I remember having hot chocolate and cookies brought into the barracks during finals week, but that's about it. I certainly don't remember
anything like this at West Point, thankfully:
A prestigious military school is providing coloring books for cadets to deal with stress.
The Virginia Military Institute, the first state-sponsored military
college in the country founded in 1839, offers a “stress busters”
program to provide students with yoga classes to “unwind and relax"...
“Stress Busters is held on Reading Day of each semester,” the school
said. “This is an opportunity for cadets to unwind and relax before
studying for finals. This event often includes stress reduction
activities such as yoga, therapy dogs, coloring book stations, card/game
stations, and grab-and-go snacks to take with you on your way to
study!”
At least one person gets it:
“VMI once took America’s youth and prepared them for duty and the harsh realities of war,” a VMI alumnus and veteran told the Washington Free Beacon. “Now, for $20k a year, VMI will turn your teenagers back into children.”
No offense, but I was bored with coloring books by the time I was seven. I never bought my own kids coloring books because using paper and crayons to make their own drawings was a better use of time and far more productive than having them buy into someone else's imagery. I don't understand the whole adult coloring book thing. Someone gave me one, thinking that as an art teacher I would love it. I don't. Give me a new brush, a gift card for paint or a couple of canvases. Would you give Garth Brooks or Lady Gaga someone else's song and make them play just that?
ReplyDeleteMy 21 year old is getting come "adult" coloring books for Christmas, but they are for adults, not "sissy boys". Good lord!
ReplyDeleteThey do stuff like this at my university, too.
ReplyDeleteI think back to when I was a student, some 25 years ago. If we needed "stress relief," we were expected to find it ourselves. I wonder if in lawsuit-happy America (where a university could be sued for a student drinking too much, or doing a reckless stunt on campus, etc.), if there isn't some subtle push back to "in loco parentis."
On the one hand, I would have felt very patronized as a student. On the other, seeing the "hot chocolate evenings" or the "breakfast at midnight" or the "make a craft times," I feel "wow, my undergraduate school really didn't care that much whether I sank or swam." I suppose that's how it should be, but....
I was also annoyed one semester when they did a "breakfast at midnight" thing here and were RECRUITING FACULTY to come in (for free) and serve the students. AT MIDNIGHT. DURING EXAM WEEK. Uh, we're writing and grading exams, we might need our sleep too?