Never Forget?

This popped up on xkcd a while ago, but my mind keeps dwelling on it.

via

There is a substantial amount of things on this list that I already don't know anything about. Yeah, I've heard about what happened to Challenger, and I know about Chernobyl because my dad worked at a nuclear plant, but I don't have memories of sitting in front of the television, horror-struck as I watched these events unfold. I don't think back fondly on any Star Wars movie, and working on any Apple computer doesn't make me smile and realize how far we've come in the last 36 years.

It's not until OJ Simpson's Trial that I finally start remembering something. I wondered why the news was showing a white SUV driving down the highway, why they weren't talking about anything else, and can we please switch it to Nickelodeon now? I remember having a brief discussion in my third grade class, and Mrs. McLemore giving us a very basic description of the purpose of a jury, and then we got to play the jury and determine if we thought he was guilty or not. (Times were very different then - no third grade teacher could get away with discussing a murder trial with her students now.)

I remember learning what impeachment meant in fifth grade, and how it didn't necessarily mean that the president was removed from office, and that until now Andrew Johnson was the only president that had been impeached.

I remember Columbine. I wrote a note to my 7th grade counselor after it happened because a boy in my class thought that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had the right idea. "People here don't understand people like me, and they should be shot." His name was Allen. I was afraid of him after that day.

I remember 9/11. I remember the principal asking teachers to turn on their televisions and that there would be no morning announcements. I remember my choir director saying, "Nothing is more important than our upcoming concert." I remember going to second period, Sophomore English, and being told that class was meeting in the library. I remember watching the big screen TV and wondering why we were watching a movie instead of learning. I remember realizing with horror (and a little embarrassment) that it wasn't a movie. I remember that some students were in a panic because they thought our tiny town would be hit soon too - with a nuclear plant just 10 miles away, people tended to be on edge. I don't remember much else. I probably asked Dad if we were safe when he got home, if he got home before I went to bed. Fall is outage season, so he would have been working longer hours, and I'm sure the stress level was much higher that day than normal.

It's so strange to think that one day there will come a time when the people who don't remember such a traumatic incident will outnumber the people who do. But when I think about it, it's not so strange. Even my oldest nephew, who is about to be sixteen, most likely too young to remember it. The other two are far too young. A little sad maybe, that they don't have anything so unifying, but I suppose that they will eventually. Hopefully it will be something more positive.

I wonder if my son will ask me if I remember 9/11, or anything else from this list for that matter. Will stare at me with the look of someone trying so desperately to put himself in my shoes so he can experience what I experienced, just like I did when I asked my parents if they remembered the Kennedy assassination, or Woodstock? And what major event is going to happen in his lifetime that will affect him and everyone around him so greatly?

Kids Today

I've been hearing a lot about the bus monitor Karen Klein lately, and how she was ridiculed by some middle school-age students on the bus. Many commenters have said terrible things about the four boys, including how they should be punished (with fists and belts) and some have gone so far as to threaten death. Other commenters say that the parents must have been spoiling their children, and now they have a God complex.

I disagree.

I taught in a small district for a brief period of time...enough time to know that teaching in public school was most definitely not for me. Many of the children I taught came from homes where the parents either couldn't be present because they had to work several minimum-wage jobs, or the parents were not present because they chose not to be. These children were not spoiled, and yet I saw some of them behave cruelly to their classmates and the staff. Of course they were reported, but the principal was too busy to bother sometimes, so some disciplinary forms got thrown away before they were ever taken care of. I don't believe that the boys who bullied Karen Klein are spoiled. I think their parents might not be as present in their lives, so they are learning how to behave from other sources (ie other classmates, television, or the callous internet.) Of course, now that 4chan has released the names of the boys as well as the names of some of their family members, the parents are probably getting a literal wake-up call. (Like I said, callous internet.)

In regards to the posters who carry a "spare the rod and spoil the child" approach to child rearing, I will refer again to the school where I taught. My school allowed corporal punishment, and many families were fine with their child being paddled. On many occasions, I was called into the principal's office to watch the principal spank a child (so the child couldn't claim that too much force was used.) It was always the same students getting paddled. How do we know that these four bullies haven't been spanked before - how do we know that they weren't spanked after the police came by to question the boys about the incident? Eventually there comes a point when spanking doesn't modify behavior, it just leaves the child with a red behind.

Some people say she should have reported them anyway, but I understand her reasoning as to why she didn't. The end of the school year was just a day or two away. Most likely, that discipline referral would have been glanced at and then tossed in the trash can. Everyone is excited about starting vacation, and the over-aggressiveness would have been chalked up to something like cabin fever.

The school is going to have a press conference shortly (1:00pm EST) and will probably announce how they are going to punish the students in hopes of silencing the internet lynch mob. If I were the superintendent of that school, I would have the boys start off the year in detention, and part of that detention would be to write a letter of apology to Karen Klein for their behavior. Secondly, I would revoke their bus privileges. Not only would they not be allowed to ride during the year, this would probably bar them from being able to go on field trips. These boys will already have a negative stigma attached to them thanks to this incident, so I don't believe any further punishment would be necessary. Society will punish them enough.

NPR article about the incident