BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY FEB. 26, 2018) — Resolved: Any student in Pittsfield public schools who leaves class without permission for whatever reason, including a political protest, should be suspended for three days. If the city’s school superintendent, school committee, and mayor care at all about students and pupils, it will clearly state this as policy, promise repercussions for a policy break, and follow through.

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To those enrolled in The Old Professor’s debate class, you can’t logically have it both ways. You can’t, on the one hand, argue that because millions of children play violent video games but don’t shoot up schools proves there’s no link between shooter games and mass murder while at the same time backing kids in their misdirected efforts to political action. Think it through, and you will see: All men are mortal. Biff is a man. Therefore, Biff is mortal.

Conversely, THE PLANET’s claim holds true: the data strongly suggests a causal link between a young man’s immersive exposure to shooter video games and a greater desensitivity regarding and tendency toward violence  and criminal behavior and its precursors. To be fair, the data is inconclusive but only because the Great Leap Forward in ultra-realistic games has emerged in the past couple years and hasn’t been properly evaluated. But screw that. Anyone with an adult mind, eyes to see, and ears to hear intuitively knows that a heavy daily dose of graphic violence wrecks attention spans and the capacity for empathic thought and feeling.

Of course, the mainstream media and adults who think more gun laws will prevent the blood lust that seems to infect young Americans at an unusually high rate have fallen in love with the “army of children” bent on skipping school in favor of marching on state capitols and shouting down speakers with opposing viewpoints at rallies and town-hall meetings.

“The children.”

Ah, that magic phrase.

Automatically, it becomes a litmus test of being a good, politically correct citizen to applaud what these well-intended but clueless teenagers are doing. Walking out of class helps no one, hurts everyone, and accomplishes nothing worthwhile or productive.

THE PLANET is here to tell you that the best thing these teens can do for themselves is to stay in the classroom, put their “smart” phones away, and begin paying attention. If they begin doing this, they might actually learn importantant life skills in reading, writing, math, history, biology, and other subjects to equip themselves with the critical thinking they now generally lack. They will then equip themselves to either enter the workplace to assume their role as productive citizens or be ready academically and emotionally to enter a classroom of higher learning and succeed. Only then can they take part in participatory republicanism. Until then, they should keeps their heads in the books. Or Nooks.

By staying in class and applying themselves, they will learn the greatest , most translatable life skill of all: Critical thinking.

Critical thinking will allow them to realize that the best way to keep safe is to educate themselves and cooperate with teachers and administrators who want to assist them in that task. Critical thought would also let them see that missing class time, while providing fun and an excuse to goof off and party, plays right into the hands of the peers among them who invariably are the ones who pull the triggers in school mass shootings.

Teens need to take a good, long look at themselves and ask: Why are WE the ones who almost always fire the AR-15s? What are WE doing to ourselves. In Florida, it wasn’t a politician or a TV news reporter or a lawmaker or a teacher who pulled the trigger. It was one of their peers.

The greatest tribute they can make to the 17 who lost their lives is to stay in class, working to better themselves, something the young dead will never have the chance to do.

Meanwhile, the best directive given to pupils who walk out of class is the one given by a Houston, TX, superintendent: If you walk out, keep walking, because you’re suspended.

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“That’s the way of it, sometimes” — Capt. Smith, RMS Titanic.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The Usual Disclaimer.