I’ve been writing about being curious over the last few emails and thought I would wrap up this “curiosity” theme up with one final email about the deadly school shootings.
(And before we go any further, I’m going to write about religion in this article but I’m not going to preach. Truth be told, I’m not a religious person. I’m simply going to share an observation that I’m very curious about).
My wife’s family is Catholic. I’m not. Before I could be married in their family church, I had to meet with the Priest. The meeting didn’t go very well, and I actually walked away with a very low opinion of the Catholic religion. During the meeting, the Priest basically told me I wasn’t good enough to marry my wife because I wasn’t Catholic. I never respond well when someone tells me I’m not good enough. It always pisses me off and I usually end up rubbing their face in it at some point in the future. This particular Priest ended up leaving the church shortly after our meeting and I’m about to celebrate my 25th anniversary.
During our fun meeting, this Priest also made me promise to raise our children as Catholics. This is a promise I made and have honored.
We sent both of our daughters to Catholic schools. My oldest daughter graduated from a Catholic High School last year. My youngest daughter is wrapping up her freshman year at the same school next week. Over the last few years, this particular school, and many Catholic Schools, have been in a slow decline. The enrollment numbers continue to dwindle with each passing year. With fewer students, they’re forced to cut many classes and streamline their offerings.
Today, I honestly believe our public high school may actually be better than our expensive Catholic High School, but I won’t switch my daughter to our public school.
The reason why is because there haven’t been any deadly mass school shootings at a Catholic High School. In fact, I don’t believe there have been any school shootings at any private schools, but I’m not 100% positive.
If you don’t believe me, ask Mr. Google. You’ll find the Wikipedia page detailing every school shooting here, and you might be surprised at what you find.
Here are my questions (remember this comes back to curiosity):
How come there are no mass school shootings at Catholic schools?
– Is it because of the strong sense of community they create throughout the school(s)?
– Is it because the students who attend private schools have families that are more involved in their lives?
– Is it because private schools can quickly and easily expel risky and challenging students?
I honestly don’t know the answers to these questions. I do think these are important questions that we should investigate. You know what else I’m curious about…
Is there a commonality in Catholic schools that we can copy and install in public schools to make them safer?
We’re all concerned with making our schools safer, but I think we may be approaching it from the wrong angle. Having police in schools isn’t going to solve the problem. Arming teachers won’t solve the problem. Installing metal detectors and high tech security systems also won’t make things better. These measures may help save lives, but they won’t prevent someone from shooting.
Maybe, just maybe, the best solution lies within the actual schools themselves.
Whenever I want to make a change in my life, the first thing I do is to look for someone has legitimately accomplished what I want to accomplish. I study them and try and see if there are thoughts and actions I can copy myself. I look for clues on what they’ve done to achieve what they’ve achieved.
Why aren’t we doing the same thing with school shootings?
