OH, THAT DEATH OF THE GROWNUP: Legos, Cocoa, and Coloring Books for Georgetown Students. At the McCourt School of Public Policy, officials are offering ‘mindfulness’ options to cope with the election. The only thing missing is a blankie.
On Wednesday, the day after the election, most of us are going to roll out of bed, have our breakfast, and get on with our day—no matter which presidential candidate wins. But students at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy—where diplomats and policymakers are molded—have another option: They can play with Legos. Seriously.
In an email to McCourt students, Jaclyn Clevenger, the school’s director of student engagement, introduced the school’s post-election “Self-Care Suite.”
“In recognition of these stressful times,” she wrote, “all McCourt community members are welcome to gather. . . in the 3rd floor Commons to take a much needed break, joining us for mindfulness activities and snacks throughout the day.”
Here’s the agenda (and no, you can’t make this up):10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Tea, Cocoa, and Self-Care
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Legos Station
12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Healthy Treats and Healthy Habits
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: Coloring and Mindfulness Exercises
2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: Milk and Cookies
4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: Legos and Coloring
5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: Snacks and Self-Guided Meditation
I wanted to ask Clevenger why college and graduate students needed milk and cookies to recover from their stress—and how being coddled in college might someday affect American diplomacy—but she didn’t respond to my calls or emails.
More from the New York Post, in an article that’s likely not paywalled: Georgetown U. provides ‘self-care suites’ for coddled students stressed about Election Day — complete with milk and cookies and coloring books.
The coddling is akin to a move by the posh woke New York City private Ethical Culture Fieldston School that surfaced last week.
Fieldston is allowing any of its students who become “emotionally distressed” over the election to skip school Wednesday — an offer immediately ridiculed by one of its famous former parents, comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
“What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people?” he told the New York Times incredulously. “To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”
In November of 2020, Heather Mac Donald asked: Will America Succumb to Safetyism?
Wide swatches of Blue State America certainly have.
UPDATE: Joanne Jacobs on Teaching Fragility:
Ithaca College’s programming includes meditation, painting, cocoa and counseling.
The University of Oregon offers dogs, goats and Quacktavious the Therapy Duck.
Caitlin Flanagan tweets:
The morning after Pearl Harbor, my father joined every other man at Amherst College and walked into town to enlist. I once asked him what he’d done next. He looked at me in mild confusion: “I went to class”
It was the same with my father, who was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Nebraska, except he was in ROTC, which was mandatory for male students, so he didn’t have to enlist. He was going to war, but not yet. So he went to class.
The generations before safetyism were made of infinitely sterner stuff.
(Classical reference in headline.)