It was very nice to read your considerations on columbine's=20
tragedy... as say, school education tragedy (all over the world?!)
Well, the TV networks news on chs tragedy, at least in Brazil,
insist on its neo-nazi motivation. They all show the boys' homepage on=20
net with nazi contents, deposition of some 'friends' of them...=20
...And the pacifist movement action directed to stop free arms=20
access/sell in USA - immediately after that unhappy happening (I,=20
personally, appreciate it very very much). There is raising a simmilar=20
movement here, in Brazil.
I think there is not only one truth. "there are many objects in an=20
object", as had said Bertold Brecht. So, I believe, the most important=20
thing at all is to discuss it... consider it as a "pr=E9-texto"=20
(previous-text?) to approach violence in ocidental urbanized=20
societies... and participate of a construction of meaning/sense...
maybe from its discussion in many levels and since many different=20
perspectives and points of view can be possible "watch" or visualize any=20
possible solutions/inquiries come to surface...
I have learned a lot from this discussion forum.
Ricardo.=20
Phillip Allen White wrote:
>=20
> Margaret, Nate, Kathie, Diane and Ricardo - reading your
> multiple exchanges have prompted many hesitant responses on my part -
> and going to work at a school that has been under lock-down since tuesd=
ay
> afternoon has been de-centering, yet helpful, like traveling through a
> foreign country.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> 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 - t=
v -
> etc. etc.
>=20
> it now appears that most students were killed because they were=
in
> the library, not for particular attributes.
>=20
> 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 student=
s
> refer to each other as 'retards', 'buttheads', 'faggots' - and the us=
e
> is language as a form of violence is so deep. the same day, one facult=
y
> member referred to another faculty member as 'dispicable'. so i think =
it
> isn't just racism, sexism, all the multiple isms, but rather our method=
s
> of dealing with conflict are basically embedded in violence.
>=20
> by "we" / "our" i mean we americans - especially americans w=
ho
> also are identified as christians. a broad sweeping statement - i kn=
ow
> i'm not supposed to say things like this because they are universalist =
and
> there are always exceptions.
>=20
> however, this is the source of my statements. when Matthew
> Shepard's funeral was held in Wyoming, and a baptist parish demonstrate=
d,
> 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 t=
he
> 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 sile=
nt.
> many people believe that what was horrible about the Shepard murder was
> the fact that he was crucified. after all, many gays and lesbians hav=
e
> been murdered in this country with barely a notice. a similar murder w=
as
> not too long ago in the deep South - very little notice has been take=
n.
>=20
> what i've written is just a tiny example of american tolerance =
for
> multiple forms of violence. mass shootings have been a staple of ameri=
can
> life for the last thirty years. the result has been to blame either th=
e
> 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.
>=20
> because it is so systemic, for myself i am initially overwhelme=
d
> thinking how can i do anything about this. yet, change is only going t=
o
> occur by me taking incremental steps - talking to my professional pee=
r
> about her choice of words, talking to my students on a daily basis, etc.
> etc. practicing forms of non-violence.
>=20
> in other words, any change has to occur in me - i can't expec=
t
> that attempts to change others will change the system. usually it
> doesn't.
>=20
> and now .................... i also want to say i have
> appreciated the dialogue practiced my xmca. it has been a great source=
of
> solace.
>=20
> phillip
>=20
> phillip white pwhite who-is-at carbon.cudenver.edu
>=20
> /////////////////////////////////\
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> Michel Foucault / Discipline & Punish
>=20
> \///////////////////////////////////////
>=20
>