Educational Rant- School Shootings

I did a google search:

This made me tear up.  I know this though.  I see it every day.  I have written about this.  School sucks.

When I was in school, I loved school.  I loved it from the time I was little.  I can recall at a very early age asking my mom when I get to go to school again…it might have been summer.  I couldn’t wait to get back to school.  I loved learning.  School was fun.  I got to do things.  Even in high school, I loved school.  But, it could be that I hated my home life.  Especially in high school.   I grew up in crazy so school was the sane place.  School felt good.  I must have gotten something positive at school that I wasn’t getting at home.  But regardless I got something from school that made me want to be there.

When I look around, and I see my students with a faint and dull look in their eyes. When I ask them to think and they can’t, I get sad.  When I try to get excited about something, and they see no value in it, it depresses me. When I typed in the words “School makes me feel…” and saw what came up, ugh.  This is what kids are putting in.  This is how they feel.    And yet we can’t figure out why schools are getting shot up.  Kids spend 7 hours of their day, 5 days a week in place they don’t like.  In a place that does not feel good, that does not make them feel empowered.  They go a to building every day and sit in a room in a desk and are not happy.

Disclaimer:  Not all schools feel this way and not all kids think this way.  I am just pulling from my own observations.

But, look what is happening.  Kids are taking action.  Kids are standing up and walking out.  Kids are deciding to try to take matters into their own hands.  They realize no one else is going to do it.  And with this little bit of movement on their part, they may start to feel a purpose.  They may begin to see how they do have a voice; that they can be heard.  And with that little bit of power, they may decide they have had enough of other things going on around them. Stuff they deal with daily.  Maybe they will take a stand against bad educational decisions. Perhaps against testing.  Maybe fight for a better system.  It is my hope these kids will take this activism as far as they can and make education what they know it should be.

I have been listening to the news and reporters are always amazed at these kids speaking up and standing for something.  They say things like “She is only 17 years old,”  And I roll my eyes.  Because in my mind, I am like, “Yeah, she is 17 years old! If you all would just listen to them in the first place we may not have these problems at all”  Give them credit.  Teens are not idiots.  In fact, I find them to be the most interesting people I know.  They have big ideas.  They have this amazing ability to look at the world with hope and an open mind.  They have yet to be beaten down by policy and the world.  They are still rebellious.  They have fight in them. Who better to take on policy-makers?  Who better to challenge the system? Who better to think outside the box and promote change?  Teens are it.  Teens are the voice.  Don’t be so surprised when they speak up and speak out.  You can only oppress a group for so long before they decide to fight back.  And these kids will begin fighting.  Google search how they feel…they don’t want to feel this way.  And they shouldn’t.

Lastly,  Maybe, is it possible, that if our kids felt empowered and felt good at school, maybe just maybe they wouldn’t be shooting schools? Maybe with a sense of purpose to their day? Maybe if we made school a place that supported and empowered them? Maybe. I am sure there is a lot more to shootings than this, but no one asks why… they just spout off about gun control.

We need to find the reason and the solution, not put a band-aid on the problem.  Gun control is not the answer, it’s just a quick fix. The question we should be asking is, “why are our youth so unhappy and what can we do to help?”