During one of the Presidential debates, the candidates were asked about gun control.
Then came the biggest non sequiturs of the season.
Jersey Jazzman shows how they both twisted their answers into a criticism of the public schools without ever addressing the question. If young people don’t have good schools, don’t have opportunity, they are likely to resort to gun violence.
Huh?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
JJ’s post is on the mark.
One commenter on his post said, “You can make a pretty good case that the more we focus on test scores and academic ‘achievement’ over everything else, the more the system churns out alienated individuals who sometimes act in horrific ways.”
This is the critical issue of our time. The effects of the pernicious “worship” of test scores by “reformers” is causing chaos and destruction.
Of Course! It is the educators’ faults.
We cannot deny it any longer!
Everything is our fault: Fiscal cliff, global warming, WWI &WWII, cancer, BO, world hunger, Haiti, dyslexia, ADHD, bad hair days, flat tires, late payments, wrinkles, dropped calls, gun violence, tornados, expired parking meters, birth defects, computer crashes, spelling errors, flat feet, diabetes, fat bellies, floods, wet french fries, dog poop, burned toast, overdue books, low Fica scores, housing crisis, the Crusades, Mt. St. Helen eruptions, sagging boobs, 4hr erections, bombs, polio, well-done steaks, flat champagne, burst pipes, Scrooge, 9/11, Hitler, mental illness, George W, Katrina, peeling paint….
There are so many more failures that teachers/educators are single-handedly responsible for. I am tired now. Oh, we also give up easily.
Please feel free to add to the list. A public confession of one exhausted educator.
I sincerely apologize to everyone on this board for my part is causing your dropped calls and burned toast. I have not yet completed the Pearson remediation workshop on those topics. I accept full responsibility.
However, thanks to intensive training I am now proficient in the areas of flat champagne re carbonation, overdue books avoidance and parking meter expiration reversal.
I am beginning my new job as a consultant with various counties and districts to show you how to be as awesome as me.
Contact me through Pearson to schedule a visit.
;-)~
(Thanks for the laugh!)
Thanks, especially since the shooter attended Sandy Hook, which is a great school! Public school teachers do their best and work many miracles with the children in their classes.
________________________________
I don’t think it is the educator’s fault, and this is why I think teachers need to speak up. In fact, the only reason any of these initiatives through the years of public education have any favorable results is because of the teachers. Year after year, teachers are given the plan to follow and make the best of it. Unfortunately, this latest “reform” plan is not going to be good for teachers or students, and may alienate those students who need help the most. I wonder how many teachers were actually involved in the crafting of the CCSS.
So we are a bunch of lazy, incompetent union thugs who are responsible for teen gun violence as well as a multitude of other societal ills.
But they are considering arming us?? Some folks need to work on their critical thinking skills…
Wow! I thought the comments on this blog about this and related topics sometimes really hit the mark, but this…
As the kids I worked with would say: Alan, you da bomb!
🙂
Romney and Obama are both privatizers and corporatizers of public education. Did anyone watch them in the so called debates on this subject and has anyone really looked at the exact same policies on education between republicans and democrats. There is no difference in reality. Obama has been a loser in education since at least 1995 in Chicago. No one does simple homework. He has always been a corporatizer and privatizer. Obama when you look at his policies is really right wing. As a friends grandfather taught him “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.” Listen to what they say and then does what they really do match. In Obama’s case it never has. Is he a better choice than Romney, yes. We are choosing now between the lesser of two devils not for someone who is for the regular public.
Diane, neither candidates comments could be construed to mean that bad school cause gun violence. Rather, both candidates suggested that schools could be a part of a prevention effort to prevent violent behavior in the future. As a specific example, many schools have mental health professionals who could identify kids in more need, then provide treatment or refer for additional treatment. Of course, this wouldn’t ensure that no violence occurs, but schools could most certainly be a part of a comprehensive prevention effort.
This is most definitely NOT what Romney and Obama said or implied. They did NOT say the schools could be part of a solution to improve mental health care. That would be a response that spoke directly to the question, and it would be a response every teacher would agree with.
No, they both SPECIFICALLY said that better schools would provide more “opportunity” and less violence would be the result. The unavoidable corollary to this is that the reason we have so much gun violence now is because the schools aren’t good enough.
As I said in my post, the VA Tech shooter was attending the #72 university in America: that was plenty of “opportunity.” It is absurd to think that shooting would have been avoided because of “better schools.”
We are now learning the Newtown shooter was considered very bright. He was not lacking for “opportunity”; he was mentally ill and needed help – and to stay away from guns.
Again: when asked SPECIFICALLY about assault weapons, both Romney and Obama fled to public school bashing. I find that very telling.
I also find it telling that you struggle to find a meaning in their words that clearly is not there.
Jersey Jazzman – that’s not how I read the transcript. Could you quote specific lines by either candidate that implied a causal correlation between poor schools and gun violence?
I work in a (charter) school that is surrounded by gang violence. I can assure you that the violence is stemming from a host of issues. I guess politicians won’t admit their role in America’s woes but will look to scapegoat a public school. Pathetic.
My 13 year old has Aspergers and has learned to be quiet in school – because every time he says something, he gets in trouble. Same goes for the kids – after being bullied for 8 years, he sticks to himself and tries to avoid trouble, or being set up by the other kids. Today, I was dragged into school and barraged with intrusive questions (who is his therapist and how often does he go? what meds does he take?) They are concerned with his quietude and that he is not “flourishing”? HUH? I thank God every day that he can speak and is passing his classes. He is filter less and funny at home and has a few friends that are older. he has a volunteer job he loves – re-shelving books at the library. Now, all of a sudden, the school wants to raise my son! They worry about him becoming a shooter because he is quiet (just like Newtown!) and had the nerve to mention Newtown during the meeting. It was awful. They demanded that I submit him to a psychiatric evaluation so…get this… they’ll “Know what they are dealing with”. I am outraged and sad. The principal says she worries about his future. Last time I checked, that was my job! Schools have gone way to far intruding into personal lives, and, frankly, bullying those that cannot protect themselves. Funny, they’ve “never seen” him get bullied, no one notices when he was beaten so badly he limped home covered in welts (at age 11). Nice job, Rye City. Glad I paid so much to live here.