Monday, May 14, 2007

A "Campfire Prank"

A group of teachers who staged a fictitious gun attack that left many children in tears during a Tennessee primary school field trip are facing disciplinary action for their insensitive "campfire prank"...

Mr Bartch said that the prank lasted just five minutes and was meant to be a "learning experience". "We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation," he explained.
And just what would you have done, Mr. Bartch? What are you personally prepared to do if the lives of precious children entrusted to your care were being threatened by an armed intruder? Forget the students--what did you learn from your "prank"?

The school's version of what happened is posted on their website. It doesn't change my questions one bit.

4 comments:

  1. Good thing I wasn't there. There'd be some dead "teachers".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, I have a slightly different take on it. While I don’t think that scaring the BeJesus out of a bunch of kids in ordinarily a good thing, those kids might just grow up now hating the feeling of helplessness they experienced when the “prank” was going on.

    If so, that is a good thing. Life isn’t all sweetness and light, sunshine and sugar, these kids learned something valuable. A momentary terror if it instills a life lesson about the ineffectiveness of helplessness in their psyches is a good thing.

    Many unpleasantnesses await these youngsters throughout their lives, they now have something to ponder when some sonofabitch tries to tell them that being defenseless is a security measure.

    I think you may be looking at it from the wrong perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  3. If they had been raised as you and I, SA, I would agree. And perhaps for one or two, which may be all that is needed, you are right.

    But we live in a culture that literally celebrates the virtues of victimhood--because it not only allows the victim to absolve himself of any responsibility for failure to provide for whatever, but also for everyone else to empathize, and thus feel virtuous themselves.

    Then a victim rep can go on Oprah and relate their tale of woe while she tears up and the audience, both in the studio and the millions at home--blubber up in Pavlovian response.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nothing supports conversion from the "virtue of victimhood" quite as quickly as when it is your ass on the line. For most of them their ideology is in the abstract. Reality or the belief it is real can cause remarkable change.

    I don't approve of the man in this article because he is an adult and had or should have had the faculties to see the error of his stance and all his votes. He did not until he ran screaming from thugs. All of a sudden, he wants a gun. The very thing he has fought against the possession of for others.

    Think how much more effective this experience will be on the kids in the "Prank". The majority of them will never again believe in the "virtue of victimhood".

    check out this site a few items down the page. Cleveland.
    http://johnrlott.tripod.com/

    ReplyDelete

Keep it on topic. Submit tips on different topics via left sidebar Contact Form.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.