What a difference 25 years makes.

 So, I have started a new venture. I am back working in education after not being in an American classroom in 25 years. I did student teaching but never touched the profession since.

I finished up my first full week, and it's been an interesting learning experience. My, how things have changed. I was taken aback by the school orientation over active shooters. Students practiced getting down behind windows, lockdowns announced over the intercom. None of that existed the last time I taught. Columbine had largely not even happened yet. 

The kids largely took it in stride. They had never known a world where that wasn't a thing. It was as common to them as fire drills or 'duke and cover' drills were in the 1950s Cold War era. 

I also noticed the school, which has been built before Columbine, on the outside looked like an institution of higher learning. Lots of windows in ever classroom. It more resembled the schools built prior to 1965 before they were built to resemble prisons.

The sad thing i can to realize this week was that all the windows were covered up. Blinds that could not be opened. Windows in the interior in classrooms that faced the hallways were taped up with butcher paper on the inside. Everything was artificial lighting,.mostly the ghastly LED flourensent lights. Though some classes had teacher installed alternative lighting that seemed more natural though at the teacher's descretion.

It made me sad. I hate flourensent lights, and the loss of windows to imagine a great big world outside the classroom made this former classroom daydreamer sad. How insulator we have become. The windows are the Chromebook screens and smart board. 

One wonders at what lost imaginations have been allowed to die in the age of active shooters. 

Kyrie Eleison.