Minnie’s Musings

More and more I read and hear admired figures from public life (politicians, academics, commentators etc) bemoaning the state of discourse as more and more people declare themselves offended, are offended, cause unintentional offence, cause deliberate offence and so on, and on, and on.

It is a thorny issue; some genuinely held opinions are offensive in general or offensive to particular groups or persons. The degree of offense caused can be profound, trivial or somewhere in between. Context including the offender, offendee, time, place and tone is everything. The taking out of context is naughty.

However, listening to Radio 4 this morning I was struck by an item on freedom of speech on university campuses, the hoohah that happened at Sussex and problematic demonstrations in support of Palestine elsewhere.

What I found interesting that the office for universities or whatever it is called, said an important element was not what was said but how it was said.

This immediately brought to mind a central tenant of teaching: call out the behaviour not the child. In practical terms, if a student chucks a rubber across the room and it hits another student in the eye, you would say at worst, “That was a stupid thing to do.” (though silly is a better way of putting it. What you try to avoid is, “You stupid idiot. Look what you have done. You almost took her eye out.”

Nuance, tone, choice of words; use language and voice effectively.