Risk assessment
Nov. 1st, 2011 10:24 pmI am wondering, not 100% seriously it has to be said, about doing some sort of risk assessment to avoid traumatising my students. I should probably let on that, contrary to whatever image I might have, I don't actually *do* anything nasty to them. It's more that when we get onto the more 'moral' areas (as opposed to whether we exist, nobody seems too scared by the thought that they might be dreaming or a brain in a vat) the concrete examples start flying, and they get nasty. Today's topic was freedom and determinism, with a bit of foreshadowing for next week's on free will (or the lack of it) and moral responsibility. So I used a chain of events example, the circumstances that pushed Gavrilo Princip to pull the trigger, causing the first world war and by extension the second and possibly the Cold War. Some of the students were concerned that determinism seemed to be making it ok that horrible things had happened. so I played devils advocate (standard practice if I have a group who all agree on a point of view) and asked whether determinism could at least provide some sort of consolation because you couldn't stop it. So by that point we'd had a fill of war crimes, but needed a new concrete example. The one I came up with was the difference between hitting someone with a car (assuming we're within the speed limit and the brakes are properly maintained, ok I forgot I was talking to people who've just left high school but whatever) and with a train (far less likely to stop in time, forget the exact distance - it was roughly similar to the distance between the two level crossings in my village) (BTW I didn't manage to incorporate combine harvesters, mad raging bulls or slurry lagoons into the conversation, so some of the safety lessons I had to sit through in my younger days remain wasted) Then for some variety we got back onto the Nazis and types of resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto, which sadly for my students I'd been reading about for non-work purposes.
At some point in proceedings one of the girls left the room to go to the toilet, without doing anything daft like putting her hand up to let me know. So I spent the duration of her lavatorial visit (not short, because the loos in that building hardly ever seem to be conveniently located and you may have to go further to get one in a decent condition - don't ask me for criteria...) in a state of mild and thankfully concealed panic that I'd inspired someone to go out to cry or throw up. I was sometimes known to have that response as an undergraduate, and I'd signed up for a course on fascism knowing what we were likely to have to read, see and discuss. I didn't innocently blunder into intro to philosophy and stumble across the unpleasantness! Luckily this particular person just needed to wee.
So yes, I am semi-seriously considering either handing out questionnaires to investigate people's sensitivities (not so useful because I can't do much about what other students will bring up when I ask them for examples) or else disclaimers to say it isn't my responsibility if someone is freaked out by the subject matter. Or I may wait until next term when we look at abortion...
At some point in proceedings one of the girls left the room to go to the toilet, without doing anything daft like putting her hand up to let me know. So I spent the duration of her lavatorial visit (not short, because the loos in that building hardly ever seem to be conveniently located and you may have to go further to get one in a decent condition - don't ask me for criteria...) in a state of mild and thankfully concealed panic that I'd inspired someone to go out to cry or throw up. I was sometimes known to have that response as an undergraduate, and I'd signed up for a course on fascism knowing what we were likely to have to read, see and discuss. I didn't innocently blunder into intro to philosophy and stumble across the unpleasantness! Luckily this particular person just needed to wee.
So yes, I am semi-seriously considering either handing out questionnaires to investigate people's sensitivities (not so useful because I can't do much about what other students will bring up when I ask them for examples) or else disclaimers to say it isn't my responsibility if someone is freaked out by the subject matter. Or I may wait until next term when we look at abortion...