OUTRAGE. At our faculty meeting this afternoon our Vice Principal informed us that we were under NO circumstances allowed to discuss Hurricane Katrina with our students. If we overheard students discussing it amongst themselves, we were to put a stop to it. Apparently the subject is just too distressing and emotionally trying to allow our children to hear about. But the real reason is that one of the Vice Principal's precious favorites had a grandmother in Biloxi who they have not heard from. So I must rearrange my whole curriculum for the beginning of the year because the subject is 'just too sensitive'. I raised my hand in disbelief and asked "as an Environmental Science teacher, I am supposed to ignore this subject?" to which I was told I could teach about hurricanes later in the year, but not at this time. I was told "show them a video of the tsunami, but don't talk about hurricanes". Now, if the Tsunami wasn't one of the most harrowing, heart wrenching sights on the face of this earth nothing was. Not to discount this one in ANY way, but honestly was he serious!? I'm absolutely, 100% outraged by this. I'm so dumbfounded that I work at a school district who would prefer that I coddle my children, lie to them, ease them into a false sense of security, pretty much stick their heads in the sand and teach them to be irresponsible adults who should not face reality as it comes but instead choose to ignore it's validity. I'm disgusted that a man with such thoughts (or lack there-of) and opinions would have ANY influence on my children, my friend's children, my relative's children, or any children period. I fully believe that this ignorance is bliss attitude is the root of all evil and is the cause of the gradual downfall of our society. We are living through one of the most historic events of our lifetimes. What better way to teach children about something then when it is really happening. Nothing is a better teacher than the actual experience. Am I to ignore the fact that people have lost lives, that they NEED massive amounts of help? What a tremendous opportunity we could have to show the students how important it is to stand together and help one another. For crying out loud the Wal-Mart parking lot was covered with trucks full of personal belongings and displaced people just looking for a place to be. If we don't teach children to band together and respond appropriately to such situations how will they ever know how to react to these situations? Will they laugh in an awkward way in response to devastation because no one ever taught them otherwise? Or heaven forbid will they be the ones next time who were too ignorant to leave the city in the face of a hurricane because they weren't educated about such events in an effort to 'spare their feelings'? I'm supposed to detach these kids from reality all for the sake of their feelings? Well WAKE THE FUCK UP! Life is not easy, it's not pretty and when you watch a man on the TV talking about losing his wife when his house split apart, YOU SHOULD CRY. You should be emotionally ripped apart at the tragedy. Life is hard, it is messy, it's not fair, it's not always pretty, you don't always get what you want and YES, people die. It's called being human. It's called reality. It's called knowing what's going on so you can prevent it next time. I just don't know what else to say about this. I'm going to pray about it and trust that God will take care of it as he intends.
