Persuasive Essay Against Trigger Warnings

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Persuasive Essay Against Trigger Warnings In the article The Coddling of the American Mind written by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, they discuss the way trigger warnings effect campus life and students in American universities. According to the article trigger warnings negatively effect the campus and the students attending the university. In American universities today, the intellectual development and right to freedom of speech of students is denied as a result of the use of trigger warnings by professors to what may be perceived by some to be offensive or disturbing. Trigger warnings cause students to see various types of content as microaggressions; microaggressions are actions or diction that are not intentionally hurtful but are …show more content…

In the article a question is asked by Micheal Bloomberg, “Isn't the purpose of a university to stir discussion, not silence it?”(Medina 91). Trigger warnings cause students voices to be silenced to prevent emotional disturbance. Universities are shifting their focus from the importance of curriculum to students emotional stability. Issues that should be discussed regarding current events are being disregarded which means, students are not discussing probable solutions to everyday problems. When students leave American universities unlike in the classrooms, civilians discuss issues that are happening currently to find solution regardless of the distress it may cause …show more content…

students are not able to have classroom debates without the concern of emotionally disturbing or offending a peer. In the online article Trigger Warnings and the Novelist’s Mind the author discusses the intent of trigger warnings, “ these warnings are meant to protect from public traumatic flashbacks” (). Although these trigger warnings may prevent few students from a hurtful memory they also stifle the intellectual development of the majority of the students.The students are not just being limited in terms of their freedom of speech but also in terms of the content they are able to learn; because in case that a book or article is deemed by students as inappropriate or offensive, than the book can be removed from the curriculum. The authors of The Coddling of the American Mind, “ There’s a saying common in educational circles: don’t teach students what to think; teach them how to think”(Lukianoff and Haidt 45) .Students are not able to expand their intellect as broadly confined by the trigger warnings. Students are deprived of the necessary skill development of speech and debate because they are not able to discuss argumentative topics that may cause the students

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