The Nexus

You might think you are familiar with the contents of a teacher’s Back-to-School shopping lists:

Pencils, paper, staples. Check.

You may want to check that “handgun” is not also on this year’s list.

Some recent pioneering in Lone Star State school systems is prompting people in the education community to duck for cover.

Harrold School District Superintendent David Thweatt wants to create a new figure of education – a gun-toting teacher – in order to improve response time to a disaster without dependence upon police. Teachers at the 100-student high school received a summer crash course in gun handling from an unnamed private security firm.

Now, these teachers stand before their students and give lectures on Gandhi with concealed weapons on their waistline. Or maybe it’s a math class. If I have two bullets in my pocket…

Permitting and endorsing the presence of firearms in an academic setting is not only a distraction; it is destruction.

Thweatt gets full credit for planning ahead in the event that outside attackers would try to invade the school, but what about cases where potential assailants are students, such as in the Columbine or Virginia Tech massacres? Now if an unsettled student plans an ambush, getting a weapon on campus is no longer an obstacle – there is an armory selection nearly at their fingertips.

Granted, the danger of the teacher being overpowered for a weapon in a similar catastrophe seems minimal, as long as the teacher can react first and ward off the attacker, gun in hand.

Presence of guns gives the undertone of a hostile environment, even if everything is otherwise peaceful. The teacher would always be tense in defense of the weapon, and on some subconscious level, the students may stress a bit about the possibility of a gun being drawn.

Additionally, it is doubtful that a teacher would be psychologically prepared to shoot a student (if they are, then what are they doing in the classroom?). It is equally doubtful that the school district would be financially prepared for the lawsuit that would likely arise if a teacher shot a student.

A teacher should earn his or her authority with students through intelligence and rhetorical discipline, not through the possibility of being shot. It is a teacher’s vocational responsibility to arm students with a sense of realism, with a sharp mind. Not to arm themselves.

Speaking of a teacher’s vocational responsibility to arm students with a sense of realism and a sharp mind, let’s head south from Harrold through the great state if Texas, over to the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). Rather than turning teachers into cops, here, they’re turning them into doormats.

A newly implemented grading policy in DISD will eliminate any need for a student work ethic. Rather than turning teachers into cops, they’re turning them into doormats.

Teachers there cannot record zeros for an assignment before attempting multiple interventions to assist the student with completion. Homework grades are only recorded if they have a positive effect on the student’s grade. Tests may be taken indefinitely until a student passes and the highest grade is the only one recorded. And no grade lower than 50 percent will be recorded on a report card.

Here, I’ll paraphrase: Take your first American Lit vocab quiz, get an A, and from then on, turn in blank work. Still have an A.

The district told teachers this was implemented to create a “fair system.” Or maybe they were misheard – if you say “failure” with a Texas drawl, it sort of sounds like “fair.”

These administrators have rendered the academic authority of the teachers in their district powerless. If they disable the teachers, the teachers cannot enable the students.

Texas likes to advertise that it’s a whole ‘nother country. When these unfortunate students hit the real world, let’s hope so.