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Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 11:19:29 -0400 (EDT)
Random Thought: Littleton Tragedy
Tragic, tragic, tragic. The events in Littleton, Col. The tragedy
is so widespread. We have lost so much of the future. The tragedy lays
in those people who had their lives snuffed out--shot and shooters alike--
in the mourning families and friends left behind to wonder, in those
kids--and they were kids--and their families, who did the shooting and
others who may have been involved. It would be even more tragic if the
rest of us let ourselves be victimized and placed things far out of
proportion and not into some perspective however difficult that may be, if
we pulled out our soapbox and used this monstrous human event to further a
political or social agenda with a series of finger pointing "should
haves," "could haves," "would haves," and "I told you so's." That's
inevitable, but let the mourners mourn before we publically bemoan and
accuse and blame.
I just told someone, using the vulgar vernacular, "shit happens."
That sounds so callous and clinical and disengaged. I don't mean it to
be. I passed my locked synagogue last night and said a small, silent
prayer in the parking lot. I did the same thing on my walk this morning.
But, Littleton events are by no means rampant. We shouldn't let ourselves
rush to judgement and panic into thinking that the extreme abberation is
the norm; we shouldn't see potential shooters around every corner, in
every tattoo, in every body piercing, in every dyed hard, in every song
and blouse; we shouldn't imprison ourselves or our kids in unreasonable
concerns or fear; and we shouldn't look for quick and simple answers
however initially they may be emotionally satisfying.
We always look for quick simple answers and want hardened
guarantees. The cottage industry of pop-psychologists and professional
talking heads are in full action standing atop their electronic boxes
pontificating about security, guns, television, movies, music, family
values, and on and on and on. In the process of the search we grossly
distort the truth, whatever that truth may be. Maybe the truth is that
there are no simple answers and there are no guarantees and there are no
sure predictabilities simply because simply because we cannot control all
people or events around us, and more importantly because each person is a
unique variation on any generalization we can concoct. Each person is the
authentic exception to the artificial rule. In cold statistical terms,
school is still the safest place to be, your car is the most dangerous. I
am about to fly off to present a teaching workshop. They tell me that
flying is safer than driving. Of course, statistics don't mean a thing ,
and you don't want to know from statistics, when it happens to you and/or
your loved ones, and your number hits for better or worse.
Now, I don't know the what, whys, and especially the who's, of
what happened, who those kids were--and they were kids--whether they were
outcasts, unnoticed, belittled. I do know, especially from personal
experiences with my younger son, that in our rush for efficiency, in our
concentration on controlled discipline, in our focus on grades, SAT
scores, and the like we often unwittingly engage in a subtle form of human
sacrifice in which students are unintended dispersonalized, screened,
tracked, weeded-out, discarded, disregarded victims. We often lose sight
of the truth that teaching is real and personal; that each student holds
up a sign, as the TV ad tells us, that reads "I AM" and wants you to read,
and which we must read; that the real magnificance is not in the
technology, information or technique--not in the score or grade--but in
the person. Each student, conformist or non-conformist, adjusted or
troubled, in or out of the mould is a three-dimensional, valuable, unique
human being. The mission of a teacher is not just to raise the SAT score,
or to transmit a certain amount of information, or merely to appended a
grade. It should be to wake up a consciousness, to make people think about
things they haven't thought about before, to offer hope, to change
attitude towards life, to give each person an intellectually, emotionally,
spiritually healthy start in life. So maybe if there is a lesson to be
drawn, it is that each of us teachers should step out of the academic
frame and bring back love and caring into a too often otherwise lifeless,
cold data banking system.
Now, it is easy for me to write that no one should be left out,
that no one should go uninvited to the party, that no one should be
ignored or made fun of or whispered about, or left out in the cold. It is
easy to profess a faith and hope in each person; it is easy to have a
strong belief in each person. I find that the hard part is living my
faith and hope and love, or, as they would say, putting my heart where my
mouth and fingers are. But, living rather than merely professing, I have
discovered is the only cure to an emotional and spiritual heart disease.
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