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Samantha Danis
Jessica Morton
UWRT 1103-066
March 16, 2016

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I read two articles for Commonplace Book Entry #5, The Coddling of
the American Mind and Generation Wuss. The idea that the Millennial
generation (born between 1980-2000) has become overly sensitive, requiring
trigger warnings on assigned literature in schools that may provoke
unwanted feelings, is something that I can agree with. Also, for a generation
that supposedly doesnt trust our government and is extremely
individualized we fight to have laws put in place to protect our feelings.
Some believe that Millennials parents are to blame for a lack of proper
conflict resolution skills, and they may be partly to blame but Millennials are
the ones that are ultimately at fault.

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I learned about trigger warnings from The Coddling of the American

Mind, and I find them unnecessary. The article states that oversensitivity is
becoming a problem because it is taking away from the educational system.
I think that being required to put a disclaimer on a novel explaining what
situations are in it that may provoke feelings is ridiculous. The point of the
books that are read in school is to provoke feelings and to help understand
real life situations. Most of the novels that are assigned in schools are based
on history, which isnt always a happy subject and provokes very deep
emotions and even pain. That is what they are intended to do. In school
student analyze these books and look at the roots of where these situations
come from and why the characters do what they do. This is a large part of
learning to sympathize and understand multiple sides of a situation. Many
books are full of metaphors that are vital to understanding the novel and
characters fully, and unpacking those in a classroom and understanding
those metaphors can give the book a whole new meaning. I think that taking
classic books out of the curriculum in schools because they are provoking
unwanted feelings from students will end up being harmful to their
development of problem solving and conflict resolution.
A lot of Millennials do not trust the government and do not like that
they can look into our e-mails and track their cell phone locations whenever
they want, believing that they are invading their privacy without cause, yet
they want the government to make laws that censor people from sharing
their opinions because it may hurt someones feelings. This just seems very

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backwards to me. Millennials feel the government is too controlling and

overbearing, yet they want the government to, basically, take away their
freedom of speech and press. I believe that if someone says something that
is directly hurtful to someone, then those two people need to solve that
problem between themselves. Now if two people have different views on
politics or religion, they are both free to share their opinions because that is
what this country is about. Nobody should be censored so that they are not
allowed to share their religious beliefs because it may offend someone who
doesnt share the same views. That would actually be taking away freedom
of speech as well as freedom of religion. One reason why so many come to
this country is to escape prosecution, but then to have their right to share
their thoughts about religion stifled because they may offend someone is
wrong. I enjoy hearing why other people believe what they do and inquiring
into the foundations of other religions. I am always curious about it because I
am taught about my own religion and not others, but I have always had a
thirst for knowledge. Censoring what we can say and write for fear that it
may offend someone would be offending our founding fathers and their hard
work that built this country and granted us the freedoms we are allowed to
practice today.
The point that is often brought up that the oversensitivity of the
Millennial generation is caused by helicopter parenting. Helicopter
parenting means the parents shield the children from any conflict or any
upsetting situations. If their children get upset, the parents do everything

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they can to fix it, rather than letting their children be upset and learn how to
deal with it on their own. I think that helicopter parents play a part in why
Millennials may be oversensitive when they are adolescents, however when
they become young adults they should learn that their parents cannot handle
conflict for them and need to resolve it for themselves. Millennials seem to
be lacking in their development of conflict resolution as they get older, but I
cannot think of an explanation. Im sure they realize that their parents
cannot handle conflict for them at work, but I dont understand why they
would, for example, file a complaint against a co-worker instead of just
confronting them and trying to solve something that could be a simple
misunderstanding instead of costing someone their job.