Beyond the Infantilization of Higher Education: Preparing students to live in an (un)safe society

Abstract

Summary The article deals with the problem of the infantilization of students, which takes place at universities. The starting point is the thesis that contemporary education at higher levels does not prepare students for the development of critical thinking and does not provide the skills to deal with problematic situations typical of global society. Instead, it approves and implements mechanisms leading to the infantilization of adults, such as: censorship, caution, language medicalization and microaggression. In the text I analyze these dangerous phenomena and indicate the consequences that they bring, not only for the development of the institution itself, but also its autonomy, and above all the students academic growth.