Many Unanswered Questions In Columbine, Dave Cullen says, “You can’t really teach a child anything: you can only show him the way and motivate him to learn it himself.” Raising a child has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. Through long days and nights, parenting does not have a step-by-step plan. A parent can only show and teach their child how to act, but it is the child’s job to decide how they want to act and live. The Harris’ and Klebolds’ are two great examples of how parenting can be a blessing, then take a turn for the worse. Dylan and Eric fails their parents in ways such as lying, hiding, and being selfish. In the book, Dylan’s mom speaks on how Dylan is a well-rounded child, and she mentions he had big plans for his life.
High School as teenagers as the century was about to turn, they could have easily morphed into Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, taking innocent lives in a society that breeds contempt – if looking for it.
Hysteria. Terror. Paranoia. All words used to describe feelings after a school disturbance. Reports of such emergencies from mainstream media outlets cause some to conclude extraordinary security breaches happen on an almost daily basis. However, schools are actually safeguarded; in recent years, protocols have been installed in schools across the United States to ensure safety. The catalyst: nationwide panic and suffering after an act of terror at a high school in Littleton, Colorado. Journalist and author Dave Cullen, in his book, Columbine, narrates the horror surrounding this shooting. Cullen’s purpose is to inform readers by captivating their attention utilizing emotional language. He establishes contrasting characters and alludes to significant
Among the young, it seems like there is an epidemic of bad behaviors. Teenagers aren’t finishing high school, they are getting knocked up, and going to prison/jail. In his “Pound Cake Speech” Bill Cosby addresses these issues to the African American community. His speech was an emotional view of parenting these days. Bill Cosby argues that the 50 percent dropout rate in schools is because of parenting, children not speaking English grammatically is because of parenting, children having children is because of parenting, and children carrying guns and ending up in prison is because of parenting. The parenting he says, of the lower and middle economic classes of African Americans is the reason why these things are happening. He blames poor parenting for these issues. However, Cosby fails to take into account that these issues are wider than poor parenting. African American children face these problems not due to the lack of care and concern from their parents, but due to the lack of resources that their parents can use to provide for them.
Harris was “the callously brutal mastermind” while Klebold was the “quivering depressive who journaled obsessively about love and attended the Columbine prom three days before opening fire” (Columbine High School, History). On an article published by Cullen on Slate.com, it reveals the true motivation and meaning behind the actions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
After reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, a novel that exposes the short life of Chris McCandless and the clues to the mystery of his untimely death, we as readers can comprehend and fathom the actions and thoughts of Chris McCandless if we are able to perceive and distinguish the characteristics and results of a family that is dysfunctional. More specifically, a dysfunctional family in which there is an authoritarian parent that greatly impacts the life and actions of the other members in the family. This parent may employ a perfectionist attitude on the children which can be debilitating in the long run. The lack of proper parenting can force children to take up nontraditional roles to facilitate proper family functioning. This unnecessary
Crime manifests itself in various ways in society and oftentimes difficult to pinpoint what drives people to commit certain actions. The Columbine shooting was a particular incident that ended in tears and suffering which resulted in numerous research as to what was going through the minds of these young individuals at the time of the shooting. Therefore, this paper will analyze specifically the role of differential association- reinforcement as altered by Akers in propelling Dylan Klebold to commit such heinous act, while also giving credit to Edwin Sutherland for first formulating the framework of differential association.
A child will never learn anything unless they get the experiences themselves first. Parents shouldn’t be involved until their child needs them to be. Solving a problem on their own for children is way slower but they learn better than having to be taught, especially if the parent is going to be yelling at their children. Betsy Shaw writes about a blog she read about a mom not having her children as a priority in her life. “Mom tells modern world to toughen up and get real,” quotes the mom Stephanie Mets when she talked about how her children learning in and out of school. Met’s writes about how parents who protect their children from disappointment are failing them from learning how to fix and reflect on what the mistake they did was. They are going to get hurt for simply not being able to face up to their problems is what she is writing about. Met’s son talked about being a yellow action figures whom he had for 2 years with him to show and tell. The yellow action figure had a hard hat and a drill. He thought about if after showing her and decide the teacher might of thought the drill is a gun and didn’t want any trouble so he switched it. Analyzing a situation all on his own without her help. That what Met’s blogged about to get parents now to know. Getting kids to learn on their own is better than having anyone else try to fix it for them. A parent will never ever be with their
...The lack of a an authority figure leads to the child making ignorant decisions. Doing unlawful things for most of these individuals isn’t considered wrong. Their parents did it so why shouldn't they follow their footsteps? In today’s society the lack of parenthood is an ongoing cycle that needs to stop. Raising about the influence will lead many generations to achieve impressive accomplishments.
Today, the most difficult day in my family’s life, we gather to say farewell to our son, brother, fiancé and friend. To those of you here and elsewhere who know Dylan you already are aware of the type of person he was and these words you will hear are already in your memory. To those who were not as fortunate, these words will give you a sense of the type of man he was and as an ideal for which we should strive. My son has been often described as a gentle soul. He was pure of heart and had great sensitivity for the world around him. He had a way with people that made them feel comfortable around him and infected others to gravitate toward him. Dylan exuded kindness and pulled generosity and altruism out from everyone he touched. He was everyone's best friend.
The minds of these killers prove to be nothing short of fascinating to thousands of people. While many might read this book and see two cold-blooded teenagers that killed their peers for fun, there is definitely some gray area concerning whether or not the youngest killer, named Dylan Klebold, should
In Michael Moore’s Interactive documentary, Bowling for Columbine, the Societal issues that are discussed are relevant in 2002 when it was made and now. The issues include how Mass killings in America, focusing mainly on the columbine school massacre, are due to the relaxed gun laws in the states. Racism and White supremacy are also linked in throughout the film, focusing on the NRA and its relation to the KKK, as a cause for the laws and the killings. This paints America as a paranoid country who shoots before asking questions. His film shows the issues that society is only seeing through the government’s seal of approval in a new light making this a controversial, societal documentary.
In the media today there are ridiculous numbers of reports pertaining to accidents, shootings and robberies-these are just a few examples of unjust acts that are occurring everyday. There is also a shocking amount of coverage about parents accidentally, or on the other hand, brutally murdering their kids. Parents are supposed to be loving and supporting caregivers, they have a great influence over everything a child can possibly say or do. It is hard to believe that some parents would actually take their children’s lives into their hands. Recently in the news there have been accounts of a mother poisoning her son to a father taking a knife and slashing his son’s throat. These are all cases where the parent in charge has taken advantage of their control. Each helpless child is defenseless in these situations. In many cases, children have become victims of a parent’s mental instability. In one case a mother claims to have been "suffering form delusions about hell when she took the life of her twenty month old child." In the end this woman was found not criminally responsible because "she had apparently been suffering from psychosis the day of the drowning." She was then committed to a psychiatric hospital. This seems to be common place today, and there is no justice done for the young slain victims.
Experts argue that no one is predestined for a life of crime. They believe that influences such as repeated abuse, extreme neglect, poverty, media violence, and easy access to guns play the major role in molding children into criminals. The father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer wonders, "If potential for evil is in the blood that some of us pass on to our children" (Seifert 23). In the quiet New York town of Savona, Eric Smith, age thirteen, intercepted four-year-old Derrick Robie on his way to a park recreation program and offered to show him a shortcut. Hesitatingly, Derrick set off with Eric.
Children start to act rebellious at home such as screaming, breaking objects, and even causing physical harm. However, when the minor encounters an argument with an individual they can physically harm or kill the individual. Such as, the massacre in high schools, the students that are bullied, plan to get back at the people by using violent actions. In other words the massacre shooting in West Paducah, Kentucky, and Littleton, Colorado, the high school students gained the knowledge of how to use a weapon to kill students. Since they have been harm by classmates, these students were furious which lead them to act violently towards their classmates by killing them. Like the article of “Did Video Games Train the School Shooters To Kill?: Determining Whether Wisconsin Courts Should Impose Negligence or Strict Liability in a Lawsuit Against the Video Game Manufactures” by Tara C. Campbell mentioned that a Marksman expert said the high school 's students have never fired a gun in their lives. He included, "pulled the trigger, instantly moved
As a parent, I have spent a great deal of time observing the behavior, motivation, and thought processes of my children. As they mature these processes have changed, and it has been fascinating to watch. I have learned a great deal on the limits of self control in the adolescent mind during this time, and I believe that families should be held responsible for crimes committed by their teenagers.