Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Training Kids to be KILLERS

This morning, I found a sobering and even frightening article written by Lt. Col. Dave Gossman. In this article, this man who helps to train numerous elite military and law enforcement organizations around the world, speaks about the "virus of violence" that is killing our society and documents his research with alarming statistics. Lt. Col. Gossman also illustrates very thoroughly how much of the violent media influence on our kids is very similar to, if not worse than the "killer training" being used in the military today; tactics and programs such as brutalization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and role modeling. Gossman writes, "During World War II, we discovered that only 15-20 percent of the individual riflemen would fire at an exposed enemy soldier (because of the natural, internal resistance to killing one's own kind). When the military became aware of this, they systematically went about the process of "fixing" this "problem." And fix it they did. By Vietnam the firing rate rose to over 90 percent." The methods of instruction listed above that were used to "fix" this problem, are the same methods affecting our kids today.
(Click on any of these pictures to view the actual article)




Check out the article yourself... it is extremely sobering

7 comments:

Tidy Bowl said...

Oh man. I gotta be honest. Articles like this one terrify me.

I'm a teacher. I'm not afraid of dying, but I do not ever want my students to be faced with a gun. They're too young to deal with that. But at their young age, you would be shocked at the things they say and do. There is a huge part of me that wants to bury my kids under a rock, where they will be protected from the world. They shouldn't hear what they hear or see what they see. Outside of the school, I can't control what they see or hear. But sometimes I wish I could.

I think there is a major connection to parental involvement in the children's lives. My students who concern me the most have parents who are completely disconnected from the children's lives. The kids are left on their own, left to do their own thing for hours at a time, told to entertain themselves. Well... I suppose they do entertain themselves... though certainly at someone else's expense.

Travis or P.T. said...

Absolutely Tidy Bowl... I agree with you, it is very frightening. I truly believe thats why we have kids today that would just as quickly shoot you as look at you. And unless the gov't steps in and really cracks down on it the entire industry (which I know they won't), things are only going to get worse.

MsAmber said...

On another note:
Most people wouldn't dream of killing their own food.
Ewww. This came from a COW?
Which, I think, would make people more appreciative and less wasteful if they actually had to experience the loss of life that directly impacts what they eat.
But they can kill virtual people all day long without an inkling of remorse. Hmmm.
MsAmber

Drea said...

huh?...

Tidy Bowl said...

Travis, I absolutely agree with you that the private sector has a much better educational record. I work at a public school, and my mom works at a private school, so I get to see both ends of the spectrum. If for whatever reason, I am unable to homeschool my children, then I would much prefer to send them to private school. The teachers are better and the environment is overall better.

However, you cannot deny that our country will always have public schools. There will always be parents who either can't afford private school or who refuse to send their kids to private school. So as long as I'm around, I will write letters to my Congressmen and do what I can to make my voice known. It may not make a difference... but I'll always be able to say that I tried.

Travis or P.T. said...

You're right Tidy...
That would be aweful. I would hope that the first time the gov't tried to dictate regulations or curriculum that they would stop receiving the money, and say "No thank you."

MsAmber said...

I saw something similar happen in Louisiana.
The Federal Government said: If the states will change the legal drinking age to 21, we will give them highway funding.
Louisiana did the math, and decided that they made much more money on alcohol with the 18-21 crowd and didn't change the drinking age, therefor not getting the highway funding.
Louisiana has some of the worst roads in America, but if you're drunk; you might not notice.
(I'm not sure if the highway money would've been used to fix the levies or not, but it's an interesting question.)

MsAmber