As learners, we can’t allow our embarrassment, our sense of disempowerment, our sense of offense, our sense that we don’t belong, to keep us from participating in the learning enterprise. We can’t make others feel so deeply embarrassed that they can no longer participate as learners. And we can’t insist on a level of purity that makes it impossible for our teachers to teach. Yes, our teachers should do everything they can to welcome us into the community of learning, but we students also have agency, we also hold the learning environment—for ourselves and our fellow students. Learning is not solely the responsibility of the teacher; it is also, and especially in college and other adult learning communities, the responsibility of the student and the students.01
Rabbi Josh Feigelson, “Why the Safe Space Debate is All Wrong”, Ask Big Questions (26 August 2016) [http://askbigquestions.org/blog/201608/why-safe-space-debate-all-wrong]