Sad story: Teachers' deaths suggest there's a lesson to explore

Everybody always talks about progress.

And in the process, especially lately, that definition means dropping old values for new, progressive ones.

And sad to say, they are sometimes the wrong ones.

It wasn't a lack of values that created the circumstances that claimed the lives of two teachers at the hands of students this week -- although that might have played a role. But there is an idea to ponder -- a sliver of a glimpse at a change that is happening with young people right before our eyes.

What we are seeing more and more is that for some youngsters, there is a blur between staged or fake violence that they see in their video games and on television shows and in movies and the real stuff.

And they do not really understand the consequences of real world confrontations, judging them based on the "take a bullet and bounce back" depictions they spend hours with every day.

Call them desensitized if you will.

So back to our example.

Perhaps we could use a few more families where children spend less time in front of a screen and more time reading, playing outdoors, learning and experiencing more of the real world. Perhaps we need a few more people to become parents again -- to say no even if "everybody else has one."

Who knows if that change in attitude and priorities would have saved even one of these teachers' lives.

But what if it might have made a difference?

Perhaps it is time to think back to the old-fashioned ways again -- to put more emphasis on what really matters, not the gadgets and the mind-numbing television programs.

It is certainly an idea worth contemplating as we mourn the lives of two people lost much too soon.

Published in Editorials on October 24, 2013 11:11 AM