Bewildering Stories Editorial

School Daze

by Jerry Wright

I've had the pleasure recently of teaching some classes at our local community college. And the reason it is a pleasure is that the students are first of all, adults, and secondly, paying for the privilege of having me at least theoretically impart some knowledge to them. This is not the situation in our various local public schools.

Situations in small-town schools such as the local education establishments in my town are relatively benign, except for a few minor things. Like for example, in our town of Moses Lake is Frontier Junior High, occasionally and irreverently known as the "Barry Loukaitis Memorial Shooting Gallery". Back in 1996, he was among the first of kids with guns shooting up schools.

Connections have been made between the "outcome based education" philosophy endorsed in Moses Lake, Columbine, and other schools where kids have been killing. Michael Moore seems to think it is right-wing fanaticism and easy access to guns that caused these problems, but one must honestly admit that conservative values and rifles were quite available in the 50s, perhaps moreso than today, and yet the schoolhouse killing didn't exist. Perhaps these weren't the outcomes that were envisioned.

I don't have a solution, nor do I think that an immediate return to corporal punishment and boot camp for the troublemakers would necessarily be the best solution, as some people seem to think, but there is no question that we are raising generations of barbarians who cannot communicate except among themselves, who have no desire to be productive, and are heading for short and vicious lives.

I am reminded of a comment made, I believe, in a book by Jack Paar, wherein a character said, "I believe that capital punishment should be used sparingly in schools." Right On. Arr. Humor.