Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

[NickSTFU]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

Flynnie wrote: Triggers in autism are mostly about sensory sensitives, though, not mental health sensitivities.

I was just suggesting that the term 'trigger' or 'trigger warning' has been around a while and is not inclusive. This was in response to a couple of posts that I may have misunderstood, but appeared to query the term in this context.

Having said that a person on the spectrum and other complex needs, resulting in mental health issues, would have triggers outside of sensory sensitives.

[Toro Toro]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

I never put "trigger warnings" on my material as such. If there's something that might be distressing in the vicinity - rape as often as not - I'll say so, and remind everyone to be sensitive.

But my position is that, insofar as having a trigger of this sort is a real mental health issue rather than a pretext for self-righteous posturing (it can be both), it is unfair both on me and on the student concerned to expect it to be dealt with on an ad hoc basis by individual lecturers. Wheelchair-bound students should not have their ability to enter the lecture-theatre depend on my or my colleagues' individual willingness to facilitate them, and we can't be responsible for the provision of ramps.

The same applies. If it's a genuine mental health issue, I need genuine professional guidance as to the proper procedures needed. I'm happy to implement them, but I can't and won't take wild guesses at what they might be.

[laverte]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

I don't think this is about pointscoring. (It certainly shouldn't be.) It's about creating a climate where students feel safe and supported and able to report harassment or discrimination where they occur; it's also about giving them space to challenge and resist the content of the texts they study. It should encourage tutors to think about which texts they set, and to be willing to discuss (and adjust, and accept criticism of) their selection. Some white teachers – myself included – have blindspots about race, are unable to see the racism in a text until it is pointed out to us. That's always worth acknowledging.

Anyone who feels triggered by a text ought to be "entitled" – indeed, encouraged – to communicate their discomfort. Triggering is real, it can happen to anyone, and it ought to be taken seriously. If it happened in my class I would want first to hear out the complaint and then to negotiate some kind of solution with the complainant. I probably would not welcome the faculty or the DoE getting involved, and I think I understand from posts upthread how the fear of a lawsuit is producing the incomprehensible decisions referenced in the Atlantic article.

Big bang theory is a source of lots of harmful teasing and stereotyping in schools. I wouldn't use it in class.

[Toro Toro]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

I'm not saying it's about point-scoring per se, I'm saying that at least sometimes it is - or seems to be - about point-scoring.

It's precisely because I think it should be taken seriously that I have the position I do. Handling it by expecting individual lecturers to speculate without any training at what might and what might not cause problems for some students, and haphazardly attempt to flag it in more or less effective ways, is not taking it seriously.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

I'm with Toro on this.

It's not precisely on topic but related. In the past I've had incidents in my classes with students who have mental health issues. The college is aware of them, they have programs that encourage enrollment of differently abled students and offer them financial help. However I am never told who they are, nor what their issues are. Nor would I have the first clue how to deal with them if I did. This lack of knowledge and understanding necessarily puts me, and other instructors, in an invidious and vulnerable position.

[ursus arctos]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

Good discussion.

Maybe I am missing something, but I don't see that much space between Toro and laverte on the fundamental issues.

It is manifestly true that how this has been playing out in the US is massively influenced by liability concerns AND by the increased availability of essentially unlimited funds and publicity for those who "expose outrages" (on both sides, but particularly the hard right). It's become a cottage industry in this country, and it's awful for the educational process.

[linus]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

Flynnie wrote:

I'm gobsmacked by the suggestion that the main victims of microaggressions – minority and disabled students, LGBT, victims of sexual harassment and assault – have had a "coddled" upbringing. But two white men say it is so, and thus it must be true.

I'm interested how you discuss how the problem really is about professors failing to mention class in relation to their texts, among other things, then fail to mention class when referring to students that are attending expensive private universities or elite state universities filled to the fucking brim with students from well-off backgrounds. The median family income for UC Berkeley students is nearly $100,000.

Good post Flynnie.

Not too long ago the median family income at UCB was nearly half of that.

I'll add to this stat another one. At Berkeley today, white males constitute less than 10% of the undergraduate population, which really puts the whole notion of white/male privilege in perspective.

[delicatemoth]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

My understanding of triggers is as related to PTSD and PTSD-like symptoms from other mental health issues, rather than autism.

[Bruno]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

It's precisely because I think it should be taken seriously that I have the position I do. Handling it by expecting individual lecturers to speculate without any training at what might and what might not cause problems for some students, and haphazardly attempt to flag it in more or less effective ways, is not taking it seriously.

Most teachers are going to trust their own literary judgment over an outside 'expert'. They'll foresee various foreseeable problems... Are you making a clever bid here to circumvent?

It's about creating a climate where students feel safe and supported and able to report harassment or discrimination where they occur; it's also about giving them space to challenge and resist the content of the texts they study.

The transition here from "harassment or discrimination" to "challenging the content of texts" is disturbing to me. Challenging the content of texts is a longstanding axiom of higher education that didn't require rediscovery. It's the idea or insinuation that reading a text that might offend you, or encountering a lecturer who happens to like said text, constitutes harassment or discrimination. I didn't notice a requirement in college to like or endorse the texts that I was assigned. I was expected to engage intellectually.

Is there a widespread problem where texts with some offensive content are serving the purpose of validating that content? Or where students are being shouted down or docked for voicing their objections in class or in papers? Because what's being reported in the news is the outright avoidance of texts because some aspects of them might offend some people, and I think that's wrong. Per se. You don't have a right not to be offended, and being offended isn't ipso facto harassment.

It should encourage tutors to think about which texts they set, and to be willing to discuss (and adjust, and accept criticism of) their selection. Some white teachers – myself included – have blindspots about race, are unable to see the racism in a text until it is pointed out to us. That's always worth acknowledging.

Most of Western civ was pretty racist up until the late 20th century. Teach the racism, yeah, reject the books, no.

[Toro Toro]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

Brunho wrote:

It's precisely because I think it should be taken seriously that I have the position I do. Handling it by expecting individual lecturers to speculate without any training at what might and what might not cause problems for some students, and haphazardly attempt to flag it in more or less effective ways, is not taking it seriously.

Most teachers are going to trust their own literary judgment over an outside 'expert'. They'll foresee various foreseeable problems... Are you making a clever bid here to circumvent?

It may be that I foresee things, it may be that I don't. Leaving it to chance is not taking the problems seriously.

In contrast to Amor's experience, the wellness provisions at Exeter are generally excellent; students can disclose any particular issues they have - dyslexia, social anxiety that prevents them joining in class discussions, backs that go into spasm, requiring them to take breaks from the classroom and have longer in exams... - and subject to medical assessment the people teaching them, as well a their personal tutors, are with the students' consent provided with an "Individual Learning Plan" telling us what accommodations need to be made. If someone's PTSD is triggered by classroom discussions of rape, for instance, that's how it should be handled. I don't know anything about PTSD, or triggers. So a sensible system is one that tells me confidentially when there is an issue, and what I should and shouldn't do about it. It's not fair on me or the student concerned to leave it to my discretion, even if my discretion happens to be spot on.

[delicatemoth]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

In contrast to Amor's experience, the wellness provisions at Exeter are generally excellent; students can disclose any particular issues they have - dyslexia, social anxiety that prevents them joining in class discussions, backs that go into spasm, requiring them to take breaks from the classroom and have longer in exams... - and subject to medical assessment the people teaching them, as well a their personal tutors, are with the students' consent provided with an "Individual Learning Plan" telling us what accommodations need to be made. If someone's PTSD is triggered by classroom discussions of rape, for instance, that's how it should be handled. I don't know anything about PTSD, or triggers. So a sensible system is one that tells me confidentially when there is an issue, and what I should and shouldn't do about it. It's not fair on me or the student concerned to leave it to my discretion, even if my discretion happens to be spot on.

This sounds well thought out, and your last two sentences make a good point. If I were a student there I'd be pretty reassured, I think (not about triggers in particular, but with the general policy).

A quick scout about the net suggests that eating disorders and self harm are also associated with triggering.

[WOM]

Trigger Warning: Trigger Warnings

dm, I was thinking of you this morning listening to Marc Maron's WTF podcast. He was interviewing Against Me lead singer Laura Jane Grace (formerly Thomas Gabel) about her experience coming out trans in the punk music world. Worth a listen.