Post 10. Description of the problem.

I suppose I should assemble everything now so that it is relatively clear what I am saying. Our culture has identified a problem, that problem is violence. People these days talk about reactive measures to reduce violence at the expense of liberty. People would very much like to ban certain types of firearms, or ask producers to stop making certain types of video games and movies. These ideas are ineffective and I have evidence enough to know that. I call these things reactive because instead of proactively moving change into the nature of the culture, it is reducing liberty for the sake of accepting the current culture. This is not such a valuable policy, it is a lot like patching holes in a sinking boat at sea, when one is fixed another one appears.

What I'm proposing is, absolutely, advocating for the integration of modern culture in our education institutions. The reason I want to do this is straightforward, I know that being capable of critically analyzing culture will help de-escalate violence in the culture and renew the sensibility of artistic expression. There is no reason to ban any work, material, action, object and try to control it with federal law. There is a reason to ask people to understand the nature of the media that they are exposed to every day, and through the use of their personal strengths discover a way to critically perceive it, in a way that is more congruent with their own nurtured and salient sense of self and identity.

Instead of patching leaks in our federal institutions, let's inspire a way to critically analyze it, and contribute to it through coursework and through media texts and expression. There's no reason to write one more reactive federal law, if the people who are engaged in the culture, are engaged by the culture in a way that they are aware of and sensitive to. People will choose the types of media texts and productions that enable their sense of identity, the current cultural problem has to do with, a lack of awareness of and sensitivity to this absolution of identity.

Understanding the culture is an attainable goal at the secondary level. One textbook and access to any music, movie, or magazine genre is enough material to complete a cultural analysis, and to express individual opinions about the state of modern culture. A simple essay activity teaches a skill set that is attainable and valued in the context of The United States.

I have been a victim, my story is not unlike the story of anyone who has been bullied or ostracized, in any high school. I've been a drop-out, I've been the one exception to the rule that all students should attend school for the benefit of society. Because I maintain my own perceptions and a strong sense of my own core values, I have overcome that stigmatization and I came back, the experiences and academic work that follow in this journal are just substantiating that. The Jefferson County Open School, and previously Tanglewood Open Living School taught me the skills that I needed, to maintain my values while experiencing the antithetical subcultures in this city in Jefferson County, Colorado and survive. It's time to pay it forward.

--Corey