WARNING This paper contains information about trigger warnings and/or their use in classrooms which maybe triggering to people with strong opinions for or against them. A trigger warning is a stated warning that the content of a text, video, class, etc., may offend some people, particularly those who have experienced a related trauma. The argument over trigger warnings is very controversial, there are some people that feel like they are absolutely necessary in almost every situation and there are others who believe it’s being taken out of context and they shouldn’t be a part of everything we see in life. The trigger warnings debate is a deep topic with very valid points both ways, although some people really may need trigger warnings, they …show more content…
At the University of Cal, professors must send out a warning saying students may miss class if they feel like the content will trigger their PTSD. Jarvie shows she thinks this isn’t a total disaster of a plan when the article tells the story of Bailey Loverin, a sexual assault victim, as she felt like she was forced to sit through a class while a film that features an “insinuation” of sexual assault was being played. Even though Jarvin feels like Bailey deserved to not attend that class she also feels that students will definitely take advantage of the option to skip class. The article talks about how people are putting trigger warnings on everything, from bullying and suicide to insects and animals in wigs. According to Jarvin, things that trigger PTSD symptoms don’t only come from reading an article that doesn’t contain a trigger warning, it can come from things like, sound, smell, time of year, a foot print in the snow, basically anything can trigger a memory that causes a person to have a panic attack. Sometimes trigger warnings are being taken too far as the article says a statue of a man in his underwear at Wellesley college was protested because it was “triggering thoughts regarding sexual …show more content…
The professor believes students are starting to be looked at more and more like customers due to high tuition and the more comfortable you make them feel, the better the ratings are for your teachings. According to the professor he feels like he and other teachers must change their syllabus to the student’s likings to keep their jobs, especially an adjunct professor whose whole job depends on the student’s review of
In the article The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, the authors go into great detail of describing the effects of trigger warnings. Using real world examples, Lukianoff and Haidt describes how college students are oversensitive and carried along the school year. The authors explain how this is a negative thing for the college students going into the work force in the future.
First they explain how students have recently started expecting that their professors publish trigger warnings, alerts that students expect with anything that may cause distress, in the name of protecting students who may be reminded of trauma by being exposed to certain topics. While proving the fallacies in the concept of trigger warnings, Lukianoff and Haidt quote Harvard professor, Jeannie Suk 's essay about teaching rape law when students are determined to have protection from unpleasant ideas and demand trigger warnings. She says it is like trying to teach “a medical student who is training to be a surgeon but who fears that he 'll become distressed at the sight of blood (48).” This shows how the students’ desire for protection cause difficulties in teaching for
This brings about another issue: children’s protection from this kind of content. More needs to be done to protect children’s eyes from inappropriate things on the TV, billboards, music, and other forms of media. Unfortunately, because society has gone as far as it has today, it will be very difficult to take a step back and re examine the effects violent media will have on children. People seem to care less and less about what children see. The need for protection from this type of content relies solely on the parents. Parents must take it upon themselves to guard their children against things on the media that they should not be seeing. Parents should be given different options with technology to help monitor the content their kids are allowed to see and what they are
They should start discussions about rape and sexist cases because it’s going on in today’s society and for people to know it’s okay to talk about it if it ever happened to them. Colleges need to prepare students for the real word so they need to have real life discussions in class for the students that are growing up and entering the workforce. College campuses are going through the mircoagression theory and professors fear to talk about trigger warnings in class when both students and professors should have freedom of speech in classrooms. “One of my biggest concerns about trigger warnings,” Roff wrote, “is that they will apply not just to those who have experienced trauma, but to all students, creating an atmosphere in which they are encouraged to believe that there is something dangerous or damaging about discussing difficult aspects of our history.” (49). Professors try to avoid teaching material that will upset sensitive students, but instead they should start warning students about the materials they are going to teach and set boundaries so students can know what they are about to learn to prevent teachers from getting in trouble or risk getting fired from their
Teachers become afraid to challenges students values and beliefs, also creating a repressive area for debates. The article “On Trigger Warnings” by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) states that “the presumption that need to be protected rather than challenged in a classroom is at once infantilizing and anti-intellectual”. Demanding trigger warnings make comfort more of a priority than learning. Faculty may feel like they need to warn students about the course material because some students might find it disconcerting, but the voluntary use of trigger warnings on syllabus could be counterproductive. Just because some material may cause one person to have trauma does not mean everyone will and by putting a trigger warning on the syllabus might cause others to expect something upsetting. This could cause students to not read assignments or it might provoke a response from students they otherwise would not have had. Trigger warnings also signal an expected response and discourage the reading experience and even eliminate spontaneity. Trigger warnings make students into victims and makes both teachers and students fearful to ask questions because it might make someone uncomfortable. The goal is to educate and challenge students, make students question things and debate on things that they normally do not think about. AAUP also says that “the call for trigger warnings comes
The author argues that the use of “trigger warnings” should not become a policy due to the student becoming uncomfortable over a certain lesson in class. The argument is effective in parts, but not as a whole. What about the students who actually are medically unable to deal with a lesson in class due to PTSD? This editorial really only showed the bad side of trigger warnings inside colleges classes instead of showing the pros and the cons like most would. Some people claim that the addition of trigger warnings would not affect a college student’s ability to complete the work. It would also be difficult to do well on parts of a test unless they have a friend who will attend class still and take notes for them. Over all, trigger warnings are not completely bad, but they can most definitely be taken advantage of by students who do not want to go to classes one
Today’s education is very important to nations all around the world. We change in order to perfect the system and try to compete for the perfect education system. Our students and children see more and more traumatic events than in the past and also go through more at a young age. We look at our education system and try to pinpoint the main causes. Many studies have been conducted in order to improve our education. Many have learned that because the ease of information to world wide traumatic events and individual events, trauma is the culprit and is holding back our students causing them to suffer academically and decrease the IQ of our students. While issues of intervention in classrooms and trauma may seem unwanted, Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and much of the critical theory related suggests a deeper link, it shows us that intervention is needed in the classroom setting.
They start with recent examples of the growing trend of the collegiate sensitivity: “Last December, Jeannie Suk wrote in an online article for The New Yorker about law students asking her fellow professors at Harvard not to teach rape law…or.. use the word violate” (Lukianoff 1). Showing an example of the extremes of students in an attempt to avoid student distress, Lukianoff and Haidt then follow with two examples of articles written by professors, one who later had complaints filed on her by students and one too scared to even publish the article with his true name. In order to effectively prove their point Lukianoff and Haidt end their introduction with the fact that even professional comedians are too frightened to perform shows at universities claiming students “can’t take at joke” (Lukianoff 1). This introduction effectively drives their beginning argument that students have been coddled so much as to take everything offensively to the point that they even frighten their
Unfortunately, for many parents, the offensiveness of the written content completely overshadows the educational substance. They presume that it is more prudent to keep these things from tainting children’s minds than it is to allow them to thoroughly explor...
The teacher rounded up my entire class and ordered us to be completely quiet. We were just informed that we are now under a lockdown, and I don’t think this is necessarily a practice one either. My phone just started to vibrate. As I glanced down at my phone, I heard a distant ‘pop’, ‘pop’ coming from inside the cafeteria. The sound reminded me of popcorn popping in the microwave. Most of the people in my class started to become very unsettled, and then it hit me. The emergency notification on my phone was just another confirmation that there were active shooters in my school. The shooters turned out to be troubled students that thought the only way to get their point across was to take it into their own hands. This is just one of the many scenarios when people that shouldn’t have access to guns find a way to get weapons inside their grasp
...hould take in to consideration the thoughts and feelings of others who may be offended, and should also be aware of the influence their information can have on children and others.
The issue of school safety has become a controversial topic in the United States, due to tragic acts of violence occurring on a daily basis. American citizens should never have to cope with the negative impact of school violence, no matter how often they hear about the tragedies (Jones, "Parents" 1). In the past, schools were viewed as a safe place for children to get an education. Recently, the concern over violence in schools has taken a toll on many parents, school administrators, and legislatures (Eckland 1). Studies have shown that there are over 3 million acts of violence in American public schools each year. Not all occurrences are serious and deadly, but they occur on a daily basis throughout our country (Jones, “School” 6). This has caused many parents to worry about the well-being of their children while they are in class. This has also led to an increase in questions and concerns by parents and guardians. Many people have asked, “What are you doing about safety and security on my child’s campus” (Schimke 2). School violence is the cause of elevated worry and fear for their children, and school districts should enforce better security.
Media has become a very powerful tool. The combination between television, internet and videogames and more have blended in with many of our life styles despite how different we are. But at the same time there are many exposures by the media that shouldn’t be out there, causing young people to behave negatively. Many younger kids get their influence from television programs, such as violent cartoons, music videos, and movies. The content and language used in these media categories can cause a child or teen to use the same kind of language against another teen, an elder, and event their parent. This can result in a children using foul language against their own parent. Therefore, media shown during the day time should be censored to minimize the exposure young kids have to explicated co...
The regularity and asperity of media violence has dramatically increased over the years. The Media exists in almost every aspect of people’s lives and exposure to violence in the media is becoming a large concern. People are exposed violent acts in the media everyday between video games, movies, and television. Parents are distressed over the fact tha...
...om humble and non-violent to harsh and violent. It can also may lead to a person awareness of one’s environment and taking responsibility for one's actions which is what the world requires(Rosengren, 2000). Society is able to transition from the past to the future through real-time information on the present (Hiebert & Gibbons, 2000). Society therefore becomes a living organization, complete with a feedback loop provided by the media, well equipped to sense oncoming danger and learn from its mistakes in readiness for tomorrow (Preiss, 2007). However, caution needs to be put in place to prevent the youth and children from participating in actions they do not have a clue on but do them on the justifications of the actions watched over the media (Wells & Hakanen, 1997). Mass media will remain beautiful but when precautionary measures are not in place, it becomes ugly.