The Teacher's Right to Bear Arms

I am a teaching candidate at our local university. I am in my year of field experience--not quite a student teacher, not quite a student who sits in the classroom all day and observes. I have this year of school left before I am placed in an elementary classroom and put in charge of educating, caring for, loving and keeping your children safe for eight hours per day, everyday.  I understand that, upon graduation, I will have the responsibility of creating future generations of productive, competent citizens who will make meaningful and lasting contributions to the society they live in...and the society that most of us will grow old in. My day will not begin when I get to school, as it never truly ends--even when I go home the previous day. To truly make an impact on your children I will not stop thinking about them when I send them home. I will continue to plan, investigate, research, learn and seek out answers to concerns that pop up everyday while they're in my care.  A teacher's job never really ends.  In light of the recent tragedy in Connecticut, as well as a dozen other active shooting events around the country and a mass casualty situation in China, many teachers are now faced with an internal dilemma; one that questions our personal belief system down to the core.  Should we, as educators, be permitted to carry guns in the classroom.  At the very least, should we be allowed to have a gun safe with a loaded handgun in it, in our classroom?

I believe that yes, we should.

The best case scenario puts armed police officers on the scene of an active shooter in a building in about three minutes.  In the first three minutes of our country's most recent tragedy, several people were already dead and several more were wounded.  The school's principal went into the hallway, unarmed, to get a better view of what she thought were gunshots. Unfortunately, she didn't return to her office. What if she would've been armed? Statistics from federal, state and local police agencies have proven that once an active shooter meets resistance from an armed individual they either a) are slowed down due to use of force by the other party or b) kill themselves.  The principal, a teacher in a classroom, the school counselor/psychologist or secretary could've potentially stopped this tragedy shortly after it began had they been armed and prepared.

Before you jump all over me, please understand I am not saying that guns in schools are the only way to keep children safe.  I am also not saying that a gun carrying staff member in every school will prevent these tragedies from happening. I do not feel that teachers should be mandated to carry, nor do I feel that we should pay an armed security guard to stand outside every door of every school in America. I am not an extremist who believes this is the only answer. I am a future teacher who doesn't want to be a 'sitting duck' waiting for the next lunatic to turn a building that I might be in, with your children into the O.K. Corral. I want the opportunity to be proactive instead of being forced to be reactive to the shooter because too many people in our country are afraid of giving the good guys a little bit of power.

I read an article last night while I was writing this post, as I was looking for answers to law enforcement response time and statistics in active shooting events across the web. The author makes a very valid point when he talks about banning certain types of guns (or guns altogether). The bad guys will get guns regardless of their legality or availability in our country.  Adding a "No Weapons Permitted" or "Gun Free Zone" sign to the front of a building is similar to storing your most valuable  asset, most prized possession on your front lawn for the world to see and walk away with.  We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect our homes, jewelry, vehicles, finances and personal information from the bad guys, yet we refuse to allow our schools to be protected by the people who know them best.  You trust me with your child's education, molding your child's brain, sculpting their future and giving them the tools to succeed in that future. I will spend more time with your children than you do for 180 days every year, I will care about your children like they are my own, I will celebrate with them, I will get frustrated alongside them and I will give them every ounce of dedication and knowledge I possess.  I will take a bullet for your children, just like so many of my colleagues. I don't want to be forced into that decision though....and by allowing teachers to be trained to carry a gun, and allowing that gun to be in a school building, I might not have to.

Hypersexualization or Paranoia?

My 9 year-old son told his sister that she has a 'dirty mind'.

This is a problem for me.

I can handle questions about sex, what a sex therapist does (thank you, Survivor) and even the random inquiries about the box of feminine products sitting next to the roll of trash bags in my bathroom closet. However, when the youngest of my two kids is using terms like 'dirty mind', I go into a tail spin and start freaking out. Why is he using that term? Does he know what it means?  Who told him? What did they tell him? And why does he feel his sister is being 'dirty' when she talks? It's enough to send me into a frenzy of Googling and interrogation without making him feel that he can't be open with what he learns at school.  Yep this is the product of a child in his class.

Apparently my son reacts, as I'd expect (he is NINE), to jokes about butts, farts, nudity and any other bodily function or body part that boys his age find hilarious.  This caused another child to tell him he has a 'dirty mind'.  My boy, being the follower of this other child that he is, decided to adopt the term and use it even though he isn't 100% clear on the meaning or when to use it in the correct context. After a long conversation I was finally able to get this out of him and explained that it's not a good idea to use terms when he isn't sure of the definition. I also explained that by telling someone they have a 'dirty mind' he could've gotten himself in a lot of trouble at school, had the other child gone home and told their parents. Sigh.  Lucky for him, he tried it out on his sister instead of a female classmate. He said something about a "nuke" in a game and she thought he said "nude".

This brings me to the question: are children being exposed to the idea of sexualization and the human body at an age that is entirely too young or did I freak out unnecessarily?

I know he is a boy and all things human body-including boobs, balls, butts, penises, farts and nudity-are going to crack him up. However, I don't want him to think that this is dirty, but rather a natural part of growing up. I liken it to the way he finds video games fun and playing in the mud enjoyable, etc. This morning though, as we were watching The Price is Right, a large breasted woman was running bouncing up the steps towards the stage and he said, "whoa, she needs to stop running". When I asked why, he got the deer-in-headlights look and mumbled that she was going to trip or something. I pushed harder, since I knew this wasn't what he meant. He said that she has huge boobs and they are bouncing all over the place so she shouldn't run. WHAT?!  Why is this the first thing he saw when looking at her and the first thought that popped into his head?  She was wearing garland around her forehead for crying out loud, why didn't he notice that?! I didn't push the comment any further since I didn't want to shame him or make him feel badly that he told me the truth...but it bothered me all day. Does he really see a woman's boobs before anything else when looking at her? Would it be this way if cleavage wasn't so plentiful every single time he turned around? Or is he just a typical 9 year-old who finds boobies hilarious and I need to relax and stop over analyzing? I just hope he isn't learning from friends that a woman's breasts are objects of sexual desire, and truly just sees them as a funny part of the female anatomy...at least until he's 30!

July Pantry Challenge is Over!

Wow.  If you've never taken an entire month, or even one week out of each month to shop from your pantry/freezer/fridge you should certainly do so.  I'm pretty conscious of what we already have on-hand before I head to the grocery store but this past month was really an eye opener for me.  The items that seemed to multiply in my cabinets include: jarred gravy, Jell-o, cake mixes and black beans.  The freezer only had a couple of surprises: two whole chickens and three opened bags of corn. It seems I have a frozen veggie fetish of some sort, although I was able to use up all except for a bag of frozen green beans (that only I'll eat).

Our grocery total for the month of July was $968. Unfortunately this is higher than I'd like it to be, due to the cost of fruit.  Every week we go through $30-$40 of fruit, and this price includes purchasing fruit that is in season and at Costco.  I'm not sure where else I can cut expenses since I can't really cut the fruit budget.

This week I am trying to keep with the themes that I set last week for each day since we are within four weeks of our fall schedule starting.  We're eating:

Monday: Lime grilled chicken, pasta salad, steamed veggies

Tuesday: Spaghetti, homemade cheesy garlic bread

Wednesday: Chicken satay, pad Thai noodles, rice

Thursday: Bean burritos, red sauce, chips & guacamole

Friday: Slow cooked French Dip sandwiches, Sun Chips, fruit salad

Saturday: Carne asada, black beans, rice

Have a good week!