"Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm"

[dabroots]

If "trigger" issues should be warned about for literature classes, why not also for courses in sociology, psychology and history? http://nyti.ms/1oBtuCd

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Should students about to read “The Great Gatsby” be forewarned about “a variety of scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence,” as one Rutgers student

Comments

[dfordoom]

Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as “trigger warnings,” explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them

If college students can't cope with The Great Gatsby how on earth are they going to cope with the real world? You can't spend your whole life in the nursery hiding behind Nanny's skirts.

This sort of thing really concerns me. Part of growing up is learning that not everybody agrees with you, that life is sometimes unpleasant, that on occasions you will encounter things that might upset, offend, embarrass or annoy you. You just have to learn to deal with it. Teaching students that they can be protected from reality is doing them a very grave disservice. This is college, not kindergarten.

[dabroots]

My standard is to not insult students. Offending them with the material is another matter.

[saintgeorge]

Imagine reading the works of Ambrose Bierce with all happy endings and no gore. Trigger warnings be damned! There is already enough censorship around without making college literature safe for Reader's Digest.

[dfordoom]

Imagine reading the works of Ambrose Bierce with all happy endings and no gore.

Or Shakespeare. Hamlet decides to forgive and forget, and he and Ophelia live happily ever after. Macbeth goes to anger management classes and Duncan's sons get grief therapy and they all have group hugs at the end. Iago tells Othello it was all just a silly misunderstanding. Richard III realises he has some issues he has to work through. Julius Caesar and his would-be assassins have a few drinks together and end up buddies again.

And of course we can fix up Melville as well. Captain Ahab ends up joining Greenpeace.

Sorry. Now I'm being silly.

[dabroots]

Or becoming friends with Moby Dick, bringing him treats instead of a harpoon.