So Easy to Fault, So Hard to Fix

Hello all,

Well, the news isn't good.

I could pretend the news IS good, of course.  I could tell you about the wacky, hilarious things my students do and say.  Or I could wax poetic about the beauty of Kyoto in the autumn.

But I can't do that.  Because although I am thousands of miles away from all this, it would be irresponsible to pretend that the world is fine just because my immediate world is fine.


On Friday, October 24th, there was yet another school shooting.  This time in Washington, just north of Seattle at a high school.

The victims and the shooter were all teenagers, 14 and 15 year olds.  The same age as Aya.  Not all that much younger than Patrick.

Already the news agencies are dithering about fault.

The shooter was just a bad kid.

It must have been his parent's fault for not 'raising him right'.

It must have been the school's fault for not being more 'vigilant about security'.


And, as always, hot on the heels of the news agencies, talking internet heads and magazine covers (the covers only, because everyone seems willing to spare a glance, but not spare 5 minutes to read), comes public opinion.

Predictably, the comments on the news websites follow the same lines as the news agencies, agreeing, disagreeing, cursing and insulting or just being trolls, making inflammatory comments and then slipping out of the comment stream to watch their mischief boil.

So whose fault is it?

I would suggest this is a pointless question.  Fault can all too easily be assigned and people who are just as good and flawed and confused about all this as the rest of us can be held out as examples of bad teaching or bad parenting or bad kids.

I would suggest that a better question would be how can we fix this?  

Implied in my question is the emphatic WE.   Because if we have to assign fault, this is our fault too.  As a society.  As fellow human beings.  

For something like this to happen, not just once but many times implies that something is broken.

And many things are broken, not just in the United States but everywhere to varying degrees, in various areas and with various heartbreaking results.

Families are broken, shattered apart by distance and the demands of jobs and social expectation.   Sisters and brothers, cousins and grandparents turn away from each other because our society teaches and supports fragmentation and separation rather than tolerance and empathy.

Schools are broken, steering dedicated, enthusiastic teachers into test-driven curricula seemingly laser focused not to produce thoughtful, empathetic, curious and engaged members of society,  but to produce non-confrontational drones  who just want to survive the demands of school or work until they can live their "real lives".   And the schools that have leapt out of this broken mold are too few and far between, and often too inaccessible financially, to kickstart the kind of change we need.

Society is broken when lethal weapons can be accessed by a teenager who saw himself as having no other outlet for his pain but to strike out.



Imbedded in all this are deeper issues and needs--recognizing that pain of all kinds is an unavoidable part of all our lives, re-educating ourselves and our children and teens that seeking help and support is not a weakness, but a strength, breaking down the pervasive and often damaging gender and social expectations that are so prevalent  and powerful in teenage lives.

I've painted a pretty dismal picture.  But we can repaint the picture.

We can fix this.  

Not immediately to be sure.  But the systematic problems can be addressed.  Schools can be overhauled.   Learning can be redefined for the future we are approaching, rather than swirling in a past we left behind long ago.   Leaders, from government officials to school administrators, from teachers to parents, can re-educate themselves so that we can support our children and teens based on their real needs, and not on our prejudices, phobias and assumptions.

We can fix this.  


The skeptics and pessimists among us would see no point in me even writing about this.   As one commenter said "If nothing changed after Sandy Hook, then nothing will ever change."   And the pessimist in me agrees to a point--change never comes quickly.  People, it seems, have to keep getting hit over the head with deeper truths before they acknowledge that something is broken.

But this is no reason to stop trying.  

And so, I  try in the only way I can.  I write.

Until next time....