Follow us:
DR. BICKMORE'S YA WEDNESDAY
  • Weekly Posts
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023
  • Monday Motivators 2023
  • Weekend Picks 2021
  • Contributors
  • Bickmore's Posts
  • Lesley Roessing's Posts
  • Weekend Picks 2020
  • Weekend Picks 2019
  • Weekend Picks old
  • 2021 UNLV online Summit
  • UNLV online Summit 2020
  • 2019 Summit on Teaching YA
  • 2018 Summit
  • Contact
  • About
  • WEEKEND PICKS 2023

Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday has a new Feature-- A YouTube Channel

Don't worry, it is easy to find.  Just go to YouTube and search for Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday.

Check Out the YouTube Channel

Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora Colorado, Orlando, Las Vegas, and now Parkland.

2/15/2018

2 Comments

 
It seems like it is time to update this post. Three months and the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School keeps showing up. I think their collective and individual actions are making a difference. They are taking action and, indeed, there are people helping them and making space for there efforts. 

I keep trying. I looking forward to this week's summit. I am looking forward to the conversations that I know will provide me with some renewal. I am looking forward to understand the ideas and the plans of other in the field of English Education and specifically in the YA literature community.

There is still a lot to do, but this video helped me put things into perspective a bit as we try to put the finishing touches on a lot of things.

​Let's measure things with Love.
“It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference.” President Donald Trump, Feb. 15, 2018

My first response.

It is all I can do not to be flip or sarcastic about this response to the Stonemason Douglas High School Shooting. I am working on my 40th year in education. I tremble when I think about how many shootings there have been. (They say 18 so far in 2018? * Look at the bottom of the post for sources and definistions on "school shootings.) At the same time, I am grateful that I never had to personally experience a school shooting or return to a school after such an event. What I have experienced over and over again is no action. It never seems to be the right time.

I have work to do, but it is hard to concentrate. I just can’t imagine any teacher, administrator, or student who has been even remotely connected to such a tragedy facing a day of school.

Like my friend and colleague Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil, I don’t care to debate gun control over social media. You can come and talk with me. I will try to listen, I promise. But when we talk, please don't tell that the politicians who take money from the NRA care about children. If they have not and will not take action, they just don’t. And so I feel grief.

As I try to work, I know one thing. There will be grief. I have worked with teachers, students, and educators who care. I am proud of fellow English educators who are responding. Some may disagree with their language, their frustration, or their public posting of their feelings and anxiety, but it is a clear manifestation of their visceral grief.
​​

I want to say I am done with this issue, but I am not nor can I be. I will work hard to make a difference. I wrote my Republican Senator and told him that if he did nothing substantive I would walk to every house in my precinct over and over in opposition.

Where I am now.

This blog has been running in full force for almost three years. I have written about Orlando, about Las Vegas, and now about Parkland. Should I set a limit? Should I only write if there are more than ten deaths? Should I never write, but just pray?

I am a believer, yet, more than once I have asked in prayer, like man with the afflicted child, “Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief”
Mark 9:24.  I am also convinced that Faith requires work. As James 2:17-18 states “Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast Faith, and I have works: shew me they faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. James 2:17-18).


I do not disagree, it is a time for prayer, but moreover it is time for works, for actions.
 

Today, I am grateful that Michelle Falter and I are working on two edited books about dealing with death, trauma, and grief. I spent most of yesterday reading and editing chapters that will help teachers learn to teach and respond to these issues more directly. I will work on this project today. The work of these scholars gives me hope. I will try hope in the midst of grief. It is what I can do today.
​

Sadly, no matter what actions are taken or not taken--Grief is here.

Here is an action

I revisit the advice and wisdom of Shelly Shaffer and invite you to do the same.

I want to say their names again, when I think about when I wrote about Orlando.

I want to look for the helpers when I consider the ways that Las Vegas is trying to be #lasvegasstrong.
​

One final thought. I think both teachers and students will find some comfort when they read books that speak truth to their experiences of grief and violence. Books that confront fear, corruption, and powerlessness. Books that will move them towards action and towards hope.
​

I await your suggestions.
 A few links and discussions of what is considered a "school shooting."  None of the near "shootings" make me any more comfortable. I do a appreciate the comment that reminds me to provide sources.

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/02/16/how-many-school-shootings-have-happened-in.html

http://checkyourfact.com/2018/02/15/fact-check-18-school-shootings-2018/

https://www.popsugar.com/news/How-Many-School-Shootings-Have-Been-2018-44523849

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/14/school-shootings-in-america-2018-how-many-so-far

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5581283/school-shootings-2018-america-us-how-many-list-florida-parkland-shooting/

​https://www.snopes.com/2018/02/16/how-many-school-shootings-in-2018/

2 Comments
Rex Lindsey
2/17/2018 10:39:56 pm

When you write, "I tremble when I think about how many shootings there have been. (They say 18 so far in 2018?)", who are "they" and have you fact-checked this stat?

It's difficult to read the rest of you post and take any of it seriously when you regurgitate false propaganda like this.

Reply
Jared
2/18/2018 08:36:34 pm

In 10 years there have been approx. 280 deaths from school shootings. In that same time period there have been approx. 57,000 school age suicides. Maybe we can get our priorities in line...

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Chief Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

    Dr. Steve Bickmore
    ​Creator and Curator

    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.

    Co-Edited Books

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Chris-lynch

    Blogs to Follow

    Ethical ELA
    nerdybookclub
    NCTE Blog
    yalsa.ala.org/blog/

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly