Marena Beale
Professor Shelley
English Composition 110
September 29, 2023
Comfortably Uncomfortable
Students need a healthy balance of stress to strive not only in college, but in life. There is a way to turn your anxiety about assignments and commitments into motivation and energy. When students are in a stressful situation, they are triggered to use their critical thinking and problem solving skills to find a way out of it, which prepares them for their future endeavors. It prepares them by giving them the proper tools to problem solve, which will prevent feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. The article “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt is a prime example of why we should not shelter students from feeling uncomfortable. In the Ted Talk, “How to Make Stress Your Friend” by Kelly McGonigal, she discusses in an ideal way how to make stress a positive experience, not a negative one. Everyone will experience discomfort in their lives no matter what path they are on. By being slightly unsettled in school, you are preparing yourself to be pushed out of your comfort zone.
In the article, “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, they discuss how college students are being sheltered from thinking freely and feeling discomfort. In the very beginning of the reading, they say, “A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense” (Lukianoff, Haidt). This is the case for all colleges and students, but larger schools are falling into this trend. Creativity and fresh ideas make us unique and diverse, and if our education system continues to strip these traits from our students, only negative things will come. Our future leaders need to be able to adapt, problem solve, generate solutions, and more. Colleges and even schools leading up to said further education need to be encouraging this positive behavior, not stripping me and my fellow students of it. Students need to be able to form their own opinions in order to thrive.
According to Lukianoff and Haidt, “This new climate is slowly being institutionalized, and is affecting what can be said in the classroom, even as a basis for discussion” (Lukianoff, Haidt). If this so-called “new climate” continues to spread, students now and the ones in the future will struggle when entering the workforce and so on.
Some people enter their field of work right away instead of attending higher education. You could argue these individuals are given an advantage due to them not being sheltered from what college students have yet to experience. They are able to join the workforce right after high school and learn first hand how to deal with stress and uncomfortability, which college students lack.
Another thing Lukianoff and Haidt mention is the idea of fixed mindsets and “trigger warnings”. Trigger warnings are certainly important, you never want to make an individual uncomfortable in that sense, but fixed mindsets are being promoted in most, if not all schools, from elementary school all the way up to universities. Fixed mindsets cause students to believe there is no room for growth. They are born being a bad student or not being good at a certain sport. School systems decide not to push kids out of their comfort zone and allow them to stay in their fixed mindsets. Education systems believe they are helping by teaching kids about fixed and growth mindsets, but are not doing anything to actually combat them. They bring attention to the problem, not the solution.
In Kelly McGonigal’s Ted Talk, “How to Make Stress Your Friend”, she discusses how for years she told everyone stress was bad, when in reality, stress can be beneficial. While watching the Ted Talk, she said something that proves the point of how necessary stress is. She said, “When life is difficult, your stress response wants you to be surrounded by people who care about you” (McGonigal). Being stressed and overwhelmed helps teach not only students, but everyone, how to lean on others and not be afraid to ask for help. That goes for all people when going through a tougher moment in their life. “When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress.” (McGonigal). Schools need to teach students healthy ways to cope with stress, not how to avoid it entirely. The title of the Ted Talk sheds a light on something we should teach everyone. By making stress our friend and learning how to use it to motivate us, we can exist in a much better, more productive way.
Overall, school systems need to teach students how to cope with stress, not prevent it. Now that attention has been brought to the issue, we can begin to stop adults from telling children how to think, feel, speak, and more. Stress can be used to motivate us and help us grow, which is what students need and deserve to be taught. Not only will students learn from stress, but they will also adapt when pushed out of their comfort zone. By helping them exit their fixed mindsets and teaching them to have growth ones, we can help them become better people. They will be smarter, braver, more creative, and outspoken. The students in these schools are our future, and the last thing we want are people who are too nervous to speak up about what’s wrong because we made them think it is not okay. We need them to fix problems within our society, and not be afraid to challenge the status quo. By teaching people to be okay with stress and growth, we are preparing them to be amazing future leaders.
Work Cited
Barrios, Barclay, editor. Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers. 5th ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2022. Lukianoff, Greg. Haidt, Jonathan. “The Coddling of the American Mind.” Barrios, pp. 230-242
McGonigal, Kelly. “How to Make Stress Your Friend.” TED, June 2013, https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend
