Boston College philosophy professor Kerry Cronin is known as the “dating professor.” (Boston College/ YoutTube)
A Boston College philosophy professor—known as the “dating professor”—offers extra credit to her students who (while sober) ask someone out on a date, go out on that said date and have no physical contact.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that Professor Kerry Cronin said she came up with the idea to combat hookup culture that has gotten popular on campuses due--in part-- to our “hypersexualized” culture. She also said that she learned that many of her seniors had never been on a date.
Perhaps campus life lends itself to fewer meaningful relationships.
Cronin points out that most students may not want to commit. The article points out that the median age men and women get married in the U.S. are 29.5 and 27.4, respectively. Many students, she said, focus on career goals.
She said our culture focuses on sex, not necessarily the “foibles and the hard work and the joys and the despair of just casual dating.”
The rules of the assignment include asking the person out in person. Here’s a key part: the recipient has to know it’s a date. Cronin tells her students not to worry about rejection, just move on. She said that leads to “thicker skin.”
“This is mostly not about meeting your soul mate; it’s mostly about social courage and challenging yourself to be a little countercultural, to do something you know you want to do,” she told the paper. “And to just be okay with being a little awkward, a little vulnerable and asking a little bit of yourself.”
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