After what happened on Friday I was overloaded with thoughts and emotions as any other human being would be. Especially as a teacher I was really affected and saddened by what happened. I was surprised as the weekend went by that my emotions quickly changed to feelings of annoyance and anger. As I watched what was a time or mourning turn into more debates and hatred toward one another over guns and safety and all other debates you can image. In a month from now this will all die down and everyone will move on with this expect our schools, the schools will all still be in the situation they are in and that is what really frustrates me.
A school shooting is honestly a one in a million chance if not way more than that. When you think about how many schools are in the U.S. and how many shootings there are the statistics are low. What is high are many other troubling situations that can sometimes lead up to these shootings. The chances of a school having a school fight, a kid bullied, a suicide, a kid get discriminated against, a student or teacher getting threatened, or anything like that are very high. In fact those things are happening in schools everyday. The media posts all kinds of things on bullying and suicide but what about gangs, fights, and all other types of violence. Those are things happening everyday as well. Not to undermine school shootings but there are very few things we can do about that one in a million chance and a lot of things we can do about these things happening everyday.
The truth is everyday students out number teachers. They always will, in fact, every school has more students than they do teachers. So therefore the people determining whether or not a school is safe are those students. Everyday, each student comes to school and makes decisions on how they will contribute to their school, and if that school will be safe or not. Will they choose to bully, fight, argue or will they do the opposite.
This is where I reach out to you parents for your help and all adults that have in any influence on any child. If there is one thing I know as a teacher it is that most of what students choose to do comes from what they see at home and this is what angers me most. There are so many parents complaining about school safety, but then let their kids watch violent shows, play violent video games, or worse make angry, racist, intolerable comments about other people in front of their kids. Then wonder why their kids go to school the next day and repeat the same words or beat up the kid in their class.
If people really want safe schools here is how you do it, you create safe students. At home, at church, in your neighborhood, on the internet, we are all constant examples to kids and will either create safe smart kids or violent ignorant kids. So please as a teacher this is my plea, ask yourself, am I an adult helping to create safe children in this community or am I sitting back expecting something or someone else to do it for me. I'm sorry but no weapon, no political leader, no one can influence a child as much as the love of a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, an aunt/uncle, a church leader, and we as those people will help to create these safe kids and safe schools we all dream of.
Lastly, adults out there don't be discouraged. Even though this incident this weekend was an adult, most of the time it is not, and frankly he was a very young adult. I had this entire conversation today with 160 8th graders, and as I looked into their eyes I could see they all felt the same concerns I did. I promise you there are still many, many good kids out there. With the same concerns as us, who want to feel safe, who are full of life, love, and joy, and I feel blessed everyday to be a part of their lives. As long as we never forget that this generation we are raising are our future adults, our future leaders, then we can be confident that we will have done all we could and I am confident that they will astonish us all.
No comments:
Post a Comment