5 Ways Universities Are Treating Adults Like Children

by Lauren Southern

There are some beautiful aspects of childhood- things like reading The Hobbit, playing with Lego or running around outside probably come to mind. These are things some of us still do from time to time, too. We don’t always have to be adults.

For every good aspect of being a kid, however, you’ll inevitably find a bad one. The good ones may be socially questionable to do today, but are in no way harmful to your life if done in moderation. Video games, doodling, making ridiculous and immature jokes with friends- you know, kid stuff.

Conversely, there are the childish things that are harmful and toxic to one’s life, like temper tantrums, ignoring what others have to say, emotional outrage, arguments that make no sense, or being the last one to find out Santa isn’t real. Really, this is the shit that can seriously damage your elementary school image.

Now, imagine what happens when we condition adults back into a similar state of emotional arguments with a dim grasp of what’s real and what’s fantasy. Your typical gamer understands their video game world is a simulation, while your typical college student is still leaving cookies out at night for the gender wage gap.

And as universities become more “progressive” and tumblr-esque, this infantilization of college students will only get worse. I can only imagine the kind of BS I’ll be adding to a revision of this list in the next couple of years.

Here are the top 5 ways Universities are infantilizing students today (and not in the good way!)

1. Safe Spaces

This is a relatively new addition to many Universities; it is essentially a safe room to which students will flee when faced with opinions or situations that “trigger” them. These triggers range from a simple comment they don’t agree with, to being in a room with too many white straight males.

Students are emotionally affected to the point where they can no longer take being exposed to foreign opinions or ideas, and are driven into a state of panic. To coax them out of it, Universities have applied a patch job instead of a cure by treating these students like children. They are simply removing them from the situation rather than having them face it like adults and become more resilient to emotional and illogical responses.

Users of these “hugboxes” are in no way prepared for their future outside of university, where one can’t take a timeout in a business meeting when their ideas are shot down.