Warnings In The Kite Runner

Blood. Violence. Sex. All things that are seen daily through media, or real life. For some people, this reality becomes too difficult to deal with, resulting in a sensitivity to a certain trigger. Because of this, many people are encouraging schools and colleges to enforce trigger warnings. However this defeats the purpose of learning. The purpose of learning is to take in new information and learn from it. When warnings are set in place for learning, some students are going to miss out on the opportunity to learn new lessons. There are, also, many ways that trigger warnings can be taken advantage of. By enforcing trigger warnings, we as a society would be encouraging people to shy away from things because they are considered too hard to handle.
Especially in a college classroom setting, the number of students can near hundreds. All of these students have one professor trying to meet all their needs and teach a class at the same time. It is highly unrealistic for a student to expect his own problems to be dealt with. Why should a professor make a specialized plan for him when the rest of the class is doing the assigned work? The book “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini is the story of two boys growing up together, but having very different views about the world. In the book, Amir and Hassan are growing up in Afghanistan together, but face bullies often. When Hassan is brutally raped by one of these boys, Amir stands and does nothing. There is no warning of this scene in the book’s description. A student reading this book may reach this part and read it, and shortly after, become stricken with panic or flashbacks. In the same moment, another student may read the book and become uncomfortable when reading the scene. Both students are reading the same material, but have very different reactions. Which student deserves special treatment for their condition? This also begs the question of whose responsibility a trigger warning is. Is it the author writing the book, the professor teaching it, or the student reading the book? No matter the answer, it is almost impossible to tailor each student’s needs without
Parents are notorious for trying to keep their kids sheltered from the hardships of the world. In the article it states that, “a student at Crafton Hills College and her parents called for several graphic novels she’d been assigned to be banned for what the student called their ‘shocking’ sex and violence.” The article does not mention the background of the family or why they considered normal aspects of society ‘shocking’. If one turns on a t.v. there is most likely going to be media displaying sex, violence, and much more. In a school environment, a student is able to take this information, have it explained and gather more facts on it. By denying their children the right to learn about sensitive topics, the parents are making it that much harder for their kids to live in today’s world.
Trigger warnings place a barrier on learning. Not only do people lying about having triggers affect people who actually have a mental health disorder, but a child cannot learn to overcome their trigger if they are not exposed to it in their lives. A classroom setting is an extremely important resource for children to overcome fears. It is not only safe, but accepting of differences. Professors should not have to censor themselves, and therefore restrict