{"id":1504,"date":"2012-12-20T14:52:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T21:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/billintheblank\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2012-12-20T14:52:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T21:52:19","slug":"to-all-those-who-want-safer-schools-in-newtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithwalkers\/2012\/12\/to-all-those-who-want-safer-schools-in-newtown\/","title":{"rendered":"To All Those Who Want Safer Schools in Newtown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I get it. Really, I do.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re repulsed by the utter horror of the tragedy in Newtown. Our hearts ache at the thought of such insane bloodshed. I\u2019ve already\u00a0shared my own experiences with such issues and my prayer for them as a former principal <\/a>who still knows and loves so many similar teachers and kids.<\/p>\n

And I have few little guys of my own. So I get our urge to make schools safer. I understand why we want to do all we can to make sure no one ever hurts like that again. But there is a subtle yet pernicious danger that can come from our efforts to create safer schools in Newtown and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re not careful, we\u2019ll\u00a0create a bunker mentality that fears risk above all and defeats the very reason we have schools in the first place.<\/p>\n

The Truth about Learning<\/h4>\n

I think we\u2019d all agree that schools should be places where learning takes place. But learning always requires risk, because it involves moving from where we are to where we could go. And by risk, I don\u2019t mean stupid-death-defying risk, but the risk of failure in general that must naturally occur in any thriving\u00a0learning environment. It\u2019s about ensuring kids truly live, not just survive.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0The greatest risk we face these days is that of an unlived life. ~ Seth Barnes<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m not saying we always like it,\u00a0but failure, and the willingness to take risk, make mistakes, and learn from them, is the only path to success. If we\u2019re not careful, we\u2019ll inadvertently stifle the very culture of growth necessary to keep learning. Consequently, our \u201csafer\u201d schools\u00a0 quickly become museums where alarms sound when we touch the exhibits and the creative human spirit ages and fades before our very eyes. We end up with schools that may be physically safe but intellectually dormant.<\/p>\n

\n

Monotony is the awful reward of the careful. ~ A.G. Buckham<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Hazards of a\u00a0Risk-Free Culture<\/h4>\n

We are rapidly becoming a nation of people averse to taking risks. \u00a0When something \u2014 anything \u2014 fails, we demand an inquiry as to why. When our child fails to receive a Little League award, we insist an injustice has been done. When an accident occurs, we now assume a lawsuit will follow. When an evil, insane fellow commits heinous murders, we rush to pass more restrictive laws, ban more stuff,\u00a0and\u00a0tighten school security.<\/p>\n

When we create a bunker mentality in schools through sincere efforts to make them safer, we also make them less productive places to learn. You don\u2019t go into bunkers to move forward. Bunkers are designed for surviving,\u00a0not for winning. There is a place for both, provided we\u2019re careful.<\/p>\n

We can think of the balance between safety and risk as a line, a continuum with total safety on one extreme and utter disregard for consequences on the other. We always find ourselves somewhere along that line in every area of life. The more we move toward safety, the more we move, by definition, away from risk. But the more we move away from risk, the less we are able to learn and grow.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the paradigm in which we must function, for better or worse. That\u2019s not to say we should rush to the end of extreme risk. We don\u2019t need to take a field trip\u00a0across a crowded highway to learn about physics. We can find a safer way. Yet the general paradigm of this universal trade-off remains. And we did not become the leaders of the free world by playing it safe. We\u2019re the ones who stormed the beaches, put man on the moon, and insisted on ending the moral disaster of slavery no matter the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every advance in art, cooking, medicine, agriculture, engineering, marketing, politics, education, and design has occurred when someone challenged the rules and tried another approach.\u201d (Roger von Oech)\u00a0In other words, they chose to take a risk\u00a0instead of\u00a0the safer route. I often wonder how an Einstein would function in our safe and secure learning environments, or even\u00a0a Thomas Edison who famously said, \u201cThere ain\u2019t no rules around here! We\u2019re trying to accomplish something!\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t reach for a dream and remain motionless at the same time. The two are incompatible. ~ John Maxwell<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But motion means taking risks. Risk might well mean failure. Are we still OK with that?<\/p>\n

A Symptom of a Risk-Averse Culture<\/h4>\n

In short, I fear our education system is already\u00a0becoming so insulted by sincere efforts to ensure safety of all sorts that it\u2019s\u00a0a wonder any learning can take place at all. Over the last\u00a0few decades, our schools have gotten safer, or at least\u00a0more averse to risk\u00a0in many ways (more on that later). Maybe that\u2019s why our academic scores have remained stuck in neutral for the last three decades while other countries, more willing to take risks, pass us by.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll go a step further to suggest that as a nation, we may have already passed a tipping point of sorts in this regard. We vote for the candidate who promises the most security, not the one who offers the greatest freedom\u00a0to take risks and reap the rewards. When corporate and union leaders at\u00a0GM make mistakes, we expect a bailout \u2014 even at a loss to those who took the most risk.<\/p>\n

One critical role of government is to facilitate safety\u00a0as we each take risks every day as individuals, families,\u00a0or businesses. It plays a necessary\u00a0role in ensuring minimal safety and security standards are met.\u00a0But at some point, subtly passed and difficult to delineate, that safety system instead becomes the\u00a0reason for our existence. At one point, it existed to keep us safe as we grew and took risks. Now we seem to exist to fund its own ever-expanding appetite for more safety regulations, bureaucratic paperwork, and blame-shifting commissions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, every day, a little bit more of our cultural creative spirit fades until we forget why we existed in the first place.<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s a bit of stretch, but\u00a0I\u2019ve been thinking a little beyond just the natural\u00a0wish we all have that such a tragedy never happen again. I pray you\u00a0 won\u2019t think me callous because of it. Just trying to think ahead.\u00a0At some point, maybe a point already passed, we protect ourselves to death in a futile attempt to ensure we dispose of all hurt and failure.<\/p>\n

But without some level of risk, we simply can\u2019t learn. And isn\u2019t that why we want safer schools in the first place?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I get it. Really, I do. We\u2019re repulsed by the utter horror of the tragedy in Newtown. Our hearts ache at the thought of such insane bloodshed. I\u2019ve already\u00a0shared my own experiences with such issues and my prayer for them as a former principal who still knows and loves so many similar teachers and kids. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1084,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32,1068,26,277,49,96,97],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-children","tag-culture","tag-growth","tag-newtown","tag-parenting","tag-safer-schools","tag-sandy-hook"],"yoast_head":"\nTo All Those Who Want Safer Schools in Newtown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I get it. Really, I do. We're repulsed by the utter horror of the tragedy in Newtown. 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