This elementary school teacher wants to be armed with smaller classes.
She also wants to be armed with after school clubs and resources for her special education students. Read more about how she wants to be armed.
This education dean also wants to arm teachers.
He wants to arm them with passion, purpose, knowledge, understanding, and courage.
Anyone listening?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Add to your armaments: SUFFICIENT counselors and social workers and medical and other community support resources that create a net of security and caring for all students.
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Thanks for posting this Diane – I agree that we shouldn’t allow recent events to distract us from true changes we need to see in education, such as pushing for smaller classes and after-school programs.
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However, did you notice the class sizes at Sandy Hook? All were twenty and under. One first grade class of fifteen, with one absent student, was massacred. Yes, class size matters. The only ones who say it doesn’t matter have never taught. Let’s not forget Sandy Hook and not just because of the tragedy.
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I agree with you Linda – I think the issue is multi-faceted, and that there is no single determinant of a high quality (or safe) education. Just as we shouldn’t overlook class size, we shouldn’t overlook potentially important changes to school safety protocol that could make tragedies like Sandy Hook less likely. The take-away message of Diane’s post, to me, is to not forget ANY of those topics.
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“We shouldn’t overlook potentially important changes to school safety protocol that could make tragedies like Sandy Hook less likely.”
I disagree with this takeaway, for two reasons. First, and I do not mean to minimize the horror of what happened at Sandy Hook, but school shootings do not pose a statistically meaningful risk to the safety of students. The Sandy Hook massacre was horrifying, and it’s important that it has prompted new discussions about violence, firearms, and mental health care. But it is not rational to conclude that our children and teachers are at a significant risk of being murdered in their classrooms by an armed lunatic. Second, to the extent there is a risk, it is not a risk that can be meaningfully reduced by increased security measures. This is the lesson lessons we learn over and over from shootings like this: You CANNOT stop a madman with hundreds of rounds of ammo, a bulletproof vest, and a readiness to die. As with terrorism, every new security measure can be thwarted if a lunatic is determined to do it.
The small school my children attend reacted to Sandy Hook by “overhauling” some of its own security procedures. These overhauls include prohibiting parents from eating breakfast with their young children in the cafeteria before school. Yet another nice thing about school gone forever. Why? For no purpose other than (1) the irrepressible urge to appear to be doing something productive and (2) the education department’s liability concerns.
Mass school shootings are not an education problem, or a security problem. They are a gun problem are a mental health problem. If school massacres are capable of being reduced, those are the places to start. And it’s worth focusing on those problems even if we ultimately fail to reduce school massacres, because school massacres are very, very small parts of the much more serious costs incurred in the U.S. from guns and bad mental health policy.
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I largely agree with your comments flerper. I think any response and change to security protocols need to be sensible, and we need to keep in mind that no security protocol will be 100% effective. This doesn’t mean, though, that we shouldn’t revisit security protocols – simply that we shouldn’t over-react.
In support of your statements, think about how many more lives are taken by car accidents, yet we don’t ban children from driving. The point is that there are many things that stand in between a child and his/her healthy and safe development, and that we shouldn’t overlook any reasonable intervention that could mitigate those risks, from safety protocols to updates in reading intervention protocols or class size.
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“This doesn’t mean, though, that we shouldn’t revisit security protocols – simply that we shouldn’t over-react.”
I think it does mean that we should not revisit security protocols, at least not in response to Sandy Hook, because (1) I don’t think it’s possible for that revisiting to not result in an overreaction and (2) I don’t think that security measures will result in a non-negligible reduction of risk, and certainly no reduction of risk that outweighs the costs of overreacting.
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One very basic revision would be to ensure basic check in and out procedures at schools. I’ve visited many where there are places to sign in, but it’s not completely enforced. I would think making that change could happen without over-reacting, and might have led to events at sandy hook or similar ones to end differently.
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I’m sorry, what’s the significance of the size of classes at Sandy Hook? I didn’t follow this point. I agree that class sizes are hugely important, but I don’t get the Sandy Hook connection.
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They were all small, 20 or less. Sent from iPhone
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Right, but what is notable about that? Are you just saying it’s good to have class sizes of 20 or lower? Or are you saying that there is something significant about the fact that a school with class sizes like this was the site of a massacre?
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Small class size is optimal for teaching and learning. It has nothing to do with the massacre. We are not on the same wave length…mars and Venus I suppose.
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Ok, understood. Your post appeared to be suggesting some connection (“However, did you notice the class sizes at Sandy Hook? All were twenty and under. One first grade class of fifteen, with one absent student, was massacred. Yes, class size matters.”).
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A bit disjointed….sorry..I speak quickly, too. A Happy and Safe New Year to you and your family……thanks for re-reading.
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Please consider calling Walmart today:
So you’re calling Walmart? Awesome! Here are a few tips.
Ready to call and give Walmart a piece of your mind? Great! Here’s what to do:
Call Walmart’s corporate HQ at 479-273-4000
Tell the operator you’re calling with a comment about Walmart’s sale of firearms. You’ll probably be directed to a “high-priority customer service associate,” and be put on hold for a few minutes (if it takes longer, it probably means lots of us are calling and we’re having an impact!)
When you get someone on the phone, give your statement. Feel free to offer your own personal comments or just read off our sample statement.
Sample Script
“In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting and countless other acts of violence carried out with assault weapons, I’m calling on Walmart to remove military-grade rifles and high capacity magazines from its shelves. These guns are designed to kill people and have no place in our communities”
http://sumofus.org/post/walmart-guns-call/?akid=1173.1052680.3EdkO2&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=3
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Another very good one and that is “What do you mean by the word arm?” Does it mean a potential for violence? Does it mean the means to a way out through intelligence? Which one is it?
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