I'm not old at all, but it seems to me that the world gets more ridiculous every day. Today, I learned about "trigger warnings."

What in the World Are Trigger Warnings?

This is what I asked myself when I read the headline on a news article today. It said that students at American University in Washington, D.C. were demanding "trigger warnings" on all syllabi, despite a faculty resolution against them.

Say what?

I spent six years as a college student (four for the BA, two for the MA), and eight years as a college teacher, and NEVER heard this term mentioned on campus. And, I was involved in a lot of extracurricular clubs as a student, and faculty/student initiatives as a teacher.

I started teaching in 1998, immediately upon getting my MA, and quit teaching in 2006, after I got bored with it. Surely things hadn't changed that much in a decade?

Wrong!

So, it seems "trigger warnings" are announcements from the faculty to students that sensitive material of some kind may be talked about (or equally sensitive images shown) in a class. That way, students who may be upset by these things can leave, presumably without consequence to their grade.

The definition of "sensitive" seems pretty broad in the way American University students are using it. It can include culturally sensitive things, things that may be sensitive to people of a certain gender or sexual orientation, certain religions, and even unpredictable things that are sensitive for some reason to an individual student.

Students want them. Faculty don't.

And, both groups cite the same reason for their desire....academic freedom.

Trigger Warnings and the War for Academic Freedom

It's a real thing. Someone even wrote a book on it.

It seems American University isn't the first college where this issue has come up, but it is the latest, and the most vocal. Other universities have told students outright that there will be no trigger warnings on classes. The student government at American University is insisting this is not the right answer, and wants faculty to change their minds.

They claim the lack of trigger warnings creates an unsafe space, where not every student has access to learning. After all, how can someone learn if they are too traumatized by the material?

The faculty, on the other hand, says that college is a place for learning new things, exchanging new and unfamiliar ideas with each other, gaining tolerance for different viewpoints, learning respectful debate, and, basically, a place where censorship doesn't belong.

The "trigger warning" students are all about censorship, because they believe potentially upsetting material is an impediment to learning, and disrespectful of their individual feelings.

This all fits in with the "safe spaces" trend of the past few years on college campuses. Students want to feel safe and protected in every aspect of their lives at school, even going so far as to have their personal world views and beliefs protected and not challenged by the learning material. 

They believe if the class material challenges their preconceived notions about anything, they are being discriminated against by having their access to academic freedom impinged in some way.

This seems to be a new thing, as I had relatives in college until only a year ago, and I never heard anything about "safe spaces" until this year. It's now a big deal on campuses around the country, and the debate with professors and administration over it is raging on.

Having been both a student and a faculty member, and with incredibly fond memories of being a student (one of the happiest times of my life), I've got to say, I side with the faculty.

Was I Ever Upset by Something I Saw or Heard in Class as a Student? Heck Yeah

I think most of us were. And, it's not just college. I remember my seventh grade Social Studies class doing a unit on the Holocaust, and we were shown some graphic films of concentration camp victims during the camp liberations. We saw images of dead people, and severely emaciated ones. 

We had a lady who was a concentration camp survivor, complete with prisoner tattoo on her arm, come talk to our class, and she told some gruesome stories of what went on there.

Was that upsetting for me? Absolutely. Some of those images still haunt me today. I was only 12 years old when we were shown these things, after all. But, they were important things for me to learn, and not everything about history is pleasant. I don't feel like I was discriminated against, just because I was shown and told things at school that upset me.

I could list a lot of things like this, things that today's students would insist were creating "unsafe learning spaces" for them. For example:

• Being forced in 5th, 7th, and 10th grade to dissect animals. Worms, crayfish, grasshoppers, and frogs, in fact. I was not only disgusted by it, I was saddened and upset by it, because I am an animal lover and saw no need for those animals to suffer such a fate so we could cut them open. I still don't see the purpose of dissection for anyone who isn't becoming a doctor or biologist.
• My 11th grade psychology teacher brought in the cremated remains of an actual human, because he wanted us to see what they looked like (apparently lumpy and with bits of bone and teeth in them). I absolutely refused to look, and he didn't make me. Most of the class did look (thank God they went up to his desk, instead of passing the urn around the class), and if I'd been made to, I would probably have cried, thrown up, or both. But, I wouldn't have felt discriminated against.
• Stacks of fetal pigs waiting for dissection in a science classroom one of my classes was held in when I was taking Earth Science during my sophomore year of college. I really didn't need to see that.
• The existential crisis I suffered after taking Psychology 101 as a freshman in college, because so much of what goes on at a biological level in this field actually challenged by spiritual beliefs. Today's students wouldn't put up with such a challenge. While I certainly didn't like it, I DID think deeply about all I was learning, and how it applied to my worldview and religious beliefs. Guess what? I was able to reconcile the science and my beliefs in a way that made sense to me. My beliefs changed a little, but I still believe in God. And, I know more about human psychology as a result.
• The countless literature books in both high school and college (and even junior high) I had to read that had challenging, politically incorrect, and/or upsetting themes. Some books, I still regret having to read for a class to this day, as they were deeply disturbing. The same is true of some non-fiction, like The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. That's a first-hand account of slavery from a man who used to be one, and there is some really emotionally challenging stuff in it. But, it's important to read it, because we mustn't forget this happened, and we honor those it happened to by learning about it. As for literature, there are too many examples to list, but I can say I was not mature enough to read Dracula or Lord of the Flies when we had to read them in 8th grade. As an adult, I still don't like Lord of the Flies, but I actually enjoyed Dracula on a second, more mature reading.

These are just a few examples. I could name more. But, the point is that I never felt "not safe" by being presented with these materials. I did the work, and dealt with the emotions as they came, if anything elicited something in me. 

I didn't feel discriminated against because I was being made to learn things I found upsetting. Everyone got upset by something learned in school. We dealt with it and moved on.

Why are today's students not able to do that? Why must they be coddled individually to feel like they can learn?

Why Are Students Insisting on Safe Spaces and Trigger Warnings?

This one is a mystery to me. Of course, I see people in the comments sections on articles like the one I read today blaming it on liberal parents raising ultra-sensitive liberal kids who can't handle their education, much less the real world beyond it.

But, I'm a liberal. I'm about as liberal as they come. 

• I'm a fan of the Clintons. 
• I've volunteered on tons of liberal Democratic political campaigns (I even got to meet Stephen Stills at a victory party). 
• I've been an officer in various local Young Democrat clubs. 
• I got excited about how happy a true communist society seemed when I took a class on Marxism in college (real communism, not the failed experiments in it that were done after WWII). 
• I once dated a guy with his own liberal radio call-in show that he labeled the "anti-Rush Limbaugh" program, and who wrote a book called "It's Great to Be a Liberal."

Believe me, this is NOT a liberal issue.

I'm just as perplexed by this behavior and these attitudes as the apparent conservatives commenting on news articles about this phenomenon and blaming us liberals.

I hate to say the generation of kids who are in college now were too coddled by their parents and society in general when they were little, as every generation seems to say that about the one just behind it. But maybe that's really the reason this time. This is the generation of kids who grew up with everyone getting a participation trophy, and with "helicopter parents," after all. 

It's so different from just a generation ago.

The difference in the way my generation was raised (Generation X, yo!) and the way the Millennials were raised is profound. It's like night and day. We had free-range childhoods; they didn't. We grew up and moved out of our parents' houses, for the most part. They are largely staying home or moving back there.

Does being coddled as a child make someone grow up expecting it from the world? If they want "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings" in college, what will they demand when they go into the real world to get jobs?

What will they do when they discover the real world has no safe spaces or trigger warnings?

ABC Family put this warning on a showing of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Does anyone actually think this was necessary?

Do Trigger Warnings Interfere with Academic Freedom?

Yes. At least, I personally believe they do.

When you put a trigger warning on a class, and allow a student to avoid doing work that may upset them and not have it affect their grade, you're being unfair to the other students in the class.

When you censor what you teach and how you teach it, when you stick a smiley face sticker on the more unsavory parts of history, when you don't assign certain reading materials that are really pertinent to the subject, all because some students might be upset or emotionally challenged by it, you're missing the whole point of college.

The reason for being in college is to learn new things, including new worldviews, new beliefs, new ways of looking at things, and more. You have to be challenged on some level to get the benefit of the education you (or your parents) are paying big bucks for you to receive.

Without challenge on both intellectual and emotional levels, there's no point in being in college at all.

If you stop challenging students, those who want that kind of stimulation and learning aren't getting it. It's not fair to them.

College is a place for the free exchange of ideas. There is no place for censorship there. These students are legally adults, though, emotionally, it seems like they have a long way to go.

Conclusion--Know What You're Signing Up for Before You Take That Class, Kids

It doesn't take too much intelligence to figure out what might be presented in a class. 

When I took an elective called Sexual Behavior, I expected to see some naked lady and guy parts, and sure enough, that's what was shown (even photos of post-op sex change genitalia....I brought the textbook home, because my mom waned to see what that kind of thing looked like). 

When I signed up for a class called Civil Rights, I expected to hear about the civil rights movement of the 1960's, including some potentially rage-inducing photos and film of clashes of civil rights protestors with the police. And, yes, I saw plenty of it in that class.

When my husband and I took a class on adopting kids from foster care, we expected to hear about physical and sexual abuse, which are emotional triggers for my husband, because he suffered those things as a kid. But, he soldiered through that class like a trooper, even though he was getting triggered all over the place. He kept it to himself and went on with the class. He knew what he was getting into from the beginning, and he dealt with it.

If you don't like the sound of a class, don't sign up for it.

And, if you are presented with something in class that you truly can't deal with for some reason, let the professor know, including WHY you must avoid it. Trust me, as a former college professor, most will be more than happy to work with you if you have a legit reason. 

If, for some reason, a professor won't work with you, as is their prerogative, ask for a transfer, try to get the dean on your side, or just take the lower grade. 

Whatever you do, though, don't deny other students their right to a real college education just because you need your "safe space" and "trigger warnings." 

Centuries of college students have done just fine without them. They're not needed now.

The only way to have true academic freedom for all students is to forego "trigger warnings" altogether.

What do you think?

Remember this? It's in the Constitution.

If you enjoyed this post (and I hope you did), follow me at @stephmckenzie for more intriguing articles on life, the universe, and everything.

Photo credit:

The People's Cube