THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THE LEARNING PROCESS THAT REQUIRES STUDENT COMFORT: Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm. This “trigger warning” stuff is an embarrassment to higher education. On the bright side, it’s only one of many such embarrassments . . . .
But the lesson from UCSB sophomore Bailey Loverin’s demand for “trigger warnings” seems to be that women are just too fragile for higher education. Perhaps they should attend special colleges, designed for their frailer sensibilities. On the other hand, those who don’t like the current higher education establishment might take some amusement from the way it is tearing itself apart: “Any student who felt triggered by something that happened in class could file a complaint with the various procedures and judicial boards, and create a very tortuous process for anyone.”