on school shootings
Twelve years ago, when I began my teaching career, it occurred to me that what I need most from society, in particular the parents of the students I teach, is that they love their children more than I love their children.
It’s quite simple, really. There is only so much I can do, seeing as I only see any one child for, on average, one hour a day. Hence, as much as I love my students (and I do, as love is very much a verb), it’s imperative that parents love their children more.
So today I’m sitting in what’s called Active Shooter Training. Some of the ideas presented were fairly logical and reasonable, and others struck me as being faintly ridiculous. But what struck me the most is that there may be some tacit assumption that teachers, as a general rule, are willing to die for their students.
Twelve years ago, I believed that I would die for any student. Now, I can say with certainty that I would not. I am no less passionate than I was twelve years ago, and I am definitely better at teaching and even at caring about my students than I was twelve years ago. But I need the adults in this country to care about their children more than I do. And as long as there’s resistance to even a modicum of gun control, the message to me is loud and clear: it’s okay to sacrifice our children for the privilege of having access to not only handguns and hunting rifles, but to guns that are explicitly designed to kill other human beings. And why shouldn’t I follow the rest of the country’s lead?
A colleague of mine made an important point today. The call to arm teachers is the height of hypocrisy in this nation. The majority of school shooters are students themselves. This means that, if teachers were to be armed, we would also be expected to be willing to shoot one of our own current or former students. My fellow American citizens, if you think that teachers should be armed in order to potentially take down a school shooter, take a good hard look in the mirror, because you are asking us to protect your own children, but are you also asking us to kill your children if they are the ones who make the decision to pick up a gun?
It’s quite simple, really. There is only so much I can do, seeing as I only see any one child for, on average, one hour a day. Hence, as much as I love my students (and I do, as love is very much a verb), it’s imperative that parents love their children more.
So today I’m sitting in what’s called Active Shooter Training. Some of the ideas presented were fairly logical and reasonable, and others struck me as being faintly ridiculous. But what struck me the most is that there may be some tacit assumption that teachers, as a general rule, are willing to die for their students.
Twelve years ago, I believed that I would die for any student. Now, I can say with certainty that I would not. I am no less passionate than I was twelve years ago, and I am definitely better at teaching and even at caring about my students than I was twelve years ago. But I need the adults in this country to care about their children more than I do. And as long as there’s resistance to even a modicum of gun control, the message to me is loud and clear: it’s okay to sacrifice our children for the privilege of having access to not only handguns and hunting rifles, but to guns that are explicitly designed to kill other human beings. And why shouldn’t I follow the rest of the country’s lead?
A colleague of mine made an important point today. The call to arm teachers is the height of hypocrisy in this nation. The majority of school shooters are students themselves. This means that, if teachers were to be armed, we would also be expected to be willing to shoot one of our own current or former students. My fellow American citizens, if you think that teachers should be armed in order to potentially take down a school shooter, take a good hard look in the mirror, because you are asking us to protect your own children, but are you also asking us to kill your children if they are the ones who make the decision to pick up a gun?