December 17, 2012

  • Teaching to the Gun.

    For some reason last night, I started to think of all the students I've pissed off in the past. I don't think I have fully torked off a ton of people in my time, but I have upset a few students = over plagiarism issues, over ten points on a project they were earning an A on anyway, over the swear words in Carlin's book, over my late work policy, etc. I've even had one student say, "I'm about to get really upset here," and instead of backing off, I pushed him, "What does that mean?" I think he's been the only one to attempt to threaten me, and he was probably suffering from the Napolean complex. Oh wait, there was the student who accused me of being racist, and I said, "No, I'm prejudice against all students who aren't using their brains in my class."

    What if any ONE of those students was just mentally-disturbed enough to find a gun and hunt me down? Would I have much of a chance to survive? It could happen at 2pm on a Tuesday, when I'm walking across the parking lot to the library. (So, I suppose this should teach me that whole "live each day as your last" lesson?)
    And it sounds like there was absolutely no rhyme or reason for why those children had to die in Connecticut. The man was nuts-o and just wanted to take out some innocent lives? This scares me even further. I can kind of understand the revenge motive (and using the words "kind of" is pushing it), but when there is no reason ... what the heck do we do with that?