by Robert

Ever heard the expression “There’s an elephant in the room”? It’s a phrase that generally refers to something major and quite obvious going on, which everyone in the room knows about, yet no one is willing to talk about – as if an actual elephant marched its big badunkus into your living room but no one mentioned it.

According to The New York Times, Students taking the “Wearable Technologies” course at Sycamore University somewhat recently found themselves faced with that elephant, both figuratively AND (kinda) literally.

After having been challenged with an assignment requiring them to create objects which interact with one another, the class was in the process of critiquing each others’ projects – one of which was dismissed by a student who claimed “That’s so gay.”

At this point, students began to debate whether or not the phrase was offensive [which, by the way, it is] and they went back and forth for a few minutes before, finally, the professor steered everyone back to the topic and task at hand. Somewhat. Clearly, there were people in the room who felt awkward and/or had hurt feelings, but class went on, and other student projects were introduced and critiqued, even though the room’s vibe had totally changed…

The incident sparked something in two Industrial Design majors, who’d already begun thinking about creating some sort of interactive toy for their project; initially having thought of making stuffed tigers whose eyes would light up when a child touched their paws together, they now began to consider doing something with elephants, seeing as how the “that’s so gay” elephant had already been released into the room, and was now sitting up at the front flipping through worn, dog-eared back issues of Vanity Fair…

The two students, Lily Chong and Matt Kalish, both 21-year-old Juniors, now focused on creating stuffed elephants which would/could communicate via wire chips stored inside them: each person in the room would be given one, and whenever a subject was introduced which made someone uncomfortable and/or upset, one person would simply need to squeeze their elephant for 3 seconds and ALL the elephants’ eyes would light up, letting each and every person in the room know that something was up and needed to be discussed. There’s also the underlying idea that the offended party would be able to remain anonymous this way…

OK. When do I get to toss out my BS card? While the idea is great and could possibly work for a number of different situations (meetings where that one particular person always takes too long to get to the point, or where one other person always dances all around the point but never quite steps on the actual point? Yeah, those situations), and it’s an idea that could be an effective tool for pointing out when people have stepped over the line, most of us are equipped with one of those already: it’s called a mouth.

If you’re in a group and someone says something that either directly or indirectly offends you, say something.

Yes, you could squeeze your elephant for three seconds to get it and all the other elephants to give off that special “We need to talk” glow, but guess what: There’s still an elephant among you. You’re still gonna have to talk!

Chances are, somebody’s gonna be looking around to see if they can catch anybody gettin’ squeezy, and even more, if you’re the one that squeezes the elephant, you’re going to be the one who has to address what it is/was that caused you to do so.

It’s nice and cool to have things that can break the ice for us and let it be known that “something’s afoot that needs to be kicked”, but until those items can convey our truest, deepest feelings, we’re the ones that are gonna have to speak for ourselves. I only hope that Syracuse University begins offering a self-esteem course (with talking-in-groups on the curriculum). “Stand Up for Yourself 101” would likely be well-received. These students will also, quite likely, need training marketing and distribution, so it seems that the best idea is to keep on with the education. As long as we keep educating and improving ourselves, I guess we’ll be OK.