CURMUDGUCATION: Don't Wait for the Authorities

CURMUDGUCATION: Don't Wait for the Authorities:

Don't Wait for the Authorities

This morning we had some professional development from our local police department, The training centered around the ALICE method of dealing with an active shooter. What are we supposed to do when there's an active killer in the building?

ALICE focuses on three choices-- run, hide or fight. There were some specifics mixed, including some of the specifics of blockading a classroom door and making the mental and emotional jump to deciding you will actively, aggressively hurt your attacker. We got into some of the specifics of my building and the classrooms in it. We watched some videos. It was mostly pretty disturbing.

I'm not here to critique the methods mentioned in the presentation, nor am I going to write one more piece reflecting on the general awfulness of a world in which this kind of PD session makes sense for public school teachers and staff. I'm focusing on one moment that stood out.

After being presented with various scenarios and some of the ins and outs of how to respond, we were given one other simple message. That message was that while all three of these were options, it would be up to us as classroom teachers to choose the option that seemed best under the circumstances-- what we knew (or didn't) about the killer, our own students, the situation of our room, what seemed best in the moment.

Our police chief sent a clear message-- while he could give us options, it would be up to us to use our judgment.

Granted, this was a far different context than  instructional PD, but I was still struck by hearing a presenter say, "I'm not here to tell you what to do or what to choose. We have to trust you to use CURMUDGUCATION: Don't Wait for the Authorities:

Big Education Ape: Catch up with CURMUDGUCATION: ICYMI: More Edureading + PA: Charter Laws "Absolute Worst" - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/10/catch-up-with-curmudgucation-icymi-more.html