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Our Killing Schools

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Notes

  1. Kevin Vaughan and Deborah Frazier, “‘Columbine’ talk escaped adults,” Rocky Mountain News, February 9, 2001, http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2001/feb/09/columbine-talk-escaped-adults.

  2. Brian MacQuarrie and Anand Vaishnav, “Details of alleged plot revealed,” Boston Globe, November 27, 2001; David Kohn, “To Stop a Massacre,” CBS, April 29, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-509196.html.

  3. “Nebraska teen’s bomb plot foiled,” USA TODAY, March 18, 2004, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-03-18-school-nebraska_x.htm.

  4. Laura Summers, “Bartlesville student accused of school massacre plot,” Tulsa World, December 15, 2012, http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20121215_16_A10_BARTLE817329.

  5. From the beginning, reporting on the Columbine shooting was almost entirely mistaken. The Columbine attack had nothing to do with “Goths” or the so-called “Trench Coat Mafia.” Nor was it directed at jocks, “preps,” minorities, homosexuals, or Christians.

  6. John Dewey, The School and Society (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1902), p. 92.

  7. Quoted in Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Failed Schools, p. 73.

  8. Quoted in Diane Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Failed Schools (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), p. 442 (emphasis added).

  9. Quoted in Ravitch, Left Back: A Century of Failed Schools, p. 70.

  10. John Dewey, Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (New York: The Free Press, 1944), pp. 78, 154.

  11. John Dewey, The School and Society, pp. 12–13.

  12. Debbie Powell and David Hornsby, Learning Phonics and Spelling in a Whole Language Classroom (New York: Scholastics Professional Books, 1993), p. 23.

  13. Frank Smith, Understanding Reading: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning to Read, 6th ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1978), p. 217.

  14. Quoted in Martin L. Gross, The Conspiracy of Ignorance (New York: HaperCollins Publishers, 1999), pp. 78–79 (emphasis added).

  15. George Austin, “Dog helps to improve reading,” Southcoasttoday.com, November, 28, 2012, http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121128/PUB05/211280372/-1/rss35.

  16. Kelly Hearn, “Some Parents Just Say ‘Whoa’ to School-Required Medications,” Christian Science Monitor, June 14, 2004, http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0614/p12s01-legn.html.

  17. “Ritalin & Cocaine: The Connection and the Controversy,” University of Utah, http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/issues/ritalin.html.

  18. Marianne M. Jennings, “‘Rain Forest’ Algebra Course Teaches Everything but Algebra,” The Christian Science Monitor (April 2, 1996), http://www.csmonitor.com/1996/0402/02182.html.

  19. “What’s New: Scholars band together to oppose ‘MathLand’,” The Christian Science Monitor (November 30, 1999), http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/1130/p16s2.html.

  20. Editorial, “Math Wars,” The Wall Street Journal (January 4, 2000). http://search.proquest.com/docview/398689095/fulltext/13CE35BC748D899236/121?accountid=6167.

  21. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1920), p. 162.

  22. Dewey, The Political Writings, edited by Debra Morris and Ian Shapiro (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993), pp. 106–107.

  23. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, pp. 169–170, 164, 167.

  24. John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy, p. 167; Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1922), p. 211.

  25. Sidney B. Simon, Leland W. Howe, and Howard Kirschenbaum, Values Clarification: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students (New York: Hart Publishing, 1972), p. 15.

  26. Dewey, The Political Writings, pp. 98, 61–62 (emphasis added).

  27. Dewey, The Political Writings, pp. 59, 128, 127.

  28. Dean P. Johnson, “Schools are banning tag. What’s next: musical chairs?,” The Christian Science Monitor, November 3, 2006, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1103/p09s03-cogn.html.

  29. Lauren Murphy Payne, Just Because I am: A Child’s Book of Affirmation (Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing, 1994); A Leader’s Guide to Just Because I Am: A Child’s Book of Affirmation (Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing, 1994).

  30. Payne quoted in Charles J. Sykes, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, or Add (New York: St. Martins Griffin, 1995), pp. 49–51.

  31. The online and private journal writings of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold can be found at the following website://acolumbinesite.com/sitemap.html. Note that I have retained the boys’ original spelling and grammatical errors.

  32. Dave Cullen, Columbine (New York: Twelve, 2009), pp. 175–176.

  33. Cullen, Columbine, p. 174.

  34. A typed transcript of Harris’s diary can be seen here: http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/writing/journal/journal.html. The full Columbine documents of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office can be seen here: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/pdf/900columbinedocs.pdf.

  35. From Eric Harris’s webpage, see http://acolumbinesite.com/reports/pissed.gif, and http://www.acolumbinesite.com/trenchcoat.html. Also see Pam Belluck and Jodi Wilgoren, “Shattered Lives – A Special Report,; Caring Parents, No Answers, In Columbine Killers’ Pasts,” The New York Times, June 29, 1999, http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/29/us/shattered-lives-special-report-caring-parents-no-answers-columbine-killers-pasts.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

  36. William McGurn, “Balloons, Bears: Mourning in America,” The Wall Street Journal, April 30, 1999, W 13. Also see, Nicole Veash, “‘Your children who ridiculed me are dead. It was your doing,” The Guardian, April 24, 1999, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/apr/25/usgunviolence.usa4.

  37. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/apr/25/usgunviolence.usa4.

  38. Cullen, Columbine, pp. 169, 276, 327.

  39. “Student Killer’s Diary of Rage, Hate Read As Sentencing Hearing Begins,” Chicago Tribune News, November 3, 1999, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-11-03/news/9911030269_1_kip-kinkel-journal-killing.

  40. Brian MacQuarrie and Anand Vaishnav, “Details of alleged plot revealed,” Boston Globe, November 27, 2001; and see David Kohn, “To Stop a Massacre,” CBS, April 29, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500164_162-509196.html.

  41. “Police: Boy, 13, doesn’t know why he shot classmates,” CNN, December 6, 1999.

  42. John Caniglia, “T.J. Lane’s admission about Chardon High shooting should not be used at trial, his lawyers argue,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 6, 2012, http://impact.cleveland.com/chardon-shooting/print.html?entry=/2012/12/tj_lanes_statements_about_char.html.

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  1. Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, Clemson University, 329 Sirrine Hall, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA

    C. Bradley Thompson

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Thompson, C.B. Our Killing Schools. Soc 51, 210–220 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-014-9767-0

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