling stews of ideas, viewpoints, rebellion and fearlessness? Isn't debate the best way to learn?

Are today's schools turning out free thinkers ... or politically correct zombies?

I think it gives more options.

IF the professor was banned, that would be about free speech. Merely having a common place for those who feel attacked or uncomfortable with his speech to convene, peacefully,, is not really a big deal. Unless those paying the tuitions are opposed...

They became a big business subsidized by big government.


Not really.
Repetition that isn't cramming, experience/using information (especially towards unrelated things) is usually "the best way" people learn.

IME "debate" is usually parroting. Regurgitating information isn't a "best way to learn."
Depends on the debate, and the debaters though. Based on people "debating" on the internet, in forums, via public forums, presidential debates, and what I saw in high school and college, "debate" isn't a very good way to learn, just assert yourself or opinion.


They're turning out pieces of paper that are worth less and less than what people are paying for them, IMO.

IMO it seems anymore schools are focusing more and more on anything that will keep students from asking "am I really getting what I'm paying for?"
Or kind of like going to a 5 star restaurant and getting chopped steak for $200, and to keep you from feeling ripped off they give you free ice tea refills and tell you how thin you look.

Great post! We're being mutated by Fukushima radiation, too. And mutated by GMO. And we're under attack by so-called geoengineering, or solar radiation management, or terraforming, among many names given, to conceal genocide.

I'm hoping to hang out with you in Moscow, if you're available.

The site won't let me post a photo, but there must be a way to send you one.

Cheryl

Universities, like everything else are weaponized by banker-controllers, who want to dumb-down Americans and cull the population, in order to privatize and take ownersip of all assets.

Good one!

They don't wanna cull the the population, they just want the zombies to make them money... The more zombies, the more money....

yes, you can post a photo here, but it has to be on the internet, not a personal pic in your comp... Click on the "copy pic location" and paste it I between the brackets [*img] here [*/img], without the asterisks...

so the professor isn't allowed free speech... but the cupcake kids are...

Did I read it wrong? Was the professor prevented from speaking?

why you trying to spin again? The way you worded it sounds like those who spend money have more free speech rights than anyone else...

I simply stated that a college that collects tuition appeases those who pay the tuition

making that college able to provide whatever options to its students that are going to be legal and not cause them to loose too much money/tuition

I don't think the schools would lose money either way, since they don't refund the tuition for free speech violations...

bad word of mouth can cause parents to send their kids elsewhere, losing tuition fees and money


so if they get enough backlash, in foresight of potential loss,, they can choose to act accordingly