[Vwoolf] Fwd: trigger warnings

[Janet Larson]

Thank you all for this reasonable and interesting discussion. The Times 
article was a good reminder for teachers who forget students' needs (and 
many I know don't even know their students' anything). I pass out a 
confidential survey at the start of every course, and that way find out 
if I have any veterans or students with special needs. I learn a lot of 
other things too from these surveys. They remind me that I am not 
teaching only 'material'--I am teaching people, these particular people 
in the room.
    The Times article did report some disturbing 'trends' in about how 
we should teach. Thought control isn't a feminist agenda. So many topics 
are listed as "triggers" that we might not teach anything. Instead, 
let's refuse the ugly "trigger" metaphor and make sure we know the 
students we have so that individual cautions can be privately made when 
necessary. I tell them we're all here to create a responsible, nurturing 
class community environment in which people feel free to speak and 
respect others' rights to do the same. Within that comfort zone, then, 
we look at some discomforting stuff and help each other deal with it. 
How can one teach Woolf, war, or climate change, to mention three, 
without that?
   Janet Larson, Rutgers University--Newark


On 5/19/2014 12:33 PM, Jean Mills wrote:
> Ha! neither, as that would imply poetic genius on my part. I allude to 
> the fact that he felt oppressed by the burden of his workload at U 
> College Dublin having to grade thousands of state examinations as part 
> of his duties!
>
> I, on the other hand, am merely a jean-ius. ;)
>
> Jean
>
>
> On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 12:09 PM, Jeannette Smyth 
> <jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net <mailto:jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net>> 
> wrote:
>
>     Pied or unleaving?
>
>     On May 19, 2014, at 9:57 AM, Jean Mills wrote:
>
>>     Yes, I'd like to cry foul over that, as well. Sounds more like
>>     military-speak, and more like it sprang from the loins of the
>>     culture of surveillance, violence, and war, we inhabit, rather
>>     than the big, bad spectre of feminist pedagogy.
>>
>>     Jean (who has to go grade 120 essays, and is feeling very Gerard
>>     Manley Hopkins-ish because of it!)
>>
>>
>>     On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 11:47 AM, Jeannette Smyth
>>     <jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net
>>     <mailto:jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>         Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>>         *From: *Jeannette Smyth <jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net
>>>         <mailto:jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net>>
>>>         *Date: *May 19, 2014 9:47:07 AM MDT
>>>         *To: *Jeremy Hawthorn <jeremy.hawthorn at ntnu.no
>>>         <mailto:jeremy.hawthorn at ntnu.no>>
>>>         *Subject: **Re: [Vwoolf] trigger warnings*
>>>
>>>         Can someone direct me to the feminist DNA on trigger
>>>         warnings? I find it almost impossible to reconcile that the
>>>         generation of feminists who brought us do-me feminism and
>>>         stripper/call girl PhDs, also invented this unconscionable
>>>         Grundyism. I suspect, like the do-me feminism, it is a
>>>         misinformed backlash against Andrea Dworkin.
>>>
>>>         As someone who actually has PTSD once told me, the way to
>>>         cure is to step up to bat and get some more.
>>>
>>>         Jeannette Smyth
>>>
>>>
>>>         On May 19, 2014, at 5:02 AM, Jeremy Hawthorn wrote:
>>>
>>>>         Colin Duckworth's book/Angels of Darkness/includes a letter
>>>>         from a doctor very worried about the effect on his daughter
>>>>         of reading and studying/Waiting for Godot/. It's quoted in
>>>>         this link: just click and search for Godot. I wonder if the
>>>>         doctor ever read/The Waves/.
>>>>
>>>>         http://www.samuel-beckett.net/Penelope/Beckett.html
>>>>
>>>>         Jeremy
>>>>
>>>>         _______________________________________________
>>>>         Vwoolf mailing list
>>>>         Vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
>>>>         <mailto:Vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
>>>>         https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
>>>
>>
>>
>>         _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     -- 
>>     Jean Mills
>>     Associate Professor
>>     The Department of English
>>     John Jay College/CUNY
>>     524 West 59th Street, Room 7.63.12
>>     New York, NY 10019
>>
>>     AUTHOR OF
>>     https://ohiostatepress.org/Books/Book%20Pages/Mills%20Virginia.html
>>
>>
>>     212.237.8706 <tel:212.237.8706>
>>     JEMILLS at JJAY.CUNY.EDU <mailto:JEMILLS at JJAY.CUNY.EDU>
>>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Jean Mills
> Associate Professor
> The Department of English
> John Jay College/CUNY
> 524 West 59th Street, Room 7.63.12
> New York, NY 10019
>
> AUTHOR OF
> https://ohiostatepress.org/Books/Book%20Pages/Mills%20Virginia.html
>
>
> 212.237.8706
> JEMILLS at JJAY.CUNY.EDU <mailto:JEMILLS at JJAY.CUNY.EDU>
>
>
>
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