Although it dates back a ways, a Facebook post on my Facebook page from a Vietnam veteran friend went something like this. I'll paraphrase, "this country needs to stop worrying about terrorists and start worry about what the guy that lives next door is doing." So you know my friend lives as far west as Washington, which, if my memory serves me correctly, is even farther west than Utopia (Utah, as most people spell it). The post to my Facebook page was made shortly after the school shooting that took place in Washington. My friends post got me thinking about the seemingly non-stop shootings that are taking place in our country and I decided to reply to his post with this response. "I have not had a weapon in my hands that I can call my own since I left Vietnam in 1971, maybe it's time to rethink that." Sadly, the state of Washington was not the last of the school shootings and I wondered what would happen if the next school shooting took place at my school. After thinking about it for a short while I realized that we, the staff and scholars at my school, are totally defenseless. Not only could we not defend ourselves against an intruder with a weapon, we couldn't defend ourselves against an intruder with a knife, long pipe, baseball bat, or for that matter large rocks. Knowing this, while sitting at my desk with my view from the back of the room, I looked around the classroom for an object that I could use to defend myself, plus the scholars and Gnu and finally I thought of one. Inside of the cubbies (lockers) that are in the classroom is a wooden shelf. If you hit this self aggressively from the bottom it will pop loose and you can remove it from the cubbie. It's wood, it's solid, it's has some good weight to it, and if you have the element of surprise you can hit someone over the head with it and cause serious damage. Unfortunately, you have to get very close to the intruder with a piece of wood and for me personally I'd like to attack the intruder from a much safer distance with an object that fires a projectile. So where does one find an object in a school that fires a projectile? That's easy, in the gym where, at least in our school, you will find bows and arrows. And best of all, according to our now retired PE teacher, I'll call him The Poet, you can adjust the tension on the bow and it will then serve our purpose. Before all you naysayers chime in let me say this. We have, in our school, someone that is very familiar with the bow and arrow. This person possesses one and takes it to a practice range with some regularity. This person also uses to it hunt. So who is this person you ask, Gnu. You heard this correctly. She owns one, practices with it and hunts with it. There is only one problem, the bow and arrows are in the gym and not our classroom so can we get to them quickly? No! Will we be able to use them to defend ourselves even if we placed the items in our classroom? No! So do we remain defenseless with an intruder in the building? Yes! For the record, I'm against being defenseless.
One brief item about me and weapons. I can recall quite clearly the last time I had a weapon in my hand. It was 1975 and I was talked into going hunting in West Branch, Michigan by my college roommate. When we arrived at his parents house he brought out two shotguns. He tried to hand me one but I refused saying I don't think I can shoot anything. He replied, well, at least take it and walk with me while I hunt for rabbits. I agreed to that and off I went with my loaded twelve gauge shotgun. We weren't out in the field long when we scared up a rabbit. It bolted straight out in front of me. My weapon was up, the rabbit was in the crosshairs, I couldn't pull the trigger.
One brief item about Gnu and her bow and arrow and I'll move on to the scholars. Please keep in mind, I don't make this stuff up. Gnu was telling me about taking her bow to a sporting goods store because she wanted the tension of the bow reduced because she was having a hard time pulling the bow string all the way back to it's full velocity position. With the adjustment made to the bow tension she was testing it using a special trigger release. When she pulled back on the bow string the trigger release malfunctioned causing her hand to release quickly from the bow string in the direction of her face resulting in her hand hitting her on the nose giving her a bloody nose right there in the sporting goods store. Maybe I'll rethink my defensive strategy with a bow and arrow.
Gnu introduced a new chapter book on Monday. The book is from The Magic Tree House series and is titled, Ghost Town at Sunset. As Gnu was sitting at her front table handing out the books to the scholars she told them that in order to read this book correctly there needed to be background music. The scholars quickly offered some suggestions but they were rejected because Gnu had already selected the song, "Oh My Darling, Clementine." Just before MiniJ started reading the first sentence in chapter one, Gnu stopped him saying "I forget to give you something." She reached under her table and picked up a bag. She opened the bag and said to the scholars, "if we are going to read a story about the old west then everyone needs to be wearing a cowboy hat." She promptly placed a cowboy hat on the head of each scholar and then MiniJ was allowed to begin the story. Have I mentioned previously that I really enjoy working with this teacher.
We needed some hallway bulletin board material so Gnu drew, on a huge poster board, a tree. It started with roots at the bottom, then a trunk in the middle, and at the top was tree branches minus the leaves. The scholars were told they were going to make their Life Tree. On the roots at the bottom the scholars were to make notations about their early years beginning at birth. On the trunk they were to make notations about where they are right now in their life. On the branches they were instructed to talk about what they wanted to do in the future. Once the branch section was complete the scholars were instructed to draw one leaf on each branch where they talked about what they wanted to do in the future. When the leaf drawing was completed the scholars were told to right down the name of the person that they thought could best help them meet their future goal on the leaf. At one point during this project Grr! asked me for some help as he didn't know what to write on the branches. As he sat next to me I asked him what he wanted to do or be in the future. His response really took my by surprise as he said he wanted to be a paleontologist. I told him that was an excellent goal but he had to wait a minute before he wrote it down as I needed to get the dictionary so I could spell it correctly. With paleontologist now on a branch I asked him what he needed to do to be a paleontologist. His response was to shrug his shoulders. I said to him do you think you need to graduate from high school. He said yes, so I told him to write graduate from high school on one of his branches. I then asked him if he needed any other education beyond high school to be a paleontologist. Again he shrugged his shoulders. So I restated the question. What school do you go to after you graduate from high school. Again, the shoulder shrug. As I sat there working with him it became apparent that he had no concept that education continued past high school.
The Collector's sister was talking to Gnu on the playground at recess when I approached them. So you know, The Collector's sister is in the fourth grade and is in a general education classroom. As I approached them I heard The Collector's sister say that she didn't get any sleep the night before. When Gnu asked her why not she said because the police were all over her neighborhood in the middle of the night. Gnu asked her what happened and she responded, there was a killing in the house across the street from my house.
EM was talking to Gnu about his new house that he recently moved into. He was telling her that there were bats in the house. Apparently there is a hole in the window of a second story room and bats have been seen flying in the house. EM even went as far as to say that his dog was chasing the bats trying to bit them with his mouth.
Gnu, MiniJ, and EM were talking at the front table. MiniJ was telling them about the water bed that he sleeps on at night. EM said he'd like to have a water bed as he had to sleep on the floor. Gnu asked for clarification by saying you mean you sleep on a mattress that is on the floor. EM said he don't have a mattress, he sleeps on the floor. Gnu then said do you have a pillow? He responded, no. She then asked him if he had blankets. He said yes. The conversation ended and again I found myself saying a little prayer for this young scholar.
I'm in my favorite blogging spot, the screened in porch on the back side of my house. The sun is setting and the temperature is dropping so I'm going to call it a day. Thanks again for following along and if you don't mind, please keep the scholars in your prayers as they have so many obstacles to overcome in their life that I'm fearful that they will not be around long enough to fulfill their goals that are on those three branches.
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