Thursday, May 12, 2016

Good for him …

 I'm a Professor Who Doesn't Use Trigger Warnings. Here's Why. - Reason.com.
The benefits of letting students experience literature for themselves in this way were demonstrated during a recent class discussion. My students had read Planet of the Apes (also known as Monkey Planet), the 1963 novel by French author Pierre Boulle that inspired the movies. A suspenseful satire, it’s an easy, fun read despite some disturbing content. The only introductory note I provided to my students was that they might look for connections between the book and Part IV of Gulliver’s Travels, which we read the week before. I conducted class as I often do, asking students to point out scenes, sentences, or details they wanted to discuss and letting the conversation go where it may. A student volunteered. She had found the behavior of the book’s protagonist-narrator, Ulysse, toward the female love interest, Nova, to be “very disturbing.” 
This is wonderful demonstration of what authentic teaching is all about.

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