Times Have Changed

When I was in school, I remember how the fire alarm would scare the heck out of me! What made it worse was when you knew it was coming. “We’re having a fire drill today, boys and girls…” So you’d be waiting for that loud alarm to happen at any time!

Really, the alarm was the worst part of the fire drill. It was obnoxiously loud. You’d walk through the halls covering your ears as you and your class would walk to your “safe spot.”

I used to hate when they’d do fire drills in the winter. You’d line up and go outside – no coat, hat or scarf – and freeze until the “all clear” bell sounded.

Then, you had tornado drills. I remember doing these one of two ways. The first way was grabbing a text book and going out in the hallway covering your head.

The other way was even more uncomfortable. You would get on your knees and face the wall and tuck your head into the wall.

I always hated doing them this way.

I do realize just how important these drills are. There was always the possibility of severe weather. There was always the possibility of a fire, too. When I was a kid, these were the only two things we really had to worry about.

Today, however, things are very different – and scary.

Already within the first month of face to face school, my son’s school has had two lockdowns and Sam’s brother’s school has had one, too. All of them involved weapons brought to school or a plan to do some sort of school shooting.

God forbid something like this happen in real life!

A lockdown drill is also called an Active Shooter drill in some schools. I cannot even imagine being a young child in school preparing for something like this! I know that in today’s warped society it is a complete possibility, and it is sad that we even have to subject the kids to this. I don’t recall where I read this, but someone said “Of all the lessons a child learns in school, the most important one shouldn’t be how to survive.”

A parent shouldn’t have to worry about sending their child to school, yet this is becoming more and more of a reality. In the past, school shootings and such were things that happened on the news and far from home. The fact that in just under a month, there have been this many lockdowns scares me to death.

Home schooling is looking more and more appealing to me than ever ….