Not While I'm Teaching

My nephew turned 18 recently. We had his family birthday gathering last night. It was a joyful event. My mother likes to start current events conversations; since we are a family of educators, she inquired what we thought about the idea of teachers being armed. I was the first to speak up and unequivocally stated, "It's bullshit."

Yes! Stand united against the idiocy, goats!

I'm not as angsty this week as I was last week, but I will not mince words when it comes to the stupidity that is arming teachers. Good guys with guns has been debunked. Even when good guys with guns are on premises, that doesn't help especially when they don't even go into the building. Asking teachers to potentially kill a student they know is asinine. Asking teachers to leave their room full of students to go hunt for a shooter is asinine. I've even heard that some who think teachers should be armed should pay for the firearm and training themselves. That's no surprise. That's how current continuing ed credits work. Enroll, work, pay for it, submit transcript, and then you can move on the pay scale. But it won't cover the investment you made in its entirety; not right away. But hey! You need a gun, so suck it up and go! you gunslinger you. I completely resent and rebuke the whole idea of being armed.

I. Will. Resist.

I've said since the first time this idea got floated in the populace that I'd quit before I'd work in a school where teachers concealed carry. It's not that I don't trust teachers who have carried and used weapons safely for years, but it's a variable that I didn't sign on for. It's asking for a student to get that gun and kill someone or kill themselves. An accident waiting to happen isn't out of the question given the number of accidents that occur with young children finding guns. There was a 3rd grader recently who fired the gun of a police officer who was doing a presentation at the kid's school. Yeah. Got a policeman's' gun and fired it. Widespread concealed carry near children is a good idea.

No need to tell me. I know it's bullshit.

Of course, then comes the question about what the hell I'd do if I quit. Well, I'd strike and work to repeal that law first, but if those didn't work? I guess I'd seek or start my own non-profit to fight the practice. I'd also look at starting my own private school.

Well, maybe not the greatest, Rob. Stop. You make me blush.

*bats lashes with faux modesty*

I know enough teachers and retired teachers around here who are opposed to the whole idea. I think we'd get more than enough staff to start our own in-house or in-community schools. It could start small like the old one room school houses of old. I'm not sure if we'd have to start under home school laws or if we'd have to find another way to start up. But I'd seriously look into how'd it work if a stupid law like concealed carry happened here.

It has merit, Eric.

It's not a far-fetched idea in Montana. The concealed carry that is. A bill was proposed a few years ago for just that purpose, but we fought it off. I'm sure it'll come back around now that guns in schools is popular again. I know some states like Texas already allow for concealed carry with teachers. The notion terrifies me. A student finds it and uses it on others. A student finds it and commits suicide. A teacher panics and shoots at the wrong person. A teacher shoots and the ricochet harms an innocent. A teacher commits suicide in the school.  A teacher fires and gets hit either by another teacher, the active shooter, or a law enforcement officer. None of those scenarios seems like a good basis for education.

Stupid.

However, starting a small, privately run home school kind of situation sounds lovely. No state and federal mandated testing. No Texas book and test companies driving curriculum and policy. Freedom to connect with students and parents without all the bullshit. Authentic learning opportunities to explore the world and community around them. Self-guided education plans.
Nature walks to teach parts of speech--what do you see around you?
List the things you see. Those are nouns.
What are the nouns doing? Those are verbs.
Where is the noun? That's a preposition.
It'd be glorious to get out of the building to explore and understand. Going out to play and develop balance and nurturing friendships rather than taking recesses away as punishment or being slaves to the mandates rather than the student needs.

Freedom . You got it right, Bob. Freedom and happy little trees.

I know elementary literacy teachers who'd leave. I know history teachers who'd leave. I know math teachers and health teachers and media specialists who'd leave. We could do a type of block schedule where we'd do one discipline in the morning and one after lunch and maybe another in the late afternoon. We could do all disciplines for the basics and maybe only specialize with things like music, art, or other highly technical content. We might have to rely on grants to get supplies and start up fees going. We'd have to be wide open to all students--not exclusive and for the privileged. We'd have come full-circle as far as education is concerned.

New career option or physics lesson? Hmmm...

Of course, not all states would do the concealed carry thing. I can't imagine that the federal government would insist on all schools since the whole local control is the goal of conservatives--they want to do away with the department of education ya know. I suppose moving to another state would be an option, if not for the whole selling a home, finding new doctors, and leaving family as well as the potential for the guns to catch up with the exodus of teachers. Just because the state doesn't have the policy when you move there doesn't mean it won't eventually.  I don't think there's enough space in those states who would refuse the concealed carry idea. Oregon couldn't take us all.

Make haste!

I don't understand the argument being made for this armed teacher nonsense. I don't know that I want to understand it more than I do. It's just horrible policy. I can't shake the feeling that it's a distraction from the other politics like the investigations and the Russian tampering and rollbacks on other important environmental regulations etc.

 That's right. Look here, not there. It's magic.

Regardless, I really hope the teens in Florida keep doing what they're doing.
I hope they make people listen.
I hope they effect the change that is needed to keep all children and all Americans safer from the violence.
I hope we won't be having this grief and loss again before something is done.

I hope I don't lose hope before things change.

Of course, I could always use the opportunity to go study dance in places that have strict guns laws. Right, Moose?