Human Behavior

Observing human behavior is so easy as a high school teacher. I still puzzle over some of the decisions my kids make. Today, just two days after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, one or my students, on a fieldtrip, got on a school bus, on the bus radio, and said, "We're under fire." Why? What would possess a young man to make such a senseless decision? How does a young person get to the point where he rarely considers the consequences of his actions?

I look at the student who did this and wonder if he could at some point do something like the shooter at V.T. What have we allowed our society to deem acceptable that has led to young people losing sight of what's right and wrong?

I propose that it goes back to absolutes. With no foundation to determine what's right and what's wrong, our students can decide for themselves. And when young, developing minds and consciences have no parents, no mentors, no positive adults who believe there is an absolute right and wrong, they probably aren't going to learn it themselves.

The question is...

What do we do?