I'm bringing this up not in the heat or anniversary of some awful school shooting, but because once again some misguided adults tried an active shooter simulation on students. Active shooter drills are pretty upsetting in the best of times. I've been through them, and the experience was unnerving.
A school safety presentation I had to sit through as a staff member featured suggestions that rooms should be de-identified and student work in the hallway shouldn’t have names on it so an angry, possibly non-custodial, parent couldn’t easily find the classroom/teacher/kid they were looking for. In an elementary school. Saying elementary school can’t be a welcoming environment for little kids because of the potential for violence.
The same police officer also mentioned that the way they conducted drills, they would have people go around and check the classroom doors, and even if they were locked, if they could hear people inside, would unlock the door and tell the kids in there they were dead because they made noise.
It's like we're living in a period where legislation is shaped by utter fantasies - imaginations shaped by cheap, simplistic stories.
The gun lobby seems hellbent on turning the world into the Mad Max hellscape they already think it is. The Silicon Valley aristocracy seem to think the best of their astonishing $$$ is to live out some kind of Star Trek dream. Christian jihadists want to create a world where babies are always problem-free, where men are men and women are women, and we can all come together with Jesus.
Cultures are shaped as much by the stories we tell each other about the world, as they are by the facts of the world itself. And it's never been clearer to me that we need kids to read serious stories, real stories, lots of stories, written by people who wanted to tell thoughtful stories - not by some committee trying to hit all the targets laid out in the 4th Grade Reading Standards for their state.
I expect better in Vermont, but no...
A school safety presentation I had to sit through as a staff member featured suggestions that rooms should be de-identified and student work in the hallway shouldn’t have names on it so an angry, possibly non-custodial, parent couldn’t easily find the classroom/teacher/kid they were looking for. In an elementary school. Saying elementary school can’t be a welcoming environment for little kids because of the potential for violence.
The same police officer also mentioned that the way they conducted drills, they would have people go around and check the classroom doors, and even if they were locked, if they could hear people inside, would unlock the door and tell the kids in there they were dead because they made noise.
Well said. Thank you Peter.
It's like we're living in a period where legislation is shaped by utter fantasies - imaginations shaped by cheap, simplistic stories.
The gun lobby seems hellbent on turning the world into the Mad Max hellscape they already think it is. The Silicon Valley aristocracy seem to think the best of their astonishing $$$ is to live out some kind of Star Trek dream. Christian jihadists want to create a world where babies are always problem-free, where men are men and women are women, and we can all come together with Jesus.
Cultures are shaped as much by the stories we tell each other about the world, as they are by the facts of the world itself. And it's never been clearer to me that we need kids to read serious stories, real stories, lots of stories, written by people who wanted to tell thoughtful stories - not by some committee trying to hit all the targets laid out in the 4th Grade Reading Standards for their state.
Duck and cover didn't work so they had to invent school shootings.
There are no unintended consequences in politics.
If you've got 'em by the denial mechanism, their hearts and minds will follow.
On of the reasons I quit teaching.