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Cambridge Uni students get Shakespeare trigger warnings
Shakespeare contains gore and violence that might "upset" you, Cambridge University students have been warned. The "trigger warnings" - red triangles with an exclamation mark - appeared on their English lecture timetables.
Lectures including Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus contain "discussion of sexual violence, sexual assault", the BBC's Newsnight programme has learned.
The university said the warnings were "at the lecturer's own discretion" and "not a faculty-wide policy". The lecture timetables were issued to this term's students by the university's faculty of English.
[...] Asked about the warnings, one Cambridge academic who did not wish to be named, said their "duty as educators was to prepare students for the world not protect them for three years". Prof Dennis Hayes from Derby University's education faculty said: "Once you get a few trigger warnings, lecturers will stop presenting anything that is controversial... gradually, there is no critical discussion".
Cambridge University said the English faculty "does not have a policy on trigger warnings", but added: "Some lecturers indicate that some sensitive material will be covered in a lecture... this is entirely at the lecturer's own discretion and is in no way indicative of a faculty-wide policy."
Forsooth!
Also at Cambridge News, The Guardian, and The Independent.
(Score: 5, Funny) by krishnoid on Friday October 20 2017, @06:02AM (2 children)
I'm mostly concerned that there's enough detail in those trigger warnings to make them spoilers. That's just unforgivable.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 20 2017, @04:08PM (1 child)
What if the things in the trigger warnings are the only things you need to know for the exam?
Thank Cambridge for protecting the precious minds of young students from upsetting things. Once they graduate from academia, they won't ever have to worry about encountering upsetting things.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 20 2017, @05:24PM
You do realize that the warnings to do prevent students from reading / listening right? For the slackers it just changes the method from "I'm siiiick" to "I'm twigahd!" No censorship, no watering down of academia, just fear mongering by people without perspective.