You Couldn’t Make It Up

I wonder what they'd make of Struwwelpeter.

I read that as quite a young child.

I imagine it would need a multitude of warnings.

However I do agree that this is just a silly story for the DM to get their teeth into. A bit like the time when students wanted to do pass hands instead of clapping.

I don’t believe that young people today are that pathetic or ignorant. Most are much more aware of what goes on in the world. Why have the Jane Austin novels been sexed up if we are all so sensitive?

I remember when dds were about 16 remarking how nice two lads were who lived down the road only to be told scornfully that they were drug dealers and I hadn’t a clue what it was like with drugs in school. They really treated me like an innocent abroad. I bet youngsters today probably think the same. They aren’t that naive. They don’t need this protectionism.

That actually sounds fair enough.

There are traumatic life events like suicide, child abuse etc that maybe some people ( not the intelligent ones on here ) would rather avoid so to have a warning would enable them to do that. I can’t see a problem with such a warning, apart from it annoying some people, who obviously lack empathy .

Where do you draw the line, then?
I often get upset; music on a tv ad, a chat on here, all manner of things can start me off.
How much upset is too much?

sorry hetty I was going to say are you so intelligent you know beforehand when upsetting scenes will be played? Or are you never likely to be upset by anything? Or if you were likely to be upset - wouldn’t you like to be prepared?

hatty58 are you so intelligent

I would agree, if the idea was that the more sensitive should could all opt out of reading anything upsetting and concentrate on gentler texts; but there is nothing in the OP to suggest that this is the case - just that they would know in advance.

The student I knew who left a class because it was looking at a poem about a car crash was embarrassed to have to do so. She didn't know that it was going to come up, but as soon as she saw it she realised that she wouldn't be able to sit through it without getting upset. She excused herself and explained in an email why she'd done so. It would have been kinder all round had she known beforehand - maybe she and the lecturer could have arranged that the poem would be looked at at the beginning of the seminar, and she could have come in later, or at the end with a nod to her so that she could leave without comment. I don't know - it just doesn't seem a lot to ask.

I don't think that staff could be expected to accommodate every trigger for every student. Someone scared of Humpty Dumpty is probably going to have to learn to live with it, in the unlikely event that a nursery rhyme is going to crop up unexpectedly on a university course.

MissA.

I'm forever traumatised about those piggies going to market!

I remember being young, looking at the adults around me and thinking, humans must be a mistake. They don't know how to be happy, or mind their own business or stop wanting things, or stop demanding that the way they did things was the best way.

Now the young give me hope with their focus on mental health and their understanding of how it affects physical health.

A little kindness goes a long way, sometimes that kindness is just speaking the truth.

Why wouldn't we want to live in a society where violence needs a warning everywhere it exists? We want everyone to know violence of any kind is not acceptable.

This seems another good way to show it.

MayBeMaw, it's just an insult to anyone's intelligence - like the frequent 'scenes that some viewers may find disturbing' warning before TV programmes!

Yet again, I have just grabbed the tv remote to change channels because of an upsetting anti animal cruelty ad on the tv. No trigger warnings before they show them through out the day is there.

I haven't seen anyone suggest otherwise JaneJudge.

Dinahmo

Calistemon

I noticed today that Jane Austin is also under attack because of the way in which the young girls in some of the novels are always trying to meet the military.

Sorry, but all the nice girls love a sailor ?

But there aren't any sailors in Hertfordshire P & P or Emma, perhaps both.

I thought I'd posted but it disappeared!

Jane Austen's brothers were in the Navy and she did have links with the RN. Nelson was hero of the day so she made some of her heroes Naval officers.

Admiral Croft, Captain Wentworth, Midshipman Price (and the dastardly Admiral Crawford) to name some.

I don't think we need to strive for 18 year olds and under to go through real life trauma

Dinahmo

Calistemon I wasn't 4 I was in my thirties. It was the Lassie with Elizabeth Taylor. Anything with animals, especially dogs sets me off. I usually mange to hide it but sometimes I can't.

I'm hopeless too, Dinahmo but it's fiction.

Real life can be so much worse sometimes.

"perhaps they are taking the wrong course" indeed Calistemon.

Calistemon

We are discussing classic novels, not the showing of graphic pictures of foetuses, murder victims, mutilated animals etc.

I agree these could be distressing, especially for those who have had experience of these events personally.
Don't do medicine, become a pathologist, forensic scientist, social worker, police officer - that would be sensible.

But if a student doesn't realise that some classic literature does contain descriptions deaths, exexcutions, politically incorrect (by today's standards) events such as young girls aspiring to meet the military - always an officer, never a private ?, then perhaps they are taking the wrong course.

Good points Callistemon. It’s an aside but, some of the best forensic psychologists, police, social workers etc shared some traumatic experiences. These brave souls somehow integrated their trauma/loss, became stronger, more empathic workers.
But yes, what nonsense it seems to wrap students in cotton wool so they can’t sue if upset

Dinahmo

Some people have suggested that they are called "content" rather than "trigger" warnings which I think is no bad thing.

Reminds me of those jars of peanut butter which claim “Warning, may contain nuts”
???

Calistemon I wasn't 4 I was in my thirties. It was the Lassie with Elizabeth Taylor. Anything with animals, especially dogs sets me off. I usually mange to hide it but sometimes I can't.

Calistemon

^I noticed today that Jane Austin is also under attack because of the way in which the young girls in some of the novels are always trying to meet the military^.

Sorry, but all the nice girls love a sailor ?

But there aren't any sailors in Hertfordshire P & P or Emma, perhaps both.

I’m not complaining Maw, it’s still one of my favourite books. I read Wuthering Heights around the same time and love that one too.

Calistemon

Doodledog

What is the context of the warning? If the students are volunteering to teach English to refugees, for instance, it might make sense to warn them about content that could be upsetting to readers.

It’s difficult to know what to think without knowledge of the context- I can’t believe that there are stickers on copies of these books in the library.

DD teaches English to refugees but I think she tends to stick to the practicalities of everyday life rather than Shakespeare.

It was an example. Without knowing the whys and wherefores of the situation I find it difficult to have an opinion.

I have known of a couple of times in a 20+ year career when a student has asked to leave a class because of upsetting content. One was a girl whose father had been killed in a car crash the week before a class which was looking at a text about a car crash, and the other was related to domestic violence. In those circumstances I can understand, even as a fairly hard-boiled adult, that I might prefer not to be there in case I found it too upsetting and broke down in front of fellow students.

I don't think it will mean that people can just refuse to study anything that might be 'triggering' for them if they are sensitive souls. When I was an UG student, back in the 80s, there was a mature student of English Literature who had lost her husband (as in he had gone missing the year before). He turned up during the course, dead, in mysterious circumstances. She had to continue studying texts about death, but was shown sensitivity - could this not be something the same?

I noticed today that Jane Austin is also under attack because of the way in which the young girls in some of the novels are always trying to meet the military.

Sorry, but all the nice girls love a sailor ?