Absurd. You could carry a language textbook in the carry-on baggage and use that. All these arguments depend on the (false) premise that one is helpless to do anything else in these circumstances, and that the inability to do this one particular thing on the flight is going to wreck your life. It's self-serving bullshit.

I don't care much for the TSA, but the fact is that an organization like that is always going to prioritize collective safety over the convenience of the individual. Thus, if you're a chemistry student, your might want to consider studying something other than explosive reactions on your next flight. If you're an engineering student you might want to consider studying something other than structural deficiencies in airframe design during your next flight. If you're a psychology student, you might want to consider studying something other than Stockholm syndrome and the interpersonal dynamics of hostage situations during your next flight.

The sad fact is that some people are inclined to jump to the worst possible conclusion and if the security screeners don't pick up on it, an overly imaginative/paranoid fellow passenger may do so and alert cabin staff to their suspicions, however ill-founded. People who are going to be crammed into a plane for hours on end, many of whom are nervous about flying to begin with, are simply not at their best, and if you're going to be sitting in close quarters with a bunch of strangers then maybe you should ask yourself 'would this weird people out?' in the interest of minimizing the potential hassle to yourself.

Case in point: I have a large reinforced equipment case that I often use on film shoots. It has huge bright yellow-and-block 'nuclear radiation' symbols on the main side panels. It's small enough to carry, large enough to carry my most important gear, and the striking graphics mean that a) it never gets lost/forgotten/mixed up with anything else when equipment is being moved around or loaded into trucks and b) anyone who doesn't know what it is leaves it the fuck alone, so I don't have to have eyes on it every second on the day on a busy film set where I have many other things to do. I've had it for years, I can pack and unpack it in the dark, and it's paid for itself many times over. I would go so far as to say it's part of my 'personal brand' - people remember from different jobs when they see the suitcase, it's a funny little icebreaker when I work with people the first time and so on.

Do I use it to transport my gear when I have to fly somewhere? No, because I'm not an idiot. When I need to fly I repack my stuff into a boring and rather inferior black ABS Pelican case, because a bright yellow box with radioactivity symbols on it is liable to give people the wrong impression. I'm OK with taking it on a train or something - I've had police officers ask me about it a few times but I'm always happy to open it and explain what is is, and it's never separated from me the way checked airline baggage is, so there's little potential for confusion. Under the first amendment I certainly have a right to use the sort of luggage I wan, and I know that there's no nefarious purpose or intent to disturb anyone when I carry the thing around. But I also realize that there's a potential for people to get the wrong impression if they encounter it in a different context, and that having people form the wrong impression in an airport would result in significant inconvenience, not least to myself. Accommodating the slightly irrational anxieties of people by leaving my 'radioactive' gear case at home is such a trivially small (and voluntary) abridgement of my rights to self-expression as to not matter. Life is too short for me to waste it sitting around trying to win arguments with security guards over my right to engage in attention-seeking display.