A bad day at school

My day begins telling a physically disabled 5 year old in my class to stop pretending to shoot kids that enter the classroom with the Lego gun he has made. I call him over so we can discuss the inappropriateness of this behavior, something I have had to do with a couple of the boys in my class too often this year. He tells me that yesterday when he was absent to go to a funeral they stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge where there was this game with guns and how cool it was to shoot the bad guys. He is usually one of the sweetest kids in class, but like most boys these days all he wants to do is play video games, especially the shooting games. I realize how futile my words, "We don't pretend to shoot guns at school" is for these 5 and 6 year olds. For them killing is pretend on a video screen.

Five minutes later, an emotionally impaired little boy comes through the door carrying his copy of 'Mini Soldiers.' By the looks of the case, it has been handled and watched many times. This is a child I have struggled with all year because he is out of control, arms flying everywhere, a frequent violator in the pretending to shoot other kids group. When asked what he did the night before, his answer is usually "watched a movie or played video games." He wants us to watch the movie today and hands it to me. Looking at the cover I can already guarantee that I will not be showing this propaganda today, but I flip it over to see the rating, which is PG-13. He keeps telling me it is really good and I keep telling him no way.

So I decide to bring up the topic about how guns and killing are not appropriate at school. The boys in my class try to tell me how cool guns are, but I am not convinced by their arguments. I try to get through to them that guns kill and should not be played with, but for them everybody they see getting shot gets back up and is there again in the next game. I change the subject and ask what kinds of movies they like. I am horrified to get the response "scary ones" by more than half the class. I decide to end this discussion and try one more time to emphasize how I do not like guns or war movies.

The day goes by slowly and the end of the day approaches. We go to the library and computer lab right before going home. I take half my class into the computer lab and find that someone has placed an army, navy, air force, marine, or national guard mouse pad at each computer. I am disgusted by the sight of them in school and will have them removed from the lab before my class goes in there again. Their placement in the computer lab confirms a thought I'd been tinkering with all day, the military plays a part in the development of the shooting video games my kids are hooked on and has influenced the movie industry to create movies like 'Mini Soldiers.'

I am reminded of Jerry Mander's book, 'In the Absence of the Sacred' and his statement that governments and corporations benefit the most from inventions like the television and computer. It has been a while since I read the book, but I recommend it to everyone.

I am disheartened by the messages we are allowing children to be subjected to in this world. They are our future and as long as marketers continue to target them with shiny packages filled with violence, children are going to grow up thinking that guns are cool and that war is necessary. When the president declared war there was overwhelming support because it was packaged by the media as necessary and patriotic. While going to peace marches we were yelled at by people on the street that we were unpatriotic and if we didn't like this country we should leave it. Now trillions of dollars later with idiotic wars of greed in two countries, many Americans have changed their view on the necessity of these wars. During the past six to eight years grown ups have been educated that war is not cool or awesome. Unfortunately, the next generation will be ripe for the plucking when they grow up to the age of enlistment if we can not convince these students about the magic of peace.

I declare peace to all who read this. It is time to live in peace, our future depends on it.