Brandy Smith is grateful her students are among the youngest on campus.
Too young to question why she has them stand up against the wall, out of sight of the classroom door, on drill days. Too young to ask why they do active shooter drills at all.
Smith is a pre-K teacher for Metro Nashville Public Schools. It can be an extra burden to teach such young students, though. They are often left out of school safety conversations – and young children can’t advocate on their own.
In the weeks since a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville left three adults and three 9-year-olds dead, Smith said she’s had many “ups and downs.”
“It’s a lot of emotions,” Smith said. “I’ve gone from scared and terrified, to kinda just really pissed off. So mad that I could kinda just punch anybody.”
Smith said she is “a lover, not a fighter” though. So as Tennessee lawmakers have debated – and largely failed – passing gun control legislation in the wake of The Covenant School shooting, Smith h..
Day: April 26, 2023
After yet another school shooting, here’s how some Tennessee teachers are mobilizing for safer schools
Relax: Your adult child is probably fine
Before Laurence Steinberg started writing his latest book, he poked around on Google to examine the literature on parents of adult children. What he found surprised him. Most books were about estrangement, what most would consider a semi-permanent rupture between parent and child. As for the everyday fears that plague many mothers and fathers of adult children — over their kids’ apparently unhurried educations, leisurely careers, and foot-dragging with romantic partners — there was little to nothing. The Temple University professor of psychology and neuroscience who has studied young adults for decades decided that anxious parents would benefit from a closer look at the mysterious young adults in their midst. “You and Your Adult Child: How to Grow Together in Challenging Times,” published in April, is a comforting reality check that many of us need.
“Delayed adulthood is a sociological phenomenon, not a psychological one; it’s a reflection of structural changes in the economy, the lab..