Vengeance

Speculative psychology kinda thrived not so long ago when it was cool to be known as seeing a shrink. Not so today, right? We go it alone today, tough guys. Grandparents? Ha! What do they know?

And still the campus shootings continue. To posit that in the minds of young people today are thoughts of themselves, or their friends being sent to the Middle East, armed, with prospects of coming home lightened up by the loss of a limb, or in a box to be dropped in the hole while mournful instruments play must sound too nuts to even be examined.  So, it could be posited, why couldn't a healthy young college student get it into his head to hurry up the process right now with a rapid fire shot gun? A lecture hall seating a thousand possible future soldiers, male and female, can be an instant battle ground: heck, it feels like one anyway without birthing via having hostile thoughts. 

Campus shootings are so commonplace in America that teachers, I believe, some of them anyway, ask themselves 'When willl it happen in MY classroom?' My seven year old, yes S E V E N, was charged by his woman teacher of conspiring to shoot her. Several of the other conspirators were sent home for three days, while my peace-loving son Patrick was 'fined' only one day at home. I was summoned by the school assistant Principal for a conference. I pointed out that so far a seven year old had never been involved in an actual school shooting, and that the whole thing was a "Tempest in a tea pot." I suppose my name on campus is now anathema. She should have taken it up with her labor union, not a parent. Blame, how popular it is.

Barry

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• #1 Comment from bgilmore725 
  2/16/08 1:41 PM | Permalink

  Barry, youth is on your son's side... this is one day in one year of his entire life. By next year all will have forgotten it, including his friends... I hope you and he can move on and be hopeful. There will be other grade levels, other teachers, and other friends. You teach him what you want him to know, and how you want him to be, and you set the example for him, you and your wife. Your peaceful son will follow you... he is still malleable, only partially formed. One year, when my son was in kindergarten, the principal said to me, "Mrs. G, this is just one year in your son's life. It's a drop in the bucket of his entire lifetime. Don't let it color the rest of his school year." He was smiling when he said , his voice soft and caring. I took it to heart... after that, we never had an issue with a teacher that we couldn't resolve by talking face to face. Whenever something came up, a disagreement, an expectation, a course assignment, homework issues, etc. whether from him or from a teacher, we'd go in and talk face to face as soon as possible. Communication between parents, students, and teachers is so important. My rule is to always be polite, always give the other person the benefit of the doubt, and to allow time for the changes to take place. Here's what I know: Teachers don't hold the past against a student. Life is full of misunderstandings as well as second chances. All the teachers I've worked with generally lean over backwards for their students. Our goal is to help build up their foundations of learning. Life is filled with problems to solve. Our primary goal is to teach them to be problem solvers (and good readers!). How you solve problems, (academic, relational, artistic, personal, etc) is how they will approach problem solving. They don't always remember word for word what we tell them, but they will get the big point at the end of the day. Patrick has a promising life ahead of him. bea
  
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