I agree, Bostonian-- posting reading lists seems the best way to handle this. After all, post-secondary settings are (hypothetically) places for adults, not children. That also serves as a means of GENUINELY empowering those who might struggle with a way to control their own lives (rather than the sense of "being controlled" by external forces).
I agree completely both with Bostonian and HowlerKarma.
My favorite comment on that
Times piece was the one that said anything can trigger a bad reaction: a smell, a pop song that was playing when the trauma happened, etc. But like HK said, only certain kinds of triggers count in this faculty member's class, and they're the ones that
she sees as being triggerish.
Another favorite was the one by Rachel, who pointed out that no one has actually investigated this practice to see if it actually works and that
maybe that would be a good idea before embracing it.
I see trigger warnings as simply another extension of the infantilization of school-aged kids through college students, a practice that does them no favors. If a twenty-one-year-old college student needs a "real" grownup to point out what should be upsetting, that student is going to have a lot of trouble in the big mean world next year.
