How Trigger Warnings Affect A Student Learning Experience

After my first semester in college, I was left with a new and exciting learning experience. I engaged in discussions on controversial topics and was exposed to various reading and media material which opened me up to new perspectives. In classrooms, questions about politics, abuse, drugs, death, relationships, religion, and ethics were discussed without restrictions. I enjoyed this learning experience on the most part due to the professors announcing the topics to be discussed the first day of classes. Being fresh out of high school, such a practice relieved the transition into a new academic environment. However, I cannot solely rely on my personal experience when deciding on where to stand regarding the controversy that has students, parents, educators, and administrators in disagreement. In my research I plan to explore the controversy over the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces by analyzing both sides of the debate. My goal is to come to a conclusion concerning the proper use of trigger warnings and safe spaces; specifically, when should trigger warnings be given, where is the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces appropriate, and most importantly, what subjects should students be warned or protected from. I

Some would say for artistic reasons its good for them to see, but why at a young age? Isn’t the growing concern of parents today on how to keep their children innocent? Showing or reading obscenities is not a productive way to keep children innocent.

Roxane Gay’s essay explores the topic of triggers and why they may not be as useful as people will like to think. Because of Gay’s topic choice, her essay is a work of non-fiction. It uses Gay’s own experiences and thoughts to educate the audience of her stance on triggers and why she thinks that. She also uses a variety of metaphors, analogies, and real life examples to persuade her audience.

As a class, we mainly fell into the category of those who would not tell a professor if they had any concerns regarding a class. The standard here with the usage of trigger warnings is how do we as a society know what actually will require a trigger warning. If no one has a standard, then the policy would be mocked for being too lackadaisical. I see trigger warnings being necessary in some situations where I would want to know if something graphic is going to be shown to me. We came across two definitions of safe spaces in the class: 1) an actual physical safe space and 2) an ideological safe space. The concern with the physical safe space is that it seems more reductive or childish, which interestingly enough is how the Baby Boomers assess our generation.

After reading the article I concur with the author’s views on colleges coddling students who are offended by words or small actions is doing more harm than good. The article covered the issues in detail and gave many examples of the conception before the 1980’s when children could roam free in the world with less worry for parents to where next generation who had more protective parents because of the increase of kidnappings, removal of physical activities in school, school shootings, and bullying after the 1980’s.The authors discuss how coddling is not good for students, society, the workplace, government or the future. Coddling removes cognitive thinking and the use of good critical thinking skills. Coddling will force students to think with emotion instead of logic. Society will not always bend over backwards to appease ones feelings or change to make someone feel comfortable. Thinking with emotions can create a fog that can hinder ones view of reality.

The issuing of trigger warnings, according to the American Association of Professors, can be counterproductive. “The voluntary use of trigger warnings…assume that individuals will respond negatively to certain content,” which leads to reducing students to vulnerable victims rather than full participants in class discussions or debates. Trigger warnings are thus inadequate, “reasonable accommodations should be done on individual basis” rather than exposing students to trigger warnings that might affect how they view a material that has educational value.

A misleading immediate context can give false sense to the GenMe, while a positive immediate context can give solutions to problems. When saying “immediate context”, Gladwell claims it as “Specific and relatively small elements in the environment” (162). These small elements, or signals, are serving as tipping points, which shows that changes are always possible if we can simply change the immediate context. That is, we should always notice the both sides of immediate context. For example, when the crime rate was extremely high in the New York, David Gunn realized that graffiti in the subway system is one of the small elements that send disorders to the public. On the one side, “The graffiti was symbolic of the collapse of the system” (Gladwell 152). On another side, the graffiti also gives a solution to the crime problem that if we clean up the graffiti, signals of disorders will be changes immediately into good orders. Similarly, most of the GenMe misunderstand the meaning of high self-esteem because they received wrong signals from the immediate context. Twenge lists some examples of the educational immediate context by saying that, “In the United States, office stores have started carrying large stocks of purple pens, as some teachers say that red ink is too ‘scary’ for children’s papers” (499). The change of colors is one small signal, and students will respond due to this signal automatically. Instead of feeling

I side with the argument that people should use trigger warning for an upcoming topic. Students do go to college to learn and given that there stressors that go along with college, giving a trigger warning is not bad at all. This serves as a reminder that people do care about whatever situation that the student that is affected is going through. This gives the student anonymity and a environment that does not have to keep the student in isolation because of the traumatic event. While both sides make a good case for their argument, it does not hurt to show respect for

For example, “censoring this material is a bad idea, and providing context is the best avenue for explaining why” (Hanlon). As you can see, when certain things are not taught in our culture, it becomes a trigger warning and along the line, someone is hurting from it because our culture says “NO”. Furthermore, the purpose of trigger warnings is to have students react to stuff that will make them uncomfortable and this can help us catch problems before they become “catastrophes” (Hanlon). To sum up, our society makes it tough to present trigger warnings, therefore leaving those who are in need of help left

Trigger statements are becoming more and more popular in syllabi, especially on college campuses. These provide students, especially those with post-traumatic stress disorder, with a warning about possibly uncomfortable content that could cause a flashback or panic attack. There are several different opinions about trigger warnings. Jenny Jarvie, the author of the article “Trigger Happy,” believes that they have gone too far and are a detriment to society (Jarvie 6). To enhance Jarvie’s point further, in their article “The Coddling of the American Mind” Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explain how trigger warnings cause metal illness on campuses across the country. The opposing view is that they are necessary to have a fulfilling learning

In Lindsay Holmes’s article “A Quick Lesson on What Trigger Warnings Actually Do,” she states that trigger warnings are misinterpreted cautions notifying whether or not a discussion could cause emotional distress, and often are not implemented for this reason. Holmes begins by recounting when the University of Chicago announced they would not be focusing on Trigger Warnings or safe places; although the university later tells expresses that their initial statement was misinterpreted, the author uses this to open the discussion on the importance of trigger warnings.

When students graduate from high school and go to college, they quickly learn how to handle the real world and prepare for adulthood; however, trigger warnings put a hold on this major life development. A trigger warning is a description alerting the audience of potentially sensitive material which might occur. While colleges try their best to preserve students well-being in the classroom, the use of trigger warnings actually hinders their learning experience by censoring crucial material to avoid offending particular students. Colleges also misguide students into thinking there will be warnings on sensitive material in a job setting. Students who grow in this atmosphere will be less likely to open up to new or diverse ideas they will face

Lindsay Holmes’s “A Quick Lesson On What Trigger Warnings Actually Do” is a persuasive piece written in response to the backlash that The University of Chicago received against implementing trigger warnings for their students. Likewise, Holmes sets up her argument in the hopes of persuading the general population the importance of creating safe zones and use trigger warnings for those who need them. In order to do this, Holmes uses a series of rhetorical devices throughout her essay to develop her argument for the use of trigger warnings. Holmes achieves her goal of persuading the audience that trigger warnings should be taken into consideration through her intentional use of rhetorical appeals, anticipated objections, and hypophoras in this essay.

Trigger warning would be adding extra work for the teacher. For example, teachers would have to modify the syllabus or stop teaching certain topics. It can also be extremely difficult to anticipate in advance what would be considered a trigger for different students with varying experiences. The teacher would not be able to cover every area where a student might feel threatened. “Trauma can be triggered by innocuous things: a smell, a sudden movement, a color.

Trigger warnings are not the issue. Teachers that enforce trigger warnings are. Many trigger warnings are predictable or expected, but no teacher will know what may trigger a student. Matt Reed gives an example in “Dual Enrollment and Trigger Warnings” regarding academic freedom being taken away by trigger warnings, or rather, the extent to which teachers may go with their warnings. He states that if you “take the adultery and murder out of Hamlet, the play doesn’t make much sense.”