Neither the students nor the teacher acted appropriately in this situation:
A Grafton, Wisconsin, middle school teacher allegedly made terroristic threats to his students after he discovered students had drawn swastikas on a notebook found in his class, according to reports.
On May 12, police were dispatched to John Long Middle School after a report of a teacher making threats about guns and harming students, Fox 6 in Milwaukee reported.
When police arrived, they spoke with the school principal who said David Schroeder reported finding a notebook with a swastika on it in the classroom. Then, two days later, the teacher saw two students in possession of a drawing with swastikas on it.
A student claimed Schroeder confronted the class about the drawing and said it was inappropriate before telling them, "I wish pain on all of you and your families."
The student also said the teacher threatened to have his daughter visit the pupils’ homes with a baseball bat, adding that "all Jews have guns." Schroeder also allegedly told the student he had 17 guns in his basement.
Honestly, I don't know that middle schoolers today truly understand the depravity of the Nazis. Sure, they know calling someone a "nazi" is a bad term, but they probably don't understand much about what the Nazis did to earn having their identification turned into one of the worst pejoratives around.
I'm told that, for a variety of reasons, kids don't learn today what I learned in elementary school. I was in 5th grade only 30 years after that war--for a sense of relative time, today we're further away from Gulf War I (Iraq/Kuwait) than my 5th grade class was from World War 2. I remember watching WW2 movies in 5th grade, I remember the bulldozers' pushing nameless heaps of naked Jewish bodies into mass graves. And 5th grade wasn't the first time I saw such movies. Think about it, when I was in 5th grade the people who served in WW2 were younger than I am today--and I'm quite the spry fellow. They wanted us to know, it was important to them that we understood.
I also remember learning about Jet magazine's coverage of Emmett Till.
In my little suburban elementary school in the poor part of town, built on grounds that had previously been a temporary detention center for Japanese-Americans during World War 2, we learned the ugly truths of history. There was no white-washing, there was no cover-up, but neither was there guilt for something we hadn't done. We were taught the evils that had preceded us as a way to ensure they could never happen again.
Has today's extreme sensitivity, no doubt in the name of protecting students from "trauma", caused students not to be able to learn the past's lessons as my generation did? I wonder.
So perhaps the middle school boys in the story above just weren't as educated as they could have been. Or perhaps they were just middle school boys being middle school boys--a thought that doesn't conjure up images of intelligence, maturity, or empathy. Either way, and neither option is ideal, the teacher lost the opportunity of a "teachable moment" and completely lost his cool.
And no one is better off because of it.
6 comments:
When I was teaching religion to 4th graders, I noticed the same thing that the boys were doing. So, I quickly changed my plans and gave them a lesson about why that wasn't just a pretty symbol.
Did it work, who knows.
Good golly, what a bad idea. I'm pretty sure junior high boys have no idea; they're just trying to be edgy and cool. When I was in 4th grade (about 1983), the class clown showed up in a t-shirt he had drawn swastikas all over (obvs his mom had no idea, he'd covered it up until he got to school). Our teacher made him turn it inside out, and spent half the day telling us about what the Nazis were all about. It's one of my clearest memories from that year. Especially the bits about lampshades.
We elementary students (in the '60's) used to draw swastikas and iron crosses on our Pee Chee folders, just because we thought they looked neat and it was somewhat challenging to make a "perfect" one. Our teachers (many of them WW2 vets) weren't bothered in the least. These doodles had no effect on our American patriotism, as evidenced by the fact that we all rooted for the allied prisoners in "Hogan's Heroes" (except Sgt. Shultz...he was just too likeable.)
Maybe the students were just Buddhists, expressing their religion with the symbol.... heh!
Nah, just young boys trying to be cool and edgy.
Buddhist symbol, you say? Like on this slot machine?
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PXBeKOqYMMQ/RhQfhjysnEI/AAAAAAAAAI0/SNI6wJjUwG8/s1600-h/P4030832.JPG
The complete post is at https://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-ive-spent-my-spring-break-thus-far.html
Swastikas weren't uncommon in the US as a good-luck symbol until the Nazis ruined it for us. In my hometown, there used to be lampposts with a swastika design all around the base. They dated from the 20s. I bet they're gone now but in the 80s they were still around.
Post a Comment