I think I have shown great restraint in not approaching the arming of schools, teachers, counselors, etc. After all, it has been some time since the mass killings at Sandy Hook. But the more I hear about this asinine approach – guess where my beliefs lie – the more I question the sanity of the American people.
I spent five long years becoming a teacher. A damn good teacher. I was a high school dropout – the day I turned 16 – because I was bored, frustrated and, for the most part invisible to my teachers and staff. (Perhaps that was because I ditched more days than I was in attendance, but I didn’t ditch to have fun; rather I ditched because I had a job that paid me good money and I didn’t see what school was going to teach me that I wasn’t already using in my job. (I was a pharmacy tech – although not called that back in the early 50’s – but worked close to 40 hours a week and had a car that I had to support.)
Because of my horrible experiences with school, I decided that I would become a teacher and motivate students to learn using highly innovative means to do so. It must have worked, because even today I hear from some of my students that were in my first classes (and that was back in the 60’s) and they tell me that they owe me a lot for understanding their needs and setting up personal objectives for them. [Read more…]