My classroom is not a safe space

Usually, it’s a man who says it. He wants conversation to go deeper. He’s hoping for more self-disclosure. With the best of intentions, he wants to move past the mundane. He desires this time to be different. So he says, “Go ahead. Share. This is a safe space.”

Except, no, it isn’t.

I’m not sure where this phrase originated, perhaps it’s from the laudable safe space movement on college campuses that mark, often with an inverted rainbow triangle, that an office occupant is open and accepting of LGBTQ people. I completed the safe space training at my college and proudly display the triangle on my office doorframe. I do hope my office is a positive, open space where students feel welcome to discuss any and all questions of sexuality. But an office is very different from a classroom.