Confluence

Again, I am humbled by reading, by the ability to synthesize ideas,
by the shift it causes in my understanding.

     Earlier this week I read and shared with my colleagues the cover story in the NYT Magazine, “Why are more American teenagers than ever suffering from severe anxiety?” It deals with the repercussions of severe anxiety on student absenteeism, social development, and academic performance. It also questions whether the programs we implement to accommodate anxieties might enable their struggle; outlining other programs that explore incrementally pushing students to face their fears. The relationship of constant online immersion as a tool for exacerbating as well as avoiding fears is also discussed, if not implicated.

     Later in the week, this idea of “safe spaces” and “brave spaces,” of “risking some discomfort” to expand one’s opportunities surfaced in an interview with Beverly Daniel Tatum in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Upon the re-issue of her book, “Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?,” she talked about racial self-segregation on campuses and the value of getting past the discomfort of creating, “opportunities for students to engage across differences.”

     Whether it is “diversity silos” on campus or safe havens of 24/7 circumscribed online worlds, the value of a necessary degree of discomfort in our social world seemed to be common in addressing both crippling issues. And it makes sense to me; not so that we develop armor against what is alien, but so that we temper our ignorance with incremental measures of humanity – and the hope that comes with it.