http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.shooting/index.html
I don't know what this nation is coming to. My first response to this is that I can almost deal with the suicide bomber because at least that person has one misguide moment where they "pull the trigger" to kill multiple people. This man was so disturbed that he killed 32 people, one at a time. That is a level of cold detachment sociopathology that just disturbs me to no end.
I think this is just another example of the slow, yet violent, erosion of society that is a direct result of decayed values with the death of the family unit and the increasing popularity of blaming other people for our own mistakes and problems.
But who do we turn to in order to fix this. As a teacher, I know one of the popular directions will be that of education. But not as we currently know it. Students come to school with such varied backgrounds and moral upbringing, and with the uncompromising rush of curricula and increased standards (most of which, I support - even if I do not support the current delivery/assessment structure), there is simply not that much time to take care of the task at hand, to educate about a subject area, and teach about character...as much as it needs to be done.
I think that students come to school with less of an understanding of character than they did, I feel, even when I was a kid. But to be fair, its not really a non-biased perspective, however, because the basis for my claim is laid within the two districts I have spent significant time working in for the past seven years. These districts neighbor each other and as a result, I have an extreme microcosm of the nation. The pulse not of the national heart beat, with any certainty, but of southern Saratoga County, NY. And what can I compare it to from 10-15 years ago? One district I spent a lot of time in, located in Central New York. Its a good sample of this area, but who knows about the rest of the country?
I think the root problem comes back to something that I talk about, time and time again. The ever increasing sense of entitlement.
2 comments:
I could have put it any better than this paragraph:
"I think this is just another example of the slow, yet violent, erosion of society that is a direct result of decayed values with the death of the family unit and the increasing popularity of blaming other people for our own mistakes and problems."
It shocks and terrifies me to think that this happened on a college campus similiar to the one I have walked every day for the past four years. How and why are there so many that slip through the cracks and go unnoticed? Where do we go from here?
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
-"Dirge Without Music"
Edna St. Vincent Millay
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