Should cursing be acceptable in the classroom?
I’m going to first start out and say that I’m focusing more on the college aspect. I don’t think it’s appropriate for lower level grades such as K-12. In high school, teachers can maybe get away with some things, but it’s much harder to avoid trouble. So let’s just deal with the college setting for this discussion.
If a professor starts teaching and every other word out of his/her mouth is a curse word, there might be some problems. If a professor slips in some profanity every once in a while, then that’s fine; but doing it all the time is just plain unprofessional and annoying.
So what makes them “bad” words? The way I see it, the profane part of curse words comes from the context or the connotation.
If I stub my toe and curse, then it’s my way of expressing pain, anger or any of the other emotions that I’m feeling in that split second. Come on, we ALL know how that feels. Cursing has been statistically proven to raise pain tolerance and give people a sense of power. So why is it such a bad thing?
Cursing is most always exhibiting a negative emotion. It’s usually used for expressing pain or anger at something or someone, and that can be viewed as bad. If you’re always spouting mean words at someone, is that really healthy for your relationship? It’s no fun to be negative all the time.
In a classroom environment, it’s especially important to not be negative. Your classmates should be supportive of you and not bring you down. Cursing may make some students uncomfortable, and that doesn’t belong in the classroom. Everyone should feel at home while learning and not like they’re being attacked.
When asked what she thought on the matter, Dr. Trisha Capansky, Assistant Professor of English, said “I allow cursing in my class. I believe in freedom of speech.”
If a professor or student needs to accentuate a point and uses a bit of profanity, then I consider that acceptable. Just don’t go around spewing the stuff from your mouth in class. Be mindful of the people around you and acknowledge that not everyone feels the same way about profanity as you.
