Gunman opens fire at Florida State University, shooting three before he is killed by police. Update!

Courtesy of NBC:  

A gunman was fatally shot after opening fire in a library on Florida State University's campus early Thursday, sending hundreds of students who'd been studying for final exams running for their lives and cowering behind bookshelves. Three students were found suffering gunshot wounds at the scene. 

Police received a call about an "armed subject" at the Strozier Library on the school's main campus in Tallahassee at 12.30 a.m. ET. Officers confronted the gunman and ordered him to drop his weapon, according to Tallahassee Police spokesman Dave Northway. "The suspect did not comply with the commands and shot at the officers," he added. "They returned fire and the suspect was killed.” 

During a press conference at 6 a.m. ET, Police Chief Michael DeLeo described the shooting as an “isolated incident with one person acting alone.” It was unclear whether the gunman was a student. 

One of the shooting victims was listed in critical condition early Thursday, Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare spokeswoman Stephanie Derzypolski said. Another was in stable condition. Police said a third victim had received a "grazing injury" and was treated at the scene.

Several tweets were sent out during both the shooting and the police response.

This is one of them.

Students say a man started shooting at FSU, police told him to put the gun down. He didn't. "They lit him up, man." pic.twitter.com/ZK8vKJfe22
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) November 20, 2014

Here is video of the students in the library receiving instruction about the shooting courtesy of Gawker.

I can only imagine how frightened these students and their parents must have been  as this tragedy unfolded.

Currently there is no known motive, nor is it clear that the gunman was a student.

Update: Now we know that the gunman WAS a former student, and lawyer, named Myron May.

One New York teacher's resignation letter will break your heart and frighten you for the future of education in America.

Courtesy of Democratic Underground: 

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent 
Westhill Central School District 
400 Walberta Park Road 
Syracuse, New York 13219 

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members: 

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher. 

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest students and educators on the planet. 

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly attempted to live John Dewey’s famous quotation (now likely cliché with me, I’ve used it so very often) that “Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.” This type of total immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching “heavy,” working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day and “data driven” education seeks only conformity, standardization, testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy, experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and particularly not at Westhill. 

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass. In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our children? 

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic “assessments”) or grade their own students’ examinations. The development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so greatly eroded by a constant need to “prove up” our worth to the tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and “artifacts” from our teaching) that there is little time for us to carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America, which seems doubly appropriate to this case. 

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a timeout has been called, my teammates’ hands have all been tied, the goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and all of the rules altered. 

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, “Words Matter” and “Ideas Matter”. While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don’t feel that those currently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean. 

Sincerely and with regret, 
Gerald J. Conti 
Social Studies Department Leader 

The conservatives have wanted for years to destroy public education in this country, but I never thought they could pull it off as long as we remained vigilant.

I am sad to see that they are winning. 

Michigan State University is allowing Creationists to come to their campus and slay some brain cells.

Courtesy of CBS Detroit:  

A planned event on creationism at Michigan State University is raising concerns among faculty and graduate students. 

The Saturday conference includes workshops such as “The Big Bang is Fake” and “Hitler’s Worldview,” on how evolution influenced the views of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, MLive.com reported. 

The Origin Summit is sponsored by the organization Creation Summit, which aims to promote creationism in places it feels have banned teaching it. 

The conference will focus on scientific evidence that points to creationism instead of religious doctrine, according to Creation Summit executive director Mike Smith. 

“We want to show the scientific evidence that shows intelligent design,” he said. “We’re not coming to the campus to promote Bible verses or sermons.”

First off there is no scientific evidence that "points to Creationism." That in fact would be an impossibility. (I am working on a post that will explain why that is.)

Secondly unless this "conference" is presented in a similar fashion to how one might allow KKK members to give a speech to students simply so that their arguments can be picked apart and demonstrated to be fatuous, then there is no reason to allow this bullshit anywhere near university students.

And thirdly the idea that Hitler's holocaust was the fault of Charles Darwin is false.

The "Social Darwinism" that Hitler may or may not have embraced, was the result of a misunderstanding of Charles Darwin's work, and was not something that he created or promoted. Which might explain why Hitler never once mentioned Darwin in any of his writings.

If one is looking for the origin of Hitler's distrust and even hatred for the Jews, that is as simple as can be.

If one is looking for reasons to hate their fellow man, that is rarely found in scientific research. But religion is fairly saturated with them.

Attempts by conservative school board members in Colorado to teach revisionist history to AP students is turning angry Republicans into Democrats.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

"For the first time in my life, I will probably vote a straight Democratic ticket." 

That realization came as something of a surprise to non-practicing attorney Wendy McCord, who has always thought of herself as a Republican. The mother of two children in Jefferson County's public school system, McCord told The Huffington Post that she has been politically transformed by the actions of the new conservative majority on the county school board, which presides over the state's second-largest school district. 

Here in Jefferson County, a bellwether battleground that is almost evenly split between Republicans, Democrats and independents, a local educational controversy is resonating with county voters who otherwise might not have been engaged in this year's elections. Frustrated Republicans like McCord could be the deciding votes in Colorado's gubernatorial race, in which Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) faces a strong challenge from former Rep. Bob Beauprez (R), as well as its Senate race, in which Democratic Sen. Mark Udall is in danger of being unseated by Republican challenger Rep. Cory Gardner. 

The battle began last November, when three conservative candidates for county school board swept into office, establishing a majority on the five-person board. The newly-elected board members hired their own attorney and proceeded to clash with teachers and parents over issues such as pay, charter schools and kindergarten expansion. The move that garnered the most national attention, however, was a proposal for a new Advanced Placement U.S. history curriculum that would de-emphasize civil disobedience and disorder while emphasizing patriotism, citizenship and "respect for authority." To protest the proposal, thousands of students left their classrooms and held demonstrations in solidarity with their teachers, who called in sick.

I have already covered this Colorado debacle both here and here.

At the time of those two posts I was frustrated that conservatives were once again trying to hijack public education, and also encouraged by the fact that the teachers and students were standing up to them.

But now it looks like the whole thing may be backfiring in a big way. Which of course is good for everyone.