The Negative Effects Of Trigger Warnings

Caution Creates Chaos
Trigger Warnings alerts to the audience used to inform that the content being presented contains potentially distressing material. Several students and administrators are pushing towards the practice of trigger warnings in the classroom environment to avoid offending students with post-traumatic stress disorder who have experienced sexual violence, child abuse, military combat, or any other type of traumatic situation. Trigger warnings are being enforced to protect students from disturbing or uncomfortable material, but they could lead to an educational disadvantage.
One of the most notable effects of using trigger warnings would be that they hinder academic freedom. Teachers are forced to alter their lesson plans and
Trigger warnings cause students to take advantage and opt-out of the assignments given in class by making up excuses as to why it is uncomfortable for them to learn about a certain subject. Donald A. Downs, a research fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, claims, “And what if a student refuses to read the flagged material, however important it is to the class? Do not trigger warnings seem to allow students the right to refuse reading a text?” (McClathy-Tribune). Allowing these students to dismiss themselves from an assignment may cause students to degrade themselves of the education they need depending on the importance of the task. The arising of this discipline issue is yet another negative result of trigger warnings. Students may decide that an assignment is going to be to hard so, they may see that trigger warnings are a way to get out of learning and applying important
If students are opting-out of assignments that they need to learn about, they will be neglected of the information they need in the future. The objective of education is to grow students into outstanding open minded individuals who create new theories and ways of thinking. Therefore, if they aren’t taught to contemplate outside the box and to challenge their beliefs, then students will soon conform to being intolerant of other views and furthermore restrict themselves from reaching true intelligence. In “How Trigger Warnings are Hurting Mental Health on Campus” Greg Lukianoff insist, “Today, what we call the Socratic Method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them. Such questioning sometimes leads to discomfort, and even to anger, on the way to understanding.” (Lukianoff ). Lukianoff maintains that if students are not participating in questioning what they believe and testing new theories, they are creating a narrow mind for