These are a few of my most precious gifts.
In life, I want many things for them: a relationship with God, forever closeness to their parents, great friends, good work ethic, wonderful math skills, common sense, decency, love for nature, worthy spouses (is that possible, though?), happiness, safety, and so much more.
I spend a lot of time worrying about their safety. They can’t leave my sight when we’re out. I constantly even remind Matt to watch them, when I know he already is. The kids do not go out to play by themselves, and we have yet to even let anyone else take them swimming. Yes, we may be a bit overbearing on the safety side, but we feel it’s necessary.
Horrible things happen all too often. The most recent evidence: the school shooting at Discovery. My heart goes out to the families involved, to the students and faculty there, and even to the shooter. Somewhere along the line, someone failed that child, and he made a terrible decision that can never be undone. It’s such a shame. Another shame about this situation is the news media. I am appalled that the news stations have sounding boards on their websites that allow any content. I read comments about how the victim deserved it, how there is no God and prayer is never helpful, and how the teachers were all to blame. I understand that freedom of speech exists, but do we also have to have freedom of idiocy? God’s help and prayer are the only things that will somewhat soothe this situation. It will take time, of course, but without God’s strength, only more bad will come from this unfortunate incident. Every good gift and every perfect gift are from above. This shooting was neither good nor perfect; therefore, it did not come from above. But, I know a Man who can wipe away the tears and who can fill hearts with love when they are breaking, and that’s what I will be praying for.
The year I was a high school senior was when the shootings occurred at Columbine. It was such a sad time. Back then, my friends drove to school with loaded guns in their gun racks in the back windows of their trucks. I grew up in the country, and boys went hunting after school. After Columbine, the guns were not allowed on school grounds. Other precautions were made too, and yet we are really no closer to making our schools a safe environment. Don’t get me wrong, I am an advocate for public school. In fact, I would like to personally investigate all people who homeschool their children. Sidenote: Homeschooling can be done effectively, but not everyone doing it is doing it effectively. In fact, not everyone with a teaching degree is teaching effectively. Though I wish they were, because they are making us good teachers look real bad. As I was writing before the need to not offend you homeschoolers interrupted my thoughts, I believe public education is mostly good. I think most of the problem with public education is a lack of parenting skills (not in my classroom though J) at home.
But, the biggest problem I see in public schools that the schools can fix, is school safety. Can you believe there is a school close to me where there are at least ten portables being used as classrooms? These classrooms are totally vulnerable to intruders. Furthermore, doors leading to the outside can not be locked because students are coming and going through them all day. If they are locked, students may be left to stand and bang on them for five minutes or more, before someone opens the door for them. A lot can happen in five minutes.
When the issue of safety is brought up, there is never any money to help the problem. Well, money is going to be found when a huge lawsuit, following a violent attack, occurs, so why can’t we just find the money now? I would be willing to have my sales tax increased by half of a percent if the money was going towards equipping schools with safety devices, such as metal detectors and buzz in doors. I think I would have a difficult time finding a parent who wasn’t willing to do the same! We as parents are going to have to take a stand for our children and insist on safety devices being installed in ALL schools! I want to hear your comments on this, even if you disagree with me.
I totally agree April. It was a very scary thing to see about a shooting of any kind at a school, much less so close to our kids. My prayers also go out to everyone involved, because while some folks see a murderer and one child lost, I see that both children lost their lives that day. Both sets of parents lost their babies. It is a sad situation for everyone involved, directly and indirectly. I absolutely would pay more tax if it would help keep not only my babies safe, but every other child at school safe. There are other venues for the people who don't want to pay more, they could always vote yes for the education lottery... instead of buying those tickets in Tenn. and Georgia.
ReplyDeleteOur school has the buzz in doors, but they also have portables, so it's a win- lose situation. Your class parents are lucky to have someone as kind and caring as you looking after their children everyday! Keep up the praying for them, it is the answer!