How do you solve student violence?

... you go OK Corral on them!!!

"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started," he wrote on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's web site.

Mr Thweatt [the superintendent] said he believed the school's proximity to a large, busy motorway could make it a target.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Guns for Texas school's teachers


Well at least the teachers are taking crisis management training!

Now, seriously. A few things worry me about this article:

1) parents apparently did NOT object (?)
2) being close to a motorway makes it a target (last time I checked, most of the school shootings were done by students, not truckers, but hey...)
3) I'm getting flashes of that Boston Public pilot when the man fires a gun to make the kids go silent... pity I can't find the video on youtube anymore because it was priceless...

Bottom line is, you don't really want teachers with guns. I have some friends that have joked about giving us tasers ;) but jokes apart, teaching is stressful enough without having firearms involved. Jn just 5 seconds, I get a few scenarios based on the fact that so far neither students nor teachers have become flawless cyborgs:

a) teacher gets really really pissed, fires at ceiling (see Boston Public above)
b) teacher argues with spouse, comes pissed, gets even more pissed at trucker at the motorway (see upper above), gets to class gets totally pissed, student becomes rowdy, teacher yells, student becomes abusive, teacher loses it, student gets shot.
c) student argues with parent, gets pissed, argues with teacher, teacher yells, student steals gun from teacher, uses gun.
d) teacher accidentally fires gun
e) student accidentally fires gun
f) bullets accidentally end up at chemistry lab. Hilarity ensues. Explosion follows.

I'm sure TV watchers worldwide could go on thinking scenarios around this. I'm just very surprised that Superintendent Thweatt didn't seem to be able to.


Now, how about some "Let's work around why we love violence so much we can't think outside the barrel" workshops???

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The future of TV? (pointless ruminating while driving mode)

Well, this is what happens every summer. Too much free time, too much reading (on and offline), too many good TV shows and the next thing you know, I'm driving back from my ex-home thinking about my favorite pastime, what if scenarios. The what if of today was:

- what if people stop watching traditional TV altogether?

Because, I'm not sure about what happens elsewhere, but here in Spain watching traditional TV means not only endless commercials but also *years* of delay with respect to US or UK broadcasts, jumping showtimes and, did I mention endless endless endllllllllesssss commercials. Me, I'm about to give up. Fast forward a few years later, and if media companies don't get cracking or do something close to terror tactics, I'm afraid we're all going to be downloading stuff, legally, alegally or illegally.

So the question is, will that mean no more TV shows, no more films, no more music? I was ruminating on these terms when suddenly it dawned on me -- what if, what if instead of buying the product after it is done, audiences gave a sort of economic vote of confidence to an author, musician or company to produce or record X, Y or Z? If you think about how some products such as Firefly cause such a fan movement to revive a particular show, I wonder if individuals would not be willing to "fund" future shows or musicians or even film companies, the same way that politicians get funding. Particularly if they are faced with an "either this or nothing" scenario. This would also possibly imply more micromanagement and a different source of promotion, but we already have the tools: youtube, myspace...

This is possibly just rambling, but hey, I've been speaking about the prices of houses falling down for years and nobody listened... well, whatever, you can call me Cassandra. But if I'm right, in ten years time I'll proudly wave this post in the air. HA.

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