A SHOT TO THE HEART
By:  Melissa Tomlinson, Asst. General Manager BATs

A Shot to the Heart

Every time I hear of another school shooting my heart seizes as another child is harmed.  ”Was it someone I know?” as I hear the news.  ”Was it in my state? “Was it in my town?”  ”Was it in my child’s school?”
I sit here in tears at that last thought.  The stark reality these days is that, well, it really could be in my child’s school.  It could be in my school, your school, your own children’s schools.
When are we going to stop and take a look to see what we are doing to these babies??? These children that should grow up laughing, feeling the joy of learning, wanting to explore the unknown.
Instead, we are forcing them to learn a mandated curriculum with mandated questions, and mandated answers.  there is no room for exploration.  there is no room for creativity.  there is no room for joy.
Is it any wonder that the greatest increase that we see in public shootings is happening within our public schools???
Where else would a troubled youth go to express the emotional turmoil that is being felt, with such a violent response, except to the one place that is causing so much hurt.
I hurt at the thought that our schools are causing this much pain.  This is not what education was ever supposed to be about.
Where is the nurturing, the support, the understanding and the help?  Where is the love?
Teachers don’t have time for that anymore.  Teachers are pushed to rush through an almost impossible curriculum that reaches and stretches a child beyond the the very cognitive limits that the brain can handle.  Adults barely have the emotional tools to handle such stress.  How can we expect our children to handle it?
There will be no surprises when the data is analyzed and the facts are checked.  The ever increasing exposure to inappropriate and incorrectly valued learning will be what destroys our children in the end.
A shot to the heart…and who’s to blame????
Please, I beg of you, stop the tears.  Stop the hurt.  Allow our children to have a chance to learn in an environment with a little less fear.  Allow our children to  the chance to grow up, to raise children of their own, to live without the fear that someday their child may fall victim to these acts of violence.
Please, I beg of you, just let us