I still remember the conversation at that time. A friend wanted to tell me a big news.
He exclaimed: “The university has created a’safe space’ for students!”
At the time, it was strange. Why do young people need to be protected from thought?
Today, this culture seems to have changed.
A lecturer at Iowa State University believes that we need to change again.
already have”Trigger warning” in school.
But because of our painful state, the liberal arts and science professor Michael Bugga asserted that it was time to do more.
for Inside higher education, The professor said:
I know what you are thinking: we have been discussing trigger warnings for more than a decade, and you don’t need to review them. Some of us use or refuse to use them, and you can find a reason for doing so.
But as the professor said, the need continues to deepen:
[T]ime has changed. According to some estimates, although reporting levels are still low, one in four undergraduate girls and one in 15 undergraduate boys have been raped because of physical violence, incapacity, or violence.
In addition, according to Inside Higher Ed’s report, black students continue to experience racism, coping with emotional trauma, increased anxiety, and poor mental health.
Most importantly, consider COVID-19 and its deterioration in mental health.
Recent statistics show that an estimated 25% of college students have been diagnosed with mental illness or received treatment. To make matters worse, 73% of students with mental health problems experienced a mental health crisis on campus.
Other sources of stress: return to face-to-face and “hybrid” courses this fall; it’s not clear what exactly the term refers to.
Does a face-to-face meeting cause anxiety?
Michael thinks so.
Listen to him, the warning has waned:
[T]Today’s multimedia courses are very different from those of ten years ago, when the problem that triggered the warning… broke out on the university campus. Clickers, overhead projectors, and whiteboards are gone; they have been replaced by YouTube videos, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality.
Question: They are too much like reality:
In other words, we are recreating a replica of reality, which may trigger a flashback without warning.
The professor nodded to the traditional topic that needed warning:
Sexual assault
Race
Sexual orientation
Disability
Colonialism
Torture
He “goes all out”.
The reasons are as follows:
Professors who use or respectfully use trigger warnings are usually wary of discussing disturbing content or reiterating the risk of racial defamation. They handle these conversations in a sensitive and polite manner. Others who have not been suspended or fired.
Michael believes that teachers should “in addition to the content of the course, they should also abide by strict standards.”
He pointed out that many people are opposed to triggering warnings, and research has even shown that they make no difference.
but:
[R]Reports and research conducted many years ago failed to consider the audiovisual and multimedia nature of today’s classrooms. We show more than PowerPoint. As mentioned earlier, we use video, audio and multimedia platforms to reproduce and sometimes reactivate strong experiences.
He is convinced:
[I]In my media ethics class, we discussed how bystanders using mobile phones can change their attitudes towards race through on-site discriminatory and brutal videos. Compared with many news reports, these videos have a greater impact on society. The students also explored the timeline of black deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers, as recently released by the BBC.
“Should we play YouTube videos without warning,” the scholar asked, “Know that students of color often suffer from racism, and that as many as a quarter of students in each class may not behave sexually. Is there any personal survivor’s memory?”
Bottom line:
The previously cited objections to trigger warnings have a flaw: they indirectly affirm the views of the professor, not the views of the students.
In the spring of 2021, Michael played his “trigger word game” with students to determine the list of top ten triggers.
result:
On sensitive topics, he was polite in class:
Trigger a warning to respect the students’ point of view. The study guide allows students to opt out of the course while still being responsible for the materials. Encourage freedom of speech and civil discourse. The lecture content in the syllabus allows everyone to notice that sensitive topics will be discussed in a specific way on a specific date, which helps to maintain the classroom atmosphere.
As for the warning, the students asked for more:
I adopted this standard during the pandemic Zoom conference. I have been using trigger warnings on my website, class lectures, and videos. But a few students asked me to do more, provide detailed timetables, study guides, and advance emails about the content.
Therefore, he revised the curriculum.
Will rethinking graduates better adapt to the world?
Only time will give the answer.
Going back to anxiety, if I had to guess: if you tell someone what they are about to hear, see, or learn, which might eliminate them, you are not reducing it. You are doing the opposite.
In addition, you tell them that they are unlikely to deal with other waiting things-in school and in life.
You make them more anxious, not only at that moment, but in front of other people.
Again, I am not a professor.
This is a very new day.
As for the safe space, Michael said to them:
Measuring pain in clinical trials is one thing; encouraging discussion of disturbing topics throughout the semester is another. It is one thing to warn about the lack of intellectually safe spaces for incoming classes; it is another thing to provide these spaces. It is one thing to worry about academic freedom being threatened; it is another thing to exercise freedom responsibly.
Everyone pay attention to safety.
-Alex
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Stanford University professor pointed out that the core of anti-masking is a familiar enemy
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