When the discussion about language on the Sphere came up some years ago, we had an appalling number of posts from now-seemingly-reformed members who did not use profanity creatively, but simply as gross insults. And though I am not above using the F-word and others when it seems appropriate, I remember that it was a real pain to get though certain threads where argument was replaced by insulting barrages of exceptionally gross prose.
There were member complaints--I was a mod then--and they were not from squeamish little old ladies. The Spheriod image of a serious, quality workshop was being dragged down by a constant overuse of mainly sexual explicatives, most based on parts of female anatomy, as the ultimate insult.
One didn't have to be a dyed-in-the-wool feminist or sensitive pastor to be embarrassed that one's poems appeared on what sometimes seemed to be the city cesspool rather than a site where some of the finest contemporary formalist poets posted work and opinions.
Added to that embarrassment were the overriding rules of the Internet. Alex can explain that better than I can but it has to do with a 13-year age limit or labelling the site as adult, or the internet being a public forum, or some such.
If members who shall be nameless had exercised more self-restraint for the good of the community, the cautionary message might never have become part of the by-laws.
That said, there is a difference I think, between a public site where children surf as soon as they can read, and an educational institution where the students are aged, say, 18 and upward.
Young adults seeking an education should not be partitioned from the real world. This silly idea seems to come from helicopter parenting, which posits that the child should never be subjected to the hurtful, the unexpected or whatever deviates from the parental ideas of good or holy.
The earth is not flat. Evolution is a fact and so is climate change. Same sex marriage can be as good as or as bad as man-woman marriage. That Huck Finn used the N-word is a reminder of how things used to be (or still are?) and it shouldn't be swept under the mat.
The Crusaders did the then-equivalent of Twin Towers for two centuries and there was nothing holy about it either. Atheism is a belief system as much as any religion is and shop girls in Victorian England became prostitutes in much the same way as the young women from the former East Bloc or Thailand are caught in sex trafficking today.
I see this idea of warning labels in education (and I am not alone) as a first step to censorship and away from critical thinking.
One would hope that education raises the intellectual level of the student, that he or she is more perceptive and critical after a completed college education than before.
Edward Said is one of my heroes.
Quote:
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According to Said, an intellectual's mission in life is to advance human freedom and knowledge. This mission often means standing outside of society and its institutions and actively disturbing the status quo. At the same time, Said's intellectual is a part of society and should address his concerns to as wide a public as possible. Thus Said's intellectual is constantly balancing the private and the public. His or her private, personal commitment to an ideal provides necessary force. Yet, the ideal must have relevance for society.
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http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/lightman.html
One hopes that the main purpose of education is to foster an intellectual climate. Unless the poor child is enrolled in the "Flat Earth Liberty and Rapture University of the Blessed Saints of the Last Days" or a Koran school somewhere in the desert or fill-in-the-blanks.
There is way too much fundamentalism in the world as it is. Do not put horse blinders on the rest of the educational system.
If you haven't already read Said's writings on the role of the intellectual, now is the time to start.
http://cicac.tru.ca/readings/edward_said.pdf