Guns are Bad
I am supposed to be teaching a “violence reduction” curriculum one day a week to my first period history class. The main thrust of this curriculum is the reason why violence is on the rise in schools is the “prevalence of guns” in American society. Yep, that is the main thrust. Guns are bad. How about parents who just got out of jail and don’t make it home to see their children because they had to stop at the bar? How about a subculture that glorifies the”thug life”? How about music in which young women are called “bitches and ho’s”? What about a society which sexualizes 11, 12 and 13 year old girls but calls anything a 11, 12,or 13 year old boy might do “violent”, “aggressive” or “sexually inappropriate”? How about a society which teaches parents that they should be permissive and that no one, police officers and teachers included, has any right to discipline their “babies”? How about a school district administration who refuses to expel dangerous and unruly students because that “is just their culture”? What about parents who don’t worry while their children fail every single class but threaten to sue if you send the child home for dressing inappropriately at school? I suppose that none of those things contribute to the rise in violence and increased chaos in our public schools. Yep, guns are bad. Right.