Paradigm Shift
I was teaching my students about the box --the paradigm-- and when people start thinking and acting outside of the box--which is the paradigm shift.
I'm asking for a paradigm shift for the US.
Here's a comment I made to Cassie's Facebook page:
After Columbine, the schools were required to examine their anti-bullying policies. The rallying cry was, "Makes schools safe zones!" I even took a recertification course on Anti-bullying back in the 90s.
Also, character initiatives were instituted in public education. Schools were to teach character values to their students so they would become good citizens and hopefully repair what was broken in potential mass shooters. So in short, the nation's first impulse after Columbine was to require schools to take the lead in teaching what should have been taught in the home and in religious institutions,.Oh, but we can't mention established moral codes because that would infer their home life was lacking in someway if what Mommy and Daddy are doing at home didn't reflect the values we were teaching at school.
After Sandy Hook, we recognized that changing curriculum didn't work so then we focused on Hardening the schools. We changed emergency protocols. We built fences around schools. We installed better locks. We taught the kids how to "Run! Hide! Fight!." Again, we're finding that isn't as effective as we had hoped because if the perpetrator knows the protocol, he could easily work their way around them, as Nikolas Cruz demonstrated on February 14th.
Through out all of this, we blew smoke about making it more difficult to purchase guns so that mentally disturbed, criminally inclined, or emotionally compromised individuals couldn't get their hands on them, but those initiatives were quashed by the Pro-gun folks, voiced by the NRA, who have elevated the second amendment to the literary heights of holy scripture.
We've done all of this since Columbine except what has been proven to work in Australia, Canada, Britain, and Western Europe--in fact, due to congressional manipulation by the powerful gun lobby, it has become EASIER to get a gun since Columbine. The facts are the only thing we can do as a nation to stop this ridiculousness is to change the availability of guns in our country.
Now, watch the gun rights jihadists try to shoot my arguments down.
I'm asking for a paradigm shift for the US.
Here's a comment I made to Cassie's Facebook page:
After Columbine, the schools were required to examine their anti-bullying policies. The rallying cry was, "Makes schools safe zones!" I even took a recertification course on Anti-bullying back in the 90s.
Also, character initiatives were instituted in public education. Schools were to teach character values to their students so they would become good citizens and hopefully repair what was broken in potential mass shooters. So in short, the nation's first impulse after Columbine was to require schools to take the lead in teaching what should have been taught in the home and in religious institutions,.Oh, but we can't mention established moral codes because that would infer their home life was lacking in someway if what Mommy and Daddy are doing at home didn't reflect the values we were teaching at school.
After Sandy Hook, we recognized that changing curriculum didn't work so then we focused on Hardening the schools. We changed emergency protocols. We built fences around schools. We installed better locks. We taught the kids how to "Run! Hide! Fight!." Again, we're finding that isn't as effective as we had hoped because if the perpetrator knows the protocol, he could easily work their way around them, as Nikolas Cruz demonstrated on February 14th.
Through out all of this, we blew smoke about making it more difficult to purchase guns so that mentally disturbed, criminally inclined, or emotionally compromised individuals couldn't get their hands on them, but those initiatives were quashed by the Pro-gun folks, voiced by the NRA, who have elevated the second amendment to the literary heights of holy scripture.
We've done all of this since Columbine except what has been proven to work in Australia, Canada, Britain, and Western Europe--in fact, due to congressional manipulation by the powerful gun lobby, it has become EASIER to get a gun since Columbine. The facts are the only thing we can do as a nation to stop this ridiculousness is to change the availability of guns in our country.
Now, watch the gun rights jihadists try to shoot my arguments down.