A shcool shooting in Finland

[canerva]

As most of my flist knows, there was a shcool shooting in Finland on 7th of November 2007. Lives of six young people and two adults were lost, several others were wounded. The 18 year old shooter killed himself, too

Comments

[arwensong]

I don't agree with this. I believe that teaching our young to think on their own is the best defense they have in a world that is as complex and frightening as today's world. There is no magic age where "maturity" suddenly happens. If the child is not enabled, he cannot learn. I also believe a study of troubled adults would reveal a high proportion coming from extremely strict parents...not liberal ones. The solution, perhaps, is to give access with supervision, and be available to answer questions, to guide. When a child is feeling hopeless and nihilistic, there may be parents who are substance abusers, or simply missing, teachers who don't care, and that child is alone. Other times, a sociopath seeminly comes out of the most normal of families. There aren't easy answers. But censorship and restrictions just creates resentful and rebellious teens. I can't see that improving the situation at all.

Arwen, with her two cents worth (ok, maybe more like five cents)

[canerva]

I'm sorry, it has taken me so long to respond. I've been sick with a nasty case of flu. I'm still feeling pretty bad.

Actually, I agree with you. There are no good solutions. And I think that the one you give, the supervision, is the best, but, as you point out, it does not solve the problem completely.

During the week that has gone, we have got more information of the young man in question: his mother is an eco-terrorist. I think that, in this case, her supervision of the child's learning has been exactly what made a shooter out of the man.

[germansoulmate]

I´m with Arwen in this.

You can´t deny kids access to media of whatever kind.
But you can pay attention to what your kid is doing, you can talk with your kid and discuss important issues.
I think it´s important to take your kid seriously and don´t dismiss its opinion. You can show your kid respect and teach respect to you and other people and peoples opinions.

That´s the best wax to me to prevent things like what happened in Finland last week or in Erfurt in 2002.

[canerva]

Sorry, I'm so late with my response. I have been sick with a nasty case of flu.

You and Arwen are right, and, basically, I have very similar thoughts about the matter than you two. However, when things like this happen, I tend to take a closer look on my attitudes and on my arguments behind them. This time I found that my construct of thought, or my theory, was not based on all the possible variations.

In this particular case, I'm afraid that it was the supervision and guiding of the mother (an eco-terrorist) that led the boy into the path to become the shooter. That shows me that even our best ideas can be twisted in something ugly. That makes me very sad.