American University student government demands 'trigger warnings' be added to every class syllabus
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Anonymous
Respectfully, not only did I read your post, it is apparent you didn't understand my train of thought. I would never suggest or assume you did not read mine. However, I have a paper due and that is where my focus will be. Trading unintelligent barbs (present PP excluded) is not how I roll. Have at it. I don't have the time and I KNOW how to pick my battles. This definitely isn't one of them. I made my argument. |
Anonymous
There is a difference between "mediate" and "cease and desist." |
Anonymous
Hmm, it seems we're at an impasse. I read your post...several times actually. When I said that college is a place you come to grow and learn and sometimes talk about things that are hard to talk about (I am paraphrasing), you said it is not a place that you come to be called names (again, I am paraphrasing). Those are false equivalencies, and totally unrelated. As for you quoting my "you can damn well do that" as being on board with anyone's free speech being violated, you clearly just did not understand the context; it was referring to students having the freedom to pick their own research topics and develop their own lines of inquiry through study regardless of what the topics are (within reason). I think you might have a tough time in my class, not so much due to sensitivity, but because you are not reading what I am putting out there and not open to me trying to explain it to you. Good luck on your paper! |
Anonymous
You can cease and desist an individual's offensive conduct without ceasing an entire class dialogue. That is called mediating. |
Anonymous
I'm sure the poster wouldn't want to be a part of that discussion whether it's mediated or not. Why would anyone want to be a part of a hostile environment? Simply leave. Nothing to do with safe space, just not wanting to be insulted. Sounds sane to me. |
Anonymous
That's a real thing, and I respect it. Some people - students and older adults - just don't want to take part in conversations about certain subjects. If a student came to me and said "Hey, it is upsetting me to talk about Larla's project about abortion/drugs/violence/sustainable farming what can we do about it?" I would listen to that student, and offer to put her in discussion groups and critiques that Larla is not part of. I'd encourage her to remove herself from class if she needs to - I'll get it, because she told me she might need to. I'm not an ass, but I can't go around teaching a course that does a deep-dive into critical thinking while also saying "aaaaand we can't talk about tough stuff." That there may be tough stuff seems implicit in the overall experience of higher education, notwithstanding Liberty University. |
Anonymous
NP. I'm going to weigh in here, professor. I think you had an opportunity to open up a real discussion with that young poster but instead you questioned his/her intelligence by stating they would be incapable of being successful in your class. Unfortunately, I'll be that door is slammed shut now. Nobody, not even you apparently, wants their position or reasoning challenged. I can appreciate your title and position, but I think your comment was unnecessary and insulting. If that is your idea of mediating, well, I would try a different approach. Encouraging more dialogue would have been the approach I would've taken, not questioning that young person's intelligence. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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As another professor, who, by the way, applauds the U of C's position on trigger warnings, I would hate to have students dictate to me what I include on my syllabus. Since I teach a class on war, I would hope that students understand enough about war to know that there will be disturbing material. On principle I would refuse to include a statement on my syllabus stating, essentially, that war is disturbing. Dear God.
As for the PP who would be offended if a student used the "n-word," I hope you realize that a trigger warning wouldn't prevent another classmate from using that word in an inappropriate manner. A professor should certainly step in and stop the discussion at that point simply on the grounds that such language violates the rules of civil discourse. |
Anonymous
+1. It is no longer about mediation. I don't remember the n-word poster asking for trigger warnings and stated didn't need a safe space. As far as civil discourse goes, I recall a presidential candidate calling another candidate a 'pu$$y'. So much for civility. |
Anonymous
LOL, I think that poster is quite aware that someone might use that word inappropriately. |
Anonymous
I'm not sure if you saw this letter with a different perspective of the concept of 'safe space.' I wholeheartedly agree. BOTH sides need to be heard. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/14/u-chicago-professors-issue-letter-safe-spaces-and-trigger-warnings These professors are not asking for a pacifier and cradle. The letter doesn't say that trigger warnings or safe spaces are inherently good or bad. But it says that students have every right to request these things -- and that discouraging students from doing so represents a squelching of freedom of expression. "Those of us who have signed this letter have a variety of opinions about requests for trigger warnings and safe spaces," the letter says. "We may also disagree as to whether free speech is ever legitimately interrupted by concrete pressures of the political. That is as it should be. But let there be no mistake: such requests often touch on substantive, ongoing issues of bias, intolerance and trauma that affect our intellectual exchanges. To start a conversation by declaring that such requests are not worth making is an affront to the basic principles of liberal education and participatory democracy." |
Anonymous
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American looking to become a TTTT since three T's wasn't enough.
Triggered Third Tier Toilet |
Anonymous
Too many middle-schoolers have infiltrated this site. Almost your bedtime then grown folks can talk. |
Anonymous
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As far as I can tell, "students want trigger warnings" means roughly "students want to be advised in advance what the basic content of the course is including areas that could potentially be incredibly upsetting or harmful to someone's mental health to be confronted with unprepared."
So... students want informed consent in advance to exactly what they're getting into? That doesn't sound like a big deal to me, nor does it seem unreasonable. From what I have seen, television shows, movies, many commercials, news programs, and most books do this already. Doesn't seem too absurd to want to know what you're getting into in order to decide if you can handle it and know of any special preparation you might need to do in order to be ABLE to handle it, especially advance of a particularly intense class session/discussion. I had an experience in high school where a friend's timely heads up about the plot of the next book our English class would be reading was definitely key to my ability to get through that portion of the class in a way that had me both focused enough to be able to do my best work in class and reasonably emotionally stable after class despite the subject matter hitting very close to a recent trauma I had experienced and was having a hard time dealing with, so I tend to be fairly supportive of trigger warnings or content advisories or whatever you want to call them. |