I found this article to be extremely interesting. Miller had so many things to say and I want to point them out. He talks about the tragedy of Columbine and poses the question,
What legal or educational response could be equal to the challenge of controlling the behavior of so many students from such varied backgrounds?
Looking at all the cases Miller mentioned, plus the Virginia Tech incident, it is obvious that each case and each student is different. The similarity though is the fact that in every case there seemed to be OBVIOUS clues to how demented these students were. The poetry, the websites, the writing some students turned in for classes, the histories of mental disturbances. Every time this happens, it seems like a red flag should have been thrown long before the incident occurred but NO ONE noticed. To me, the educational response should be that teachers, administrators, and all faculty in general in a school should report anything unusual about a student right away. Why do we wait until Virginia Tech happens to say, wow that kid WAS disturbed. His writing WAS demented. He DID have mental problems. They knew all this and yet they did NOTHING.
Now in the one teacher’s defense, she did report that Virginia Tech student’s writing, but nothing was done past that.
Going back to Miller, he adds a journal entry from one Eric Harris, one of the Columbine shooters. To view the quote, go here and go down to the second page on the right. In it, Harris talks about how no one but him and the other student should be blamed. He says the school administration is doing a good job and he doesn’t want anything to change. But my question is, are schools really doing that good of a job or protecting students?
I mean look at what happened this week at Rowan. Even with extra security on campus for the homecoming events, we still lost one of fellow students in a brutal mugging.
Later on, Miller states:
If you’re in the business of teachings others how to read and write with care, there’s no escaping the sense that your labor is increasingly irrelevant.
As a Elementary Ed and Writing Arts major, this is a scary thought. I am going to school for just that reason. So is my job going to be a waste of time? Or is Miller just pointing out the fact that reading and writing will not change the psychotic students of the world?
This is a big problem we have to face. I will leave you with the question that Miller posed at the end of his article. He leaves us to wonder:
Is there any way to justify or explain a life spent working with – and teaching others to work with – texts?
~Meg
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