As you might know by now, being a teacher can be “exciting”. From wrestling out of control teenagers over having misogynistic slurs hurled at me to a mother and adult brother trying to beat us up (fortunately I was in another parent-teacher talk). Still with that level of violence, there’s some things I don’t have to worry about. A big one is guns. While there have been some school shootings or massacres in Germany, the number is low, and actually yes, we’ve tightened gun laws after the first big one in 2002. The one in 2009 could only happen because the father of the shooter had disobeyed those and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter by negligence. Never say never, but absolutely don’t worry about somebody shooting up my classroom with a military style assault weapon (and no, I’m not interested in the discussion of technicalities. You all know what weapons I mean).
I am worried about knives. They’re easy to get, easy to carry and can be deadly. But my chair is a very good defensive weapon against a knife. There’s a good chance I can get my students out of the room when somebody draws a knife while I try to calm that person. There’s a good chance that I will survive the extreme case of being hurt by a knife, which gets me to another thing I don#t have to worry about:
Healthcare cost. Should I or my students get hurt , we wouldn’t have to worry about who is paying our bills. I wouldn’t need to worry about losing my job for being sick or not getting paid because I used up my “sick days”. And I wouldn’t much need to worry about people blaming me for not having had a gun and killing somebody first.
I very much hope it never comes to you using your chair for defense or needing to talk a teenager with a knife down.
One of the interesting things about the political situation in the UK is that whatever politicians actually think about the NHS, however much they might want to introduce more private provision, they Can. NOT. Say. That. It would be political suicide. Appreciation of the NHS crosses all political boundaries. There has been messing around with the introduction of tendering for services, and other things, that has resulted in the private sector providing some services, but it is not popular, and the polls say most people would rather have a penny added to their income tax to support the NHS than have any further incursion by the private sector.
Jazzlet,
It’s the same in Canada. Health care is considered to be a right, not a privilege.
“Military style assault weapon” is exactly correct. It doesn’t matter if is capable of fully automatic fire or not.