On Trigger Warnings In The Coddling Of The American Mind

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In “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff they say “when students come to expect trigger warnings for any material that makes them uncomfortable, the easiest way for faculty to stay out of trouble is to avoid material that might upset the most sensitive student in the class”. Instead of teaching, teachers are focusing on not upsetting students and getting rid of anything that might trigger someone. Haidt and Lukianoff also state that “demands for trigger warnings on reading assignments with provocative content is an example of fortune telling”. This is because a trigger warning is like predicting that something bad will happen or that things will get worse, when really there is no way to know unless you experience …show more content…

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

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