Colin McKnight
I grew up in private schools. I went to a relatively strict Catholic school for the majority of my elementary years, and moved on to a Baptist academy for middle and high school. As you might’ve guessed, the rules at these schools were set in stone and well-enforced, and profanity was no exception. Multiple students in my middle school were even expelled for excessive use of vulgar language.
So, when I graduated and came here to NC State, the open, obscenity-friendly atmosphere in classrooms surprised me like a slap to the face. I’m not going to pretend like I totally abstained from that kind of rhetoric during high school; I, and all of my friend group, used plenty of profanity ourselves, but that was always behind closed doors or carefully planned out of earshot.
In fact, the surprise from hearing one my first professors drop the occasional S-bomb or F-bomb without a care in the world proved somewhat distracting in a way, while simultaneously changing my perspective on college. It was a weird time to make the revelation: I now lived in a new city, with new friends, and I studied in a new type of learning environment, but hearing my professor use a relatively tame swear word finally made me wake up and realize that college was truly a new chapter in my life.
But just because some new students may receive a shock doesn’t mean profanity in the classroom is a bad thing; in fact, it has its merits, and they far outweigh the negatives. It creates a kind of atmosphere that can’t be created through other means, and instills a feeling of openness, honesty and humanity.
As long the words used are not derogatory and are used in the proper setting, students and professors should not fear this language. In fact, it can serve as a conduit for exhibiting a more earnest type of emotion.
Neuroscientist Emma Byrne told National Geographic about her strong belief in the idea that profane language is a good thing for humans, as it can help with things like pain tolerance and establishing trust with friends. She also discussed Washoe, a chimpanzee, and her children, who learned on their own to use words not originally taught as profane to express emotion and passion like we commonly do with expletives.
Additionally, there’s another, far simpler reason why foul language actually fits the classroom well: it’s fun. That may seem primitive, but the cold, hard truth is that college classes, in many cases, are some of the dullest, driest, most sleep-inducing environments on the face of the planet, and that isn’t a good thing if the instructor wants interest and engagement.
That’s why a bit of vulgar language is a viable option for this situation. Not the only one, to be sure; teachers should still be interesting and effective lecturers with or without profanity, but it can be used as a tool. It adds a spark of interest to the setting, and invigorates discussion in class.
A study in Social Psychological and Personality Science found a strong correlation between the usage of profanity and honesty, and less correlation between profanity and dishonesty. “Bad words” are some of the most impactful expressions in almost all languages: they carry a connotation that no other type of rhetoric has, and they have the ability to both demonstrate passion and to help establish a more casual setting.
Some would call it disruptive, but in reality it just helps keeps the atmosphere conversational; if I wanted to be taught by a robot, I could’ve just taken the class online. I don’t pay thousands of dollars every semester and go to class at awfully early or late times just to listen to a lecturer who sounds like they really don’t want to be there. It’s not like a couple spontaneous vulgarities would fix that problem, but it might add that previously mentioned sense of honesty and conversationality to the atmosphere.
Now, I’m still not going to start advocating for students and professors to drop F-bombs every other sentence. In the professional world, it sends a bad signal to potential employers and co-workers that you don’t know how to control what you say. But in the lecture hall, where an instructor can speak for hours on end, using bluntly honest rhetoric to liven up the environment may be one of the best tools they have.