Heres a great post that was just printed in Princeton’s newspaper from a student in support of trigger warnings
entitled “Trigger warnings: actually a way to open discussion to all”
“Yet such warnings do not hinder debate or aid students to “retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own,” as the Dean claimed. Trigger warnings actually accomplish just the opposite — they allow more students to actively engage with the material of a course.”
“But a heads-up can help students engage with uncomfortable and challenging topics when it is pertinent, both in real life and especially in a classroom where a student cannot otherwise escape or disengage. Sensitivity to others is not coddling.”
"Ironically, the same people who led the charge to have content warnings for TV shows and movies are now arguing that similar warnings in classrooms are coddling over-protected millennials. "
“Trigger warnings helps someone like my friend without any detriment to others. Where is the harm in that?”
I’d be curious to know if anyone has found any student written articles on campuses objecting to trigger warnings, because I can’t seem to find any…?
I am not familiar with the situation. But there are a lot of argument in favor of the treatment @runswimyoga’s son received in this thread. That free speech needs to be protected, that students need to be exposed to ideas that make them uncomfortable, or that they need to learn how to deal with this type of stuff in the real world.
@warbrain my response which you quoted above was addressing this:
If you can make any argument in favor of this I am not sure what to say to you. In my own mind it is bullying and unacceptable. Not to mention most likely in violation of the school’s student conduct code.
I thought warbrain was pointing out why we may need trigger warnings?
I see school as the student’s workplace. Isn’t harassment against workplace rules these days? Isn’t that relatively recent? (at least for those of us over 50 )
It is certainly relatively recent that most of us don’t see harassment of gay students as acceptable, at school or elsewhere. It seems to me this is no longer considered acceptable behavior among the majority population of this country. Social pressure to conform tends to be different than it was just 20 years ago. imho.
GSAs made headlines in 1999 with the Federal Court ruling in Utah–East High Gay/Straight Alliance v. Board of Education of Salt Lake City School District.[20][21] This ruling found that denying access to a school-based Gay-Straight Alliance was a violation of the Federal Equal Access Act giving students the right to use facilities for extra curricular activities at any school that receives public funding - regardless of private standing or religious affiliation.*
wiki
Just trying to think about timelines here. It certainly seems like yesterday to me, but so does Anita Hill. While the story unfolded in the media, former lawyers, temporarily stay at home moms, followed along and debated. I felt in the middle of history every day at the local playground.
Looks like a continuum to me (still thinking about stradmom’s list and dstark’s comments on tradition) and I hope to be around in 20 or 30 years to see how it plays out; who draws the lines and where they get drawn.
In a thinking world, yes. However, in a world governed by reactions, feelings and opinions, just about anything can be considered harassment.
It really depends on what someone defines as harassment, does it not?
Just saying harassment does not make it so. Such reactive behavior has come to the workplace and is starting to hurt people because business has no time for this.
I learned at our board meeting that a couple new associates, who were on the fast track to be executives and who I really liked, were terminated. They were terminated because they disagreed with a standard policy we have at the company. Specifically, they called the policy a form of discrimination/harassment or something like that. And this is even though they knew this policy before being hired and even signed a contract agreeing to the policy.
So what was the discrimination or the harassment? Because we have traveling teams that go to different countries and regions of the world, it is SOP that employees who are fluent or indigenous speakers of a language are asked to converse with non-fluent employees when addressed in said language. It is a way for non-native speakers to practice and also to learn the proper mannerisms and idiomatic expressions etc. It is not unusual for an entire table to be speaking another language in the cafeteria, just for practice.
It turns out that these new hires stated that they felt discriminated against because people would engage them using the foreign language. They felt discriminated against because they were indigenous speakers and they took it as a form of people telling them they did not belong. Hey, idiot, you are on the traveling team that goes to that region - did you not understand when you were explained that when you were hired??!! Therefore, they were quietly relieved of their duties.
All I can say is somewhere along the line those young hires got indoctrinated with lots of nonsense and actively look for offense and harassment where there is none. And that nonsense lost them rather cushy and potentially big-time jobs.
^^ I think that’s the rub. There is PLENTY of real discrimination going on to address. But when students start to look for things to complain about (why did nobody warn me about that scene in the Great Gatsby?), I think they do a disservice to everyone. Their fellow students who are not a party of the minority group feel like they can’t object to the request or they will appear racist, homophobic, etc. and those who are members of the group feel like they have to sign on to the mission or they will face derision from their group. By setting a policy (albeit, a not well written or clear one), UC attempted to nip some of this in the rub. Professors can warn as they deem fit, but students should know that there is no right to a classroom where ideas and texts are censored so don’t come here and expect to demand that right.
Are students really asking for protection while discussing the Great Gatsby? Or are they really complaining because the book is boring? I am smiling but I found the book boring when I was 18. Probably still is boring. I haven’t read it in a long time.
If students asking for ideas and texts to be censored…just say no.
I think these arguments about censoring ideas in a classroom diminish the real bigotry and harassment that are happening to students like runswimyoga’s son.
I think we can distinguish between discussing ideas, and harassing somebody.
I’m ardently in favor of free speech and I’ve condemned the treatment @runswimyoga’s son received. Who in here, precisely, do you think is in favor of it?
So for those of you interested in broadening your outlook on discussions of white priveledge, reparations and the role of racism in our country I found the following segment very helpful (NPR, City Arts and Lectuers, Guest: Bryan Stevenson) Again, not tech savvy but podcast can be found with search.
Stevenson articulately presents how everyone in the racism equation is effected and why reparations are necessary for national healing. There are also discussions about the lasting legacy of Jim Crow, and lynchings in our current day penal system.
When I initially read about safe spaces and trigger warnings, my initial, admittedly uninformed, thought was that it undermines the college experience.
After having opportunities to discuss the issue with people who are more informed about the issue, I am now convinced that in certain circumstances my initial assessment was incorrect, and that there are circumstances where safe spaces are the right thing to do. I think we sometimes jump to broad conclusions based on specific stupid examples. It may make no sense in that case, but that does not mean it is not reasonable in others.
The situations that were explained to me related to victims of sexual assault on college campuses and providing a safe space where victims can go and support one another. The person made a very compelling case, and is definitely not a person who would tolerate any nonsense, and reminds me of @pizzagirl. I think when someone with that type of disposition says that something I have dismissed as nonsense is actually important, I stop and listen because I know they would not buy into it lightly.
)
I am smiling but I found the book boring when I was 18. Probably still is boring. I haven’t read it in a long time.