Answer to Columbine

In answer to what went wrong to allow 2 student monsters to run amok at Columbine, I echo a columnist’s statements referring refers to Flannery O’Connor’s 1963 article about the basis of a child’s education. "It concerned neither guns nor violence," she writes, "neither cliques nor experimental approaches to the treatment of adolescent depression. It was about...books. In defending the teaching of the great works of the Western canon rather than those of the modern day (which kids far preferred) she said something wise, the sort of thing an adult might say. She said that the whims and preferences of children should always, always be sublimated to the sense and judgment of their elders."

And what if the student finds that is not to her taste? someone once asked writer O’Connor. "Well that is regrettable. Most regrettable. His (the student’s ) taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.."

Formed indeed! PPP proper, prior parenting - where are you today when you are needed?