Safe spaces are a hot topic on college campuses, but I don't see the need for them and neither does a professor of mine. In class one day, he recounted a discussion with a professor from another university about safe spaces. The other professor commented that if universities set aside safe spaces they should also establish "courage spaces" - areas where students are unafraid (or can overcome their fear) of new and different opinions or mean words. That professor was kidding to some extent, but his comment is good food for thought.

I don't think we need designated courage spaces. You enter a courage space every time you leave home and come in contact with other people. In a perfect world, everyone would follow the old adage, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all," but not everyone's mother taught them that one. Someone else's idea of a perfect world might be one where everyone says what's on their mind and no one gets their feelings hurt. In reality, though, a lot of people out there just do not have a filter nor tact - they will say things you don't want to hear. But, you don't have to run away when that happens. Maybe their words will teach you something about them, and your reaction may teach you something about yourself.

By going out of your way to avoid negativity or people who look and think differently than yourself, you give in to the "snowflake" mentality. You end up believing that your uniqueness is more important than anyone else's and that you deserve special treatment because of it. At the same time, those people who say rude or offensive things with no regard for the possible consequences may be of the same mindset. The way I see it, there are too many people in the world to befriend them all or for everyone to be special, but that doesn't mean you're not special to someone. The opinions of that someone - be it a friend, family member, or significant other - should be more important to you than those of a complete stranger you might never see again. Still, if someone's dissenting opinion could get you to consider things in a new light, they deserve to be heard.

Putting this back in an educational context, you're gonna learn some bad things about the world - things you may not have paid attention to in high school. If you take an American History course, you won't avoid hearing about the horror of slavery and its legacy, nor will you avoid that topic in a class on the works of Mark Twain. In a class about twentieth century Berlin, you'll eventually get to the part about Hitler and the Nazis. I'm a little biased towards the arts and humanities, but my point is that the curriculum won't be tailor-made to suit your personal preferences and sensitivities.

All this being said, I don't completely discount the desire for refuge when times get tough or when people wear you down. That's the reason you go home at the end of a long day (besides eating and sleeping, of course). You get a short break from the world until you have to go out and face it all over again. If you have the courage to do that day in and day out, you'll be just fine