I teach 6th grade at a local K-8 school, and come on here regularly and hear sad, (and I am sure) true stories about how some teachers, schools, and admin are anti gun. Well just had to share a fun conversation that happened in the Teacher's lounge this week.
I walked in to the lounge at lunch and was getting a coke out of the machine when I heard a sub ask one of the 3rd grade teachers about one of the student drawn pictures on the wall outside her classroom. She asked if the teacher thought that one of the pics drawn was really appropriate for school. The teacher asked her which one she was talking about, and the sub told her, "The one showing someone with a gun killing a deer of course!". Well the teacher asked her what exactly was wrong with it. The sub (who let us know that she was a retired teacher herself, from NY no less), told her that the pic depicted violence and guns and had no place in school.
I got a kick out of the teacher's response. She said that the pics were to show something that the students did with their family that they enjoyed, and that hunting was certainly an acceptable past time, and that if she had a problem with that then she was living in the wrong part of the country.
That just didn't satisfy the lady, who had to try to get backup from a couple of the other teachers in the lounge. She asked one of the 4th grade teachers if she thought it was appropriate, and the girl (a cute little blond in her 1st year out of college) told her she thought it was great, that she had grown up hunting with her dad and that it was just part of the culture here, and that she owned 2 guns, a pistol and a shotgun, herself.
Still not satisfied she asked the guidance lady who had just walked in to "talk some sense into them". Well, it didn't go over quite as she had planned. The guidance lady (who is a hoot, and with whom I have talked guns before) told her that she didn't see anything wrong with it either, and that unless you are terrified of an inanimate object (a gun), or you were a deer then you couldn't possibly see a threat or the "promotion of violence" from a picture drawn by a 3rd grader about hunting. She then informed her that she was in the process of getting her CC permit and didn't see why anyone would be scared of carrying one. She also pointed out that many of us teachers are already CC permit holders and that most of us have the "good sense" to not be scared by a drawing.
The whole time this is going on I am standing in the corner just smiling, and enjoying the show. In the past there have been some real good gun conversations held in that lounge, most started by women teachers. I would have to guess that better than 1/2 of the teachers at my school have their CC permit, as does my woman principal, along with the guidance lady and two others that have taken the class to qualify or are scheduled to soon. and we have over 40 teachers with only 5 of us being men. I don't know if that number holds true at all of the schools in our county, but I know a whole lot of teachers who do CC, and even most of the ones I know who don't own guns.
I know its not like that everywhere, but there are still some pockets of common sense left out here in the world!
BTW around here substitute teachers are pretty hard to come by, so the requirements to be a sub are a little lax. You have to be breathing, and not have a criminal record! So good subs are highly valued and work pretty regular, we have a lot of subs on the list that never get called unless no one else is available. I have a feeling that this lady wont be getting a lot of calls from our school.
I walked in to the lounge at lunch and was getting a coke out of the machine when I heard a sub ask one of the 3rd grade teachers about one of the student drawn pictures on the wall outside her classroom. She asked if the teacher thought that one of the pics drawn was really appropriate for school. The teacher asked her which one she was talking about, and the sub told her, "The one showing someone with a gun killing a deer of course!". Well the teacher asked her what exactly was wrong with it. The sub (who let us know that she was a retired teacher herself, from NY no less), told her that the pic depicted violence and guns and had no place in school.
I got a kick out of the teacher's response. She said that the pics were to show something that the students did with their family that they enjoyed, and that hunting was certainly an acceptable past time, and that if she had a problem with that then she was living in the wrong part of the country.
That just didn't satisfy the lady, who had to try to get backup from a couple of the other teachers in the lounge. She asked one of the 4th grade teachers if she thought it was appropriate, and the girl (a cute little blond in her 1st year out of college) told her she thought it was great, that she had grown up hunting with her dad and that it was just part of the culture here, and that she owned 2 guns, a pistol and a shotgun, herself.
Still not satisfied she asked the guidance lady who had just walked in to "talk some sense into them". Well, it didn't go over quite as she had planned. The guidance lady (who is a hoot, and with whom I have talked guns before) told her that she didn't see anything wrong with it either, and that unless you are terrified of an inanimate object (a gun), or you were a deer then you couldn't possibly see a threat or the "promotion of violence" from a picture drawn by a 3rd grader about hunting. She then informed her that she was in the process of getting her CC permit and didn't see why anyone would be scared of carrying one. She also pointed out that many of us teachers are already CC permit holders and that most of us have the "good sense" to not be scared by a drawing.
The whole time this is going on I am standing in the corner just smiling, and enjoying the show. In the past there have been some real good gun conversations held in that lounge, most started by women teachers. I would have to guess that better than 1/2 of the teachers at my school have their CC permit, as does my woman principal, along with the guidance lady and two others that have taken the class to qualify or are scheduled to soon. and we have over 40 teachers with only 5 of us being men. I don't know if that number holds true at all of the schools in our county, but I know a whole lot of teachers who do CC, and even most of the ones I know who don't own guns.
I know its not like that everywhere, but there are still some pockets of common sense left out here in the world!
BTW around here substitute teachers are pretty hard to come by, so the requirements to be a sub are a little lax. You have to be breathing, and not have a criminal record! So good subs are highly valued and work pretty regular, we have a lot of subs on the list that never get called unless no one else is available. I have a feeling that this lady wont be getting a lot of calls from our school.