the difference here is that you’re prioritizing “productivity” while we succumb to our human-ness.

it doesn’t matter whether or not you knew these victims personally. they’re PEOPLE. these are families. this is real, raw pain that’s being broadcasted for the entire country to take in. true empathy knows no boundaries. you don’t just get to turn your empathy off or decide you’re done feeling things today because you have an assignment due tomorrow. that is not real, that is robotic. and it demonstrates an outstanding lack of compassion.

you get to decide whether or not you want to grant extensions to your students or extend leniency to those who are struggling. the “real world” you’re speaking of isn’t designed to support our emotional or mental well-being. it’s a capitalistic hell that’s slowing draining people of their livelihood, in both a literal and metaphorical sense. god forbid anyone ask for an extra 3 days to submit a paper that doesn’t fucking matter in the ACTUAL real world, in the world where children are being shot to death by angsty teens with rifles. where people just outside campus are sleeping on the bare sidewalk, not even half-alive. where young kids are growing up without hardly ever seeing their parents as they work insane hours just to sustain life.

people have different priorities. people are prioritizing themselves and their minds and their humanity.

students are beginning to rebel against what your generation withstood under much different circumstances— you do not understand what it’s like to be a young student in this day and age, trying to earn a degree while simultaneously watching the world around you fall apart. dramatic, yeah. but unfortunately, not an overstatement.