Thread: Agree or Disagree?

Here is my opinion.

I think the reason for school shootings is that if someone is twisted enough to take that dive…there isn’t a better place to make a name for themselves than in a school shooting. Every news media outlet around the world will cover it and by the time anyone realized a school shooting was taking place…far too much tragedy has already occurred. Whereas, if someone brought a gun to a soccer game or a mall…the body count might not be as high due to many environmental factors. Sorry about being so graphic but I think school shootings have little to do with revenge, being an outcast, or retribution…it’s about getting attention and/or fame.

“Dissuaded from making moral distinctions, fed a
daily diet of an "I'm okay, you're okay" philosophy,
denied logic, knowledge and truth, and driven by
unknown fears and anxieties, today's young people
are left with nothing but their untutored "feelings"
and "emotions" as their guides through the trials
and tribulations of adolescence. Thus we should
not be surprised when they respond with outbursts
of rage and acts of violence when things don't go
their way.”

No…we should always be surprised by outbursts of rage and violence. My father went to school during WW II, I think his generation qualifies for living with REAL fear of the unknown and I don't remember reading about school shootings way back then…and I grew up with the Road Runner and Coyote but I know of no one who has ever been smashed in the head with an Acme anvil.

The article seems to place the blame of school shootings at the feet of the teachers…teachers are not to blame for acts of violence in schools…no more than the bus drivers or the cafeteria lady. The blame should be placed on those who commit the acts themselves.

Aren't college professors the ones who teach Progressive education to teachers? Oh…wait! That would make it THEIR fault…Who prepare the teachers to teach?…everybody…college professors.

I find it rather humorous that a college professor is speaking out on the topic of “unjustifiably high opinions of themselves”…I guess they would all be experts in this field.

“If Americans want to stop school-yard violence and
address the social pathologies that increasingly
afflict our young, if they want to turn our schools
into serious places of learning, they should
abandon their deadly experiment in Progressive
education and restore a curriculum that emphasizes
reason over emotions, knowledge over feelings,
moral judgment over moral agnosticism, and
self-control over self-expression.”

We have openings in our district for someone like the author. Is he ready to role up his sleeves and earn his pay? Or would he rather pontificate from the sidelines?

Otto13

well said otto. Those were my thoughts exactly, but I could not have phrased it as well as you did.

Thompson did much of his graduate work at Brown University and has a highly acclaimed book recently written about John Adams. Adams himself was a pompus arrogant ass, and I think some of this has crept into Thompson's rhetoric.

Listen up because I really mean this - I've told Thompson (when he was writing like articles to our local paper when he lived here) that he tends to go over the top. Or, in other words, he does have good points, yet tends to ailenate people with "how" he delivers his writing. I think this is a classic case (this article).

Thompson is no ivory tower liberal Michael Stivic. Quite the opposite - he's conservative. I also know too that he tried VERY hard to support the local schools while here. He is a paradox. My brother and I got to know him on a personal basis and he's very easy to talk to, quiet and polite. He just has strong views on education, and if you cut through his seemingly arrogant delivery with the written word, he makes some good points.

His biggest beefs are with university teacher training, "gimmick" teaching methods that are held on to when it's proven they don't work, and students leaving public schools who are not ready for college or the real world. These are broad strokes, but I happen to believe he has some legit concerns.

CSW

Originally Posted by C. Stan White

Listen up because I really mean this...

...He just has strong views on education, and if you cut through his seemingly arrogant delivery with the written word, he makes some good points...

CSW

I agree with you on one point...that he is arrogant. I do believe I did cut through his delivery. His article blames teachers for school shootings. On that point I disagree.

Otto13

I agree with some things in the article. For example, I think relativism has essentially destroyed the concept of having standards in public schools, to their detriment. I also think that the self-esteem practices like giving awards to all students irrespective of merit was/is a grave error. But I think the school shootings represent something even more serious- the lack of parental involvement. The parents in this particular case mentioned might as well have not existed. The kids were fed, clothed, sent to school- other than that, they just existed, like furniture. Unlike furniture, however, kids are sentient, and these chose to do evil, since they lived in a vacuum insofar as morals or standards are concerned. But that is not the fault of the school per se- inculcating a world view or cosmology is only done in the school systems of totalitarian states and not appropriate to ours. So on that part, I don't agree. The moral compass must be built in the home.

Oh sure, I think Thompson, IF he really thinks teachers are the "cause" of school shootings (which I don't believe he really believes) is wrong. Thompson is a historian, so he knows - our should - that there never is one "answer" to the cause of a problem.

On the other hand, John Boy is correct in my view. There are a myriad of factors that cause nihlistic (sp?), depressed and violent people - kids. Did you read about that guy in Florida (vacationing there, he lived in Alton, Illionis) who threw his kids out the window of a hotel then jumped afterwards? We just had a dude go off and shoot two people before killing himself two days ago, and his suicide note blamed the doctors for his problems.

I think we have a culture that has way too much time on its hands and - as the old saying goes - free time is the playground of the Devil. That's a general broad-stroke statement. But when you pile on the debauchery in the media, news, music, movies coming out of "Hollywierd" and on and on and on - plus new psychoactive drugs to deal with "depression" and the misuse thereof (just to name a few problems), why, no wonder!

If anything, it's our duty and calling as teachers to stand up and make a stand against all of this, not be part of it. I think the majority try.

CSW