Comments on: Arming teachers: Point/Counterpoint

By: Name Withheld

Name Withheld — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:31:35 +0000

#84 Thanks for those numbers, I just didn’t know. I know maybe a dozen families who home school, but maybe I just live in an area where that’s more popular (i.e., where there are enough families sufficiently wealthy to keep one parent — the female parent in every case that I know — at home). My point is that cyber-schooling of our entire childhood population from their homes is not possible. I think we agree on that.

By: CAW

CAW — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:03:08 +0000

Cyber-schooling is not synonymous with homeschooling just as commenting on this blog is not synonymous with a serious detailed discussion about the different aspects of cyber-schooling.

However, this blog is an excellent example of why and how cyber-schooling will work. Embracing this technology we are all using and ignoring its potential is an exercise in futility.

# 80 – The concept of “never again” limits the creative process and choice.

By: e william

e william — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 16:24:02 +0000

#76, you stated “There are already a lot of families who home-school.” Just for purposes of clarification, statistically that isn’t exactly true. There are about 7,000 school-aged Virginians who are home-schooled, and 1,264,764 school-aged Virginians in public schools. That means that .006% of school- aged children in Virginia are home-schooled.

Beyond that, I agree with many of your sentiments. Home-schooling can work, but as a public school classroom teacher, I see the problems associated with it. The socio-economic model the U.S chose in the later half of the 19th Century is one of industrialization, which relies in the specialization of labor. To model otherwise for our youth is to do them a disservice. That, coupled the general lack of social skills many (not all) home-schooled youth have, make it a poor model for educating. Additionally, since those parents choose to bypass the public education system, they are not as acutely aware of the problems that exist in public education, and quite often cannot or do not bring their voices to the political table with regards to working to make better that institution. The same is true for private education. Just my 1 cent worth of opinion (it would be 2 cents, but I’m a public school teacher and therefore don’t have the extra cent to spare. !)

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:05:38 +0000

@applewood #73 “…Seems everybody and their brother is packing, and the criminals know it.”

Do you wear blinders? Perusing the Internet I found these articles appearing over the last 2-3 days from various locations.

In the Savannah Morning News: 17 Year-old dies after being shot several times in Savannah’s Windsor Forest neighborhood.
In the Augusta (GA) Chronicle: Pizza Hut employee robbed by 4 men (a handgun and shotgun used)

Richmond Times-Dispatch HOPEWELL — Police are investigating a home invasion involving four males who tied up a man, ransacked his house and stole money and personal items. The victim was threatened with a gun.

Newport News Daily Press: Three people were robbed at gunpoint early Wednesday morning during a home invasion near Christopher Newport University, police said.

Birmingham, Alabama — A 20-year-old man shot in the head as he drove through southwest Birmingham is expected to survive, police said.

Montgomery, Alabama — The woman found shot in the chest in the Quality Roof Inn on Monday morning has been released from the hospital, according to Montgomery Police.

Jacksonville, FL The Florida Times-Union: : A man and woman were in the same Westside neighborhood where a man was stabbed Saturday night. Jacksonville police responded to the Park Ridge mobile home park at 9211 103rd St. about 12:15 a.m. and found the pair, a 28-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, detective Beau Bottin said. The two were shot multiple times.

More from Jax: A Credit Union was robbed by an armed masked man….Before approaching a female teller, the man pulled the mask down and produced a handgun. The robber then held the clerk at gunpoint and demanded money.

By: 89Hoo

89Hoo — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:29:36 +0000

I doubt most people who carry a concealed weapon – legally or illegally – advertise that they are carrying. Kinda defeats the purpose. Probably a lot more people do than we realize.

By: Sandi Saunders

Sandi Saunders — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:23:56 +0000

I know people who claim to carry everywhere, allowed or not. I even know people who have been shot at. What I do not know is anyone who has ever needed a gun or ended a “situation” with one.

By: Sandi Saunders

Sandi Saunders — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:21:53 +0000

I flat cannot tell if that is sarcasm or not CAW, (which is sad, in and of itself) but do you really consider a society that has “a Glock in one hand and its children in the other” to be “civilized”? I don’t.

Not for nothing but mass “cyber education” implies that we believe there will be a parent able to stay home and manage that and for millions upon millions of Americans, that will never happen again.

When the streets and public places are unsafe to the point that people avoid them, can their homes remain safe for long? At what point under siege does the ammo run out?

By: Name Withheld

Name Withheld — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:38:02 +0000

#77 Very roughly one-fourth of Virginia’s population is under 18. (If it matters, about one-eighth is over 65.) So in terms of the adult population it would be somewhere around 5% have concealed-carry permits. The adjustment isn’t enough to change your argument. I don’t know anyone who carries a weapon on his or her person either, but I do know people who have them in their cars.

By: CAW

CAW — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:22:26 +0000

#76
To arm or not to arm; that is the question?

Cyber-schooling makes that question irrelevant.

It would be a poor argument to brand this concept elitist in order to diminish its viability.

A civilized society with a Glock in one hand and its children in the other, which chooses to ignore inconvenient truths and unconventional solutions, is foreshadowing its demise.

By: gdad

gdad — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:39:46 +0000

“Seems everybody and their brother is packing, ”

I know almost nobody who “packs” (at least not guns) among the people I know best. And I have friends on all sides of the aisle. In Virginia, according to Legally Armed, at last report about 279,000 people have concealed carry permits. I don’t know how many carry openly and don’t have a concealed carry permit or who just carry without a permit. Anyway, 279,000 is about 3.4 percent of the state’s population (although it’s a higher percentage of the adult population). That’s hardly “everybody and their brother.”