What Is a Safe Space? The Mind of a Student Able to Think Critically.

Zena Hitz, a tutor at St. John’s College (MD), writes:  Last week my students and I found ourselves discussing the laws concerning rape in the book of Deuteronomy.  With debates about safe spaces and trigger warnings all over the media, my spine stiffened when the topic came up.  Would my students noisily and cluelessly unsettle a person with a traumatic past Would students whose anger had been inflamed by campus activists shut down discussion entirely? My worries dissipated as I watched my students struggle, openly and passionately, with questions about the limits of authority and the nature of punishment.