A Compilation of Comments Relative to
the Columbine High School Tragedy
[ Marlene Tobin | A
Teacher | Marda Kirkwood ]
[ Susan Trout | Joan
Battey | Joan Masters ]
[ Aldo Bernardo | Rob Wagner ]
As tragic as
this act was, and I still find myself pausing to reflect now and then on the
most unthinkable hideousness of it all, we must be sure to reflect on everything
that might have been a contributing factor to this tragic act. We cannot pretend that certain reforms and
new programs taking place in schools today that have gone untested as to their
unintended consequences, may have not caused
devastating and possible irreversible damage to our youth. These so called "experimental"
education acts perpetrated on our children in the sake of reform, must stop! It's time the adult population taught
our children a real lesson in humility, by admitting that some of the
more radical education reforms of the day, at the very least could be
ineffective, and at their maximum potential, could be major contributors to the
violence and moral wastelands we have created in our youth. Let's do our youth a favor and teach by
example, and stand up and admit we have been wrong in regard to some of these
more outlandish experiments in Education, remove the cancers and get back down
to the business of "Education" as it was meant to be!
What I've
noticed about this, is that people gather in a church
after the killings. God seems to be
an afterthought.
Wasn't it about 30 years ago that he was
kicked out of school?
Just some thoughts....
We live in a
society in which 70% of the people do not believe there is an absolute standard
of right and wrong. The children
are no exception.
We put vulnerable children into schools
where the highest goal is self-esteem and the only sin is intolerance. We subject them to Values Clarification,
where they are taught to develop their "own" set of values. We then throw Death Education into the
mix and are surprised at rising suicide rates and incidents of horrific
violence.
Children require boundaries in order to
feel safe. They need them as much
as they need sustenance and love.
Without them, children will behave more and more outrageously until they
find a limit to their behavior.
Without early limits, they cannot develop self-control.
In a society where anything goes,
anything can happen, we must finally stand up and say, "This far and no
farther." We must investigate
the curricula that have entered the schools with the OBE-style
Education Reform.
If you have never heard of Death
Education, I urge you to investigate it.
In Cottage Grove, Oregon, high school students were taken to view dead
bodies being embalmed. Columbine
High School was involved in this as far back as a decade ago. Columbine's program in the late 80's
taught reincarnation, had students write their own obituaries and suicide
notes, and made death look glamorous, according to Tara Becker-Merrill, who was
a student there at the time. This
was reported on ABC's 20/20 in late 1990 or early 1991.
Seven years
ago when my son was in first grade [John Muir Elementary, Lake Washington
School District, Kirkland, Washington], he would come
home upset some days. I would ask
him what went on. Teacher would
turn the lights out as the children were laying on the
floor. I thought it was a brief
nap-type rest. It was always
afternoon when this occurred. The
windows were open to the east, a machine shed style roof shadowed the them so the room was not well illuminated; there was
enough light to see to easily maneuver about the room. The little information he was able to
communicate to me did not alert me to what was actually taking place. In casual conversation with a friend, I
mentioned what he said. To my
surprise, she began to fill in the blanks of my sons
explanation. She explained he was
being guided on out of body experiences (imagine you are floating-flying above
your body) and was being frightened by them and becoming afraid of his class
(not teacher or students) at times.
Upon asking my son specific yes-no questions I learned my friend was
right on target.
My friend was talking 'New Age
Philosophy' and I was thinking "'New Age' my eye!" It was nothing more than older neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Today you might find NLP in your yellow
pages. Back in the late '70's -
early '80s, the authors of NLP were brought to the UW medical school for
conferences which a friend of mine attended. She insisted I buy the books on NLP and
read them. NLP is, in the author's
words, "trance formations."
To make a long story short, I went to
the teacher. Forewarned to not
sound like 'one of those kooky parents,' I told his teacher the truth: my son
was afraid of the dark and implied the dark shadowed room was what was greatly
upsetting him. Teacher said she was
helping the children 'to relax,' 'visualizing floating in the clouds', which
would 'help them in the class.' She
said she could not do these sessions in a lighted room, but since my son was so
upset, she would quit doing these relaxation sessions. She did as she said and my son calmed
down about school.
Back in 1991,
the following items were in my newsletter, Gleanings. I think all the experts need to go back
and re-examine their positions during all the time the "causes" were
being futilely pointed out as red flags on the road to the future. Today, schools all over one county in NY
State received bomb threats and students were evacuated from the schools. Pennsylvania likewise reported similar
episodes today. Copy cat everything
today, it's all a big game to kids, even as they complain of being
"afraid," etc.
Gleanings, 1991: "It's Everywhere! — Evansville, IN high
school teacher vows to appeal decision banning the "f-word" in his
classes; says it is "clearly the curse word of choice among America's
teens." [1999 — NY Teachers' Union complains
about the excessive use of profanity in schools.]
Endwell, NY parents were turned back by
the school board and then ridiculed in a newspaper editorial for being
"out of touch with reality" in complaining about a compulsory junior
high alcohol education novel, Late Great Me. The book, which described a 17-yr-old
girl running naked through a bar, and later raped, is full of profanity,
vulgarity and blasphemous references to God and Christ. Teachers defend it as being exciting and
"the language of the streets."
Shortly after the attack on parents who complained, a local columnist/editorial
board member, donated his column to a prominent local
coach who complained that parents today are not doing a good job. "They should monitor kids and not
let them come to school with vulgar T-shirts." [1999 — Where do you suppose kids have been getting the ideas they
have today? NY Teachers complain
about lack of respect for teachers...]
Gleanings, 1991: "All Banneds are not Equal" "Each fall the American Library Assn.
features 'Banned Books Week.'
Phyllis Schlafly has cited instances of parents
labeled 'book censors' by the ALA and People For The
American Way. Many parents object
to Impressions, a reading series emphasizing violence, despair,
bizarre acts. In Human Events,
12/22/90, Schlafly relates how the series changes
traditional books to suit its format.
Anne of Green Gables, formerly glad to be alive because
of interesting questions like why roses are red, has the twist in Impressions: Anne now speculates that red roses are
the result of … a blood-stained family tree … family feuds …
drenching local soil with gore."
Schlafly also reports on schools remove
phonics; Planned Parenthood is trying to remove any sex education materials,
such as Sex Respect, which promote abstinence; and the University of
Texas (1991), wants all books written by Dead White European Males replaced by
'Oppression Studies.'"
And, how about this:
Gleanings, 1991: "Death-and-Dying studies took up the final days
before Christmas — excuse us, 'winter holiday' — in Vestal, NY, high school.
Kids were to compose their epitaphs, and tell what their feelings were
about their bodies being 'corrupted' after death. Teacher told them 'there is nothing
after death. Why not enjoy every
day and do what you want to now?'"
"American Medical Assoc. in
December 1990 publicized results of a detailed study which showed 'suicide
prevention classes — mandatory in most schools — are failing
miserably." No wonder! What depressing material to force on
students!
[1999 — We
should keep reminding people that those who do not study the past are condemned
to repeat it!]
This is just
a suggestion but it seems to me, and I'm sure to thousands of other anguished
parents and grandparents in this country, that the
time has come for a national boycott of all movies, video stores,
and video arcades. If that sounds
drastic, then so be it. The only
way we can stop these child molesters is to hit them in their pocketbooks –
the one thing they love most in the world.
I know that won't stop what is happening in the public school system or
on television, but it's a start, and if the big monied
boys in Hollywood and New York and the education/industrial complex begin to
realize we're serious about what we can stop, it just might put the fear
of the Lord in them, too. After
thirty years in this fight, I think the time has come when we stop talking to
each other and branch out. We never
had the technology to do it before on any massive level but now we do. Email loops – nationwide –
have the capability to get the message out, rapidly and extensively. If everyone spreads the message through
their emails loops, we can make a difference.
As grandparent to the children of my
"baby-boomers", I'll be the first to admit I have spent hundreds and
hundreds of dollars buying Playstations and Nintendo
machines at Christmas time that can take violent soft-ware games of which I was
not aware. Once bought, I never sat
with my youngsters and watched what they were watching nor did it dawn on me
they could save money I gave them and go into a store and buy game soft-ware of
which I would not approve. I left
that to the discretion of their parents.
But after a week – this terrible week – of talking to each
of them privately, I see how wrong I was.
And that goes for the movies they see, also. Trust me when I say this grandmom is on a "housecleaning" expedition and I
have laid down an ultimatum to my children – trash it all immediately and
keep them out of the movie houses and the arcades or suffer the loss of your
parents' goodwill and any future support.
I know the hour is late for this "discipline" but better late
than never. And they all know I
mean business.
I can't tell others what to do but I
know my and my husband's generation – the one some call the
"greatest generation", which was raised in the Depression and fought
the second world war – still has great influence with the generations
that came after us. We can put a
stop to this degradation right now if we have the courage and, with God's help,
the will.
Please give this some thought. You have a very powerful tool in your
hands and God is on your side.
One
observation that very few have made about the Littleton affair is the
following: Why were the
perpetrators so taken with Adolf Hitler? The answer for me is quite clear. As teens, all they knew about Hitler was
what they might have read, but even more what they had seen in movies, TV,
pictures, etc. And what was
this? Very
orderly troops, banners of all kinds, precision marching and saluting, choral
singing – in other words, an extreme example of discipline and order. And what were they getting from our
society and their schooling?
Minimal order, hardly any discipline, play-it-by-ear classes,
encouragement of separatism between groups (multiculturalism), and no iron hand
exerting control.
The time has come for educators to stop
experimenting with what might be best for Johnny and Janey,
and face the fact that since the beginning of time (esp. Greeks and Romans)
youth has always hankered for structure and order in their
upbringing. The Littleton school
system was one of the first to drop the virus of OBE
(Outcomes-Based Education) in the early 90s, but the virus mutated and became
psychology-based education, with the tragic outcome of the past week. Once schools succumb to this virus, it
takes miracles to avoid some kind of violence by youngsters.
Toy guns can
get some kids expelled from school, even if bringing it were an accident. Others don't get expelled for much
worse—in fact the social workers will call them "vulnerable"
and no one will dream of even bringing the possibility up.
Not all boys ever played with toy
guns. If you give a group of boys
their choice of toys, some go for the guns and ammo, others go for building
materials (erector sets, leggos, tinker toys, etc)
and toy machinery. Conventional
masculinity is defined partly by a desire to be strong and competent. But it is manifested in radically
different ways. Some of those ways
are destructive, some constructive.
Just watch the big hullaballoo when the boys
playing Godzilla decide to attack the work of the boys playing architect...
To my way of thinking, the "good
guys vs. bad guys" thing is precisely the problem. Those boys in Littleton didn't think of
themselves as the bad guys, they thought of themselves as the hero-victims.
Contrary to initial
politically-motivated fabrications, which are now being contradicted, they did not
wear Nazi symbols, but one of them wore a Swastika with a "not" bar
running through it (ie, "No Nazis"). They referred to "jocks" as
"the Nazis", ie, the
"bad-guys". They were
ubiquitously regarded by other students as homosexuals (reportedly they painted
their fingernails and held hands in the hallways), and were, therefore, the
"victims".
One of the reasons I fled from the
public school system was its obsession with victim-oppressor cults. The problem with victim morality is that
victimhood is no virtue. What did the "victim" do to earn
their high moral standing?! Just
being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Morality is an accident? Dogs kill cats and cats kill birds—who gets to be the "victim"
today?! When the
"victims" get ahold of guns and start
killing people who never did anything to them—like the girl who was
killed just because she answered "yes" to "do you believe in
God?"—behold the fruit of victim-oppressor morality.