Other than Farmville

So there was an accident with a van driving some of my students down to LA for a trip. The van flipped over and one girl died, while a lot of others are in hospitals with injuries. It's been really hard on my students, and my wife and another coworker have been spending the whole weekend dealing with the fallout for our students, both the ones in the accident and the ones who were emotionally affected.

I have to say that Facebook, for all its many stupidities, has been really great for this. I can message all my students, put some things up publicly, and follow what they're all saying to each other. One of my students is also using it to raise money to donate to charity in the victim's name. Technology's ability to bring people together can be really good; granted it's a mediated kind of "together", but actually when people are dealing with very different levels of mourning -- some people knew the students in the crash very well, others hardly at all -- the mediation can be a good thing, because it allows people to share what they're ready to. It's no replacement for a good hug, but it's been a really helpful addition.

My other observation is that most of my fellow teachers haven't done anything to help their students right now, and haven't even tried to keep up with what news is being released from the hospitals. Why would someone become a teacher if they didn't care about students? The money's no good, the work is really difficult, and there's a ton of bureaucratic nonsense to deal with all the time. Relating to the students as people, challenging them, learning from them, and seeing them improve and develop both in the subject you're teaching them and sometimes even becoming better people is the only possible reason to teach, no? Well, no, apparently. Most of the other teachers enjoyed the drama a bit, then took off and enjoyed their weekend. I just don't get not caring about people you see every day to the point, LITERALLY, of not caring if they're alive or dead.