Sharp Tools

How To Make High School Suck Worse Than Ever

React like the idiots in this article. Look, get fucking real. Guns are tools. That's all. They are dangerous, lethal objects that perform a mechanical task. The demonstration that this guy is performing is in fact done every day by people doing a job - forensic ballistic experts, for example, or people designing both weapons and protective armor. They use guns to do this too. They use the same physics he's teaching those kids. The kids are eager to learn the physics because he's showing them that 'things that are scary and cool' are connected to those equations.

Why are guns a problem? Not because someone who knows how to use them shows you what they do in a controlled environment with proper appreciation for it. Guns are a problem when they are treated as a 'magical object' that is 'forbidden' and hence represents 'mystical power' - i.e. when they are something that is never seen, never seen operating, never touched - and then become something that if only the kid can get hold of, they will be magically powerful and can fix all the problems with their life.

Pretending they don't exist, or that they can't be acquired by the kids if they try hard enough, is the way to make them mystic objects of fascination. Making them understandable and dangerous objects, like bandsaws or jackhammers, is the way to make their use something not 'cool' and 'powerful' but stupid and weak.

Plus, maybe your kids will want to go to Physics class. That's rare enough already. If there is an actual law against doing this demonstration in the classroom, then okay, understandable - perhaps he needs to set up a field trip to a range to do it. But if no-one's been hurt, and he's taking appropriate safety precautions, and knows what he's doing - SHUT UP! Jesus, it's no wonder the good teachers quit.

Fucking learn that.

Posted by jbz at May 25, 2006 4:14 PM | TrackBack