How to color inside the lines.

I paused to tie my shoe near the baseball diamond in Beeman Park.  I asked the ten year old catcher at home plate,  “Who’s winning?” He gave me a puzzled look, shrugged and answered, “I don’t know, we don’t keep score.”  I shook my head in disbelief, “You’re kidding, aren’t you?  How do you know who won?”  The young catcher shrugged again and explained that his coach had put together two teams of overweight kids in order to promote fitness and encourage them to exercise.  He continued, “See we’re all overweight and we hate sports..”  I thought to myself maybe that’s why you kids are overweight to begin with.  At that moment the coach walked over to ask what the problem was?  I said that I had wondered who was winning and the catcher explained that nobody was keeping score.   I found that peculiar.  The coach became defensive and said, “Sorry lady, we’re just trying to get these couch potatoes to exercise instead of playing video games on their computers and eating Doritos all day.  They're a bunch of knuckleheads”.  Now I was truly perplexed.  “I understand but don’t you think they'd enjoy playing the game more?  It would enhance their experience --  they can feel good about improving their skills at catching, batting and fielding.  The baseball diamond creates a marvelous opportunity to learn that playing baseball requires effort, focus and dedication.  It can boost self-esteem, teach team work and competition -- a life lesson.  The coach shuffled off and shouted, “Okay, batter up!  Let’s play ball!”

When I got home from my walk I noticed an email from a college classmate asking me if I’d heard anything about a trigger warning policy.  I answered why would anybody warn me about the beautiful Palomino that Roy Rogers rode in all those westerns?  She had read an item about Rutgers wanting to alert, or warn, their students about “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  The trigger warning was based on the basis of its content of domestic abuse, suicide and violence. Oberlin College had already published an official document to advise faculty members to be aware that references about sexism, racism, heterosexism, ableism, cissexism and colonialism (among other “isms”) might tend to be disturbing to students.  The professors are being asked to remove all triggering material and issue a warning to students who may want to skip the class.  “Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe has been targeted because it may trigger uncomfortable feelings for readers who have experienced religious persecution, racism, suicide or violence.  Faculty members are setting up informal meetings with administration officials and various deans in an effort to make their displeasure known.  UCSB has begun its own trigger warning policy and Antioch has one in place.   Now the program is spreading rapidly from campus to campus.

There's an undercurrent of belief that the baby boomers are to blame for being helicopter parents to their millennial offspring -- babying them back to the cradle.   Imagine how they might react to courses in world history?   They would want to skip any study of ancient Rome, Greece or Egypt as well as Fascism, Nazism and Communism.  Instead of having to subject themselves to study about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War or either World War they might be able to choose an alternate course of study.  They'd be less offended by a new course in CGI-based special effects.  If I were back in college there are a few classes I'd skip too.  The main point of a college education is to learn critical thinking.  Certainly a liberal arts education  must include active inquiry and thoughtful open discussion of ideas.  Trigger warnings threaten academic freedom, especially the liberal arts model. Should we allow the cherry picking of classes which only make students happy?  Maybe Mayor de Blasio of New York City can offer them a pre-K course they’d enjoy.  Can I borrow the crayons if I promise to stay inside the lines when I color?