This is the crux of the issue. No one is really examining why this keeps happening. Unless we get to the cause and fix, it will continue. Thank you Professor Thompson for your sound voice
Looking forward to Parts Two and Three. I read (separately) that teachers are planning to quit the public schools in droves, intending not to come back in the fall. If true, this mirrors the exodus of millions of kids who have left for homeschooling. Why can't the best of the departing teachers become professional homeschoolers? If I still had young children to educate, I would look for a tutor among these people. Just Walk Away!
I’m curious how the educational philosophy contrasts with that in other countries with fewer school shootings. My exposure to European education is limited, but what I have seen is that European schools tend to focus more on nurturing children throughout their development, rather than inculcating them with ideology. In some countries, young children do not learn to read until 2nd grade, focusing instead on skills learned through play. Teenagers who are not inclined to book work can start an apprenticeship and enter the work force early.
Young people face similar challenges all over the world, and no educational system is perfect. But I think, Professor Thompson, that you are right in saying there is an intellectual disease in America.
May 28, 2022·edited May 28, 2022Liked by C. Bradley Thompson
There's an intensely personal quality to what these teenage school shooters do.
I was struck by this when watching the head-cam video made by the Buffalo shooter, Payton Gendron, 18, as he massacred mostly black shoppers on May 15 of this year.
The shooters look their victims in the face. They see their eyes. And they shoot.
This is personal. Intensely so for the school shooters too.
Public School is child abuse: teaching our children drivel while telling them it's 'education,' forcing sexual thoughts on them before they are mature enough to deal with them, and confusing them with gender questioning, all while convincing them that there is no spirituality and the here-and-now is all there is in life, reassuring them they are perfect as they are, and depriving them of the will to strive to make themselves and the lives of others better... it's no wonder that many reach a point of nihilistic fury. Perhaps we might wonder why more do not.
I've been pondering recently the idea that mis-life crises are coded into the school experience, which teaches the almighty dollar as the highest aim and simultaneously destroys the family unit. This culminates in the realization of achievement of business success and a broken or decayed family life adding up to ultimate disappointment = mid-life crisis? Would love your thoughts.
"Israeli schools have one entry point and one exit, barricades surrounding them, and one security officer on motorcycle. Is this really what we want for America’s schools?"
Until such time as the underlying cultural problem is dealt with, yes, absolutely.
Our Killing Schools, Part 1
The physical killing is certainly tragic, but there is spiritual killing, in public schools, every day.
This is the crux of the issue. No one is really examining why this keeps happening. Unless we get to the cause and fix, it will continue. Thank you Professor Thompson for your sound voice
Alex Berenson sees another contributing factor common to most of these shooters: marijuana usage, which causes paranoia. https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/cannabis-causes-psychosis-psychosis-6b3/comments?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyOTQ4MTkwNSwicG9zdF9pZCI6NTY1NjA0NTUsIl8iOiJQNmp2NyIsImlhdCI6MTY1MzcwMDY4MiwiZXhwIjoxNjUzNzA0MjgyLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMzYzMDgwIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.pS0jE7kkTIJju3xlV5q9eB_AQKzxJBrHuiBdKg0w3TI&s=r
Well done Brad. Thank you for your insight on this.
Looking forward to Parts Two and Three. I read (separately) that teachers are planning to quit the public schools in droves, intending not to come back in the fall. If true, this mirrors the exodus of millions of kids who have left for homeschooling. Why can't the best of the departing teachers become professional homeschoolers? If I still had young children to educate, I would look for a tutor among these people. Just Walk Away!
I’m curious how the educational philosophy contrasts with that in other countries with fewer school shootings. My exposure to European education is limited, but what I have seen is that European schools tend to focus more on nurturing children throughout their development, rather than inculcating them with ideology. In some countries, young children do not learn to read until 2nd grade, focusing instead on skills learned through play. Teenagers who are not inclined to book work can start an apprenticeship and enter the work force early.
Young people face similar challenges all over the world, and no educational system is perfect. But I think, Professor Thompson, that you are right in saying there is an intellectual disease in America.
There's an intensely personal quality to what these teenage school shooters do.
I was struck by this when watching the head-cam video made by the Buffalo shooter, Payton Gendron, 18, as he massacred mostly black shoppers on May 15 of this year.
The shooters look their victims in the face. They see their eyes. And they shoot.
This is personal. Intensely so for the school shooters too.
I completely agree with your hypothesis on the motives and causes of these (boy) teen killers.
(the following may be helpful)
Check out this thread on school shootings over the past 200 years and wonder where things went wrong
https://notthebee.com/article/check-out-this-thread-on-school-shootings-over-the-past-200-years-and-wonder-where-things-went-wrong/
Please also do honest research into how many of them were on antipsychotic drugs.
What do you learn from teachers who make assumptions about you and already hate you before you walk into their classrooms?
Public School is child abuse: teaching our children drivel while telling them it's 'education,' forcing sexual thoughts on them before they are mature enough to deal with them, and confusing them with gender questioning, all while convincing them that there is no spirituality and the here-and-now is all there is in life, reassuring them they are perfect as they are, and depriving them of the will to strive to make themselves and the lives of others better... it's no wonder that many reach a point of nihilistic fury. Perhaps we might wonder why more do not.
I've been pondering recently the idea that mis-life crises are coded into the school experience, which teaches the almighty dollar as the highest aim and simultaneously destroys the family unit. This culminates in the realization of achievement of business success and a broken or decayed family life adding up to ultimate disappointment = mid-life crisis? Would love your thoughts.
"Israeli schools have one entry point and one exit, barricades surrounding them, and one security officer on motorcycle. Is this really what we want for America’s schools?"
Until such time as the underlying cultural problem is dealt with, yes, absolutely.
Show me a movie made for this age group which is not based on "action". We glorify it, and make self-righteous violence a good thing.
Shame on us.
We see draft-dodgers like Sinatra and Wayne and Stallone glorify the violence from which they hid in real life, and we think it is cool.
Shame on us.
What all of these mass killings had in common was the GUNS!
Oakland Elementary School, Greenwood, SC, 1988---2 8-year-olds killed, 7 students, and two teachers wounded by James Wilson, 19 years old.