School Shootings in a Larger Context

The gentleman shown here, custom-making child-sized coffins for the 19 kids shot at the most recent school shooting massacre, is certainly trending in our news, perhaps if only because what he’s doing reminds us of our youth, when no one worried about getting killed.

My future daughter-in-law is a teacher’s aide.  Her salary puts her  barely above the poverty line.  Her position, like everyone in public education, means virtual impotence in dealing with unruly and defiant kids, and that is pitiable.  Among her stressors is wondering each morning if today will be her turn to take a bullet, along with her classroom full of students, which is unthinkable.

Now we’re talking about issuing her a gun and wishing her good luck.

Collectively, we wonder what’s going so wrong with American public education, and certainly there is no single answer.  But what we’re asking of our teachers is just absurd.  We are getting what we so richly deserve.