Students stressed by the election results can skip classes tomorrow at their elite New York City private school, reports Christopher Maag in the New York Times. The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, which costs $65,640 in tuition per year, also will provide psychologists during the week.
Some parents appreciated the support, while others did not, writes Maag.
Comedian Jerry Seinfield said he transferred his younger son out of Fieldston because it coddled students. “What kind of lives have these people led that makes them think that this is the right way to handle young people? To encourage them to buckle. This is the lesson they are providing, for ungodly sums of money.”
I wonder what happens if Kamala Harris wins? Everyone cuts school for a victory parade?
It's not just the kiddies who are expected to fall apart if they don't like the election results.
Robert Pondiscio tweets:
A colleague just shared an email from a major university's public policy school, which is planning a "self-care suite" for students the day after the election featuring Legos, coloring, and milk & cookies. . . . It's disturbing to treat adults like fragile children.
Colleges are offering "mental health and emotional well-being" programs to election-stressed students, reports Graham Vyse in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Michigan's Kalamazoo College "is offering special 'election support sessions' this week — one-time, one-on-one meetings in which students can process their feelings with her or another counselor on staff," he writes.
University of Virginia students can "drop in for individual support sessions on the Wednesday and Thursday after Election Day" or visit an art room to make an art project, Vyse writes.
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.