Sunday, October 11, 2015

The Coddling of the American Mind

Lisa Yee
ASA 002
11 October 2015
Blog #4

In “The Coddling of the American Mind,” students have been demanding their school officials to not use specific ideas or words that seems offensive to them. The two terms, microaggressions and trigger warnings, are constantly brought up throughout the article. Microaggressions are words or questions that are not intentionally meant to be cruel but comes off as offensive to some individuals. Trigger warnings are cautionary forewarnings which teachers and professors use in their lessons so it would not “trigger” a heated response from students who have suffered from past incidents. Some individuals believe the best solution to prevent students from psychological harm is to help them avoid situations where they could come across concepts that may seem offensive. However, psychologists have found this solution lead to vindictive protectiveness, in which individuals give backlash to anyone who may have brought up terms that may have been unintentionally interpreted as offensive. This causes people to be more hesitant to speak up during certain conversations. A better solution is instead of refraining students from avoiding situations, teach them how to think during these events. It will help students adapt better in an environment where people have different interpretations of specific topics.


Question: What are some of the benefits if school officials incorporated cognitive behavioral therapy instead of trigger warnings?      

       

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