the two boys were marginalized, yes, as well as
self-marginalizing. one died from a gun shot to the back of his head.
keanue reeves is also decked out in a long black coat for his latest
sci-fi action flick.
i'm most struck by how my fellow teachers have such a dirth of
vocabulary and epistemological bases to begin to understand school
violence. as a result, it seems as if each person looks for one
explanatory principle - the boys were bad - the parents were absent - tv -
etc. etc.
it now appears that most students were killed because they were in
the library, not for particular attributes.
so i think about this all in terms of activity theory - which
brings me to an explation that this violence is an expected outcome
considering the cultural rules we use in raising boys, as well as in
raising girls - the cultural rules we use in running schools, schools
which reflect society's hierarchical power structures and reproduces
multiple forms of marginalization - i watch my eight year old students
refer to each other as 'retards', 'buttheads', 'faggots' - and the use
is language as a form of violence is so deep. the same day, one faculty
member referred to another faculty member as 'dispicable'. so i think it
isn't just racism, sexism, all the multiple isms, but rather our methods
of dealing with conflict are basically embedded in violence.
by "we" / "our" i mean we americans - especially americans who
also are identified as christians. a broad sweeping statement - i know
i'm not supposed to say things like this because they are universalist and
there are always exceptions.
however, this is the source of my statements. when Matthew
Shepard's funeral was held in Wyoming, and a baptist parish demonstrated,
declaring that Shephard was in hell, and other words of violence, and,
this is just one example where religious groups heap abuse on lesbians &
gays, and and and it is met with such stunning silence by the rest of the
christian american community, then i know that violence is a sanctioned
mode of behavior in this country. i know that there have been some
christian groups who have spoken out on this, but the majority are silent.
many people believe that what was horrible about the Shepard murder was
the fact that he was crucified. after all, many gays and lesbians have
been murdered in this country with barely a notice. a similar murder was
not too long ago in the deep South - very little notice has been taken.
what i've written is just a tiny example of american tolerance for
multiple forms of violence. mass shootings have been a staple of american
life for the last thirty years. the result has been to blame either the
murderer, the lax gun laws, the movies, or television, etc. little has
been done to look at how violence is systemically woven throughout our
multiple practices of living.
because it is so systemic, for myself i am initially overwhelmed
thinking how can i do anything about this. yet, change is only going to
occur by me taking incremental steps - talking to my professional peer
about her choice of words, talking to my students on a daily basis, etc.
etc. practicing forms of non-violence.
in other words, any change has to occur in me - i can't expect
that attempts to change others will change the system. usually it
doesn't.
and now .................... i also want to say i have
appreciated the dialogue practiced my xmca. it has been a great source of
solace.
phillip
phillip white pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu
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A relation of surveillance, defined and regulated,
is inscribed at the heart of the practice of teaching, not
as an additional or adjacent part, but as a mechanism that
is inherent to it and which increases its efficiency.
Michel Foucault / Discipline & Punish
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