Let me apologize to you in advance
for the presumption of trying to take
a large view because sometimes, the small view is the right one.
And it may be right that just say,
it's brutal assholes like that are the problem.
But let me try to struggle to take a larger view.
I assume that there are a lot of people in the room who've
been professional teachers.
Professional teachers know that the student who on the first day
challenges you or makes fun of you or by body language
is ostentatiously resistant is one of your allies,
is somebody who is likely is already engaged.
You recognize in that person somebody whose imagination
is already in a struggle with yours
and is interested than that kid, more than the kid who is going--
not thinking about anything, is actually a hope.
And if this big guy is interested in a shirt that
has that offensive paradox in it, something's cooking.
That's in some way better than if he just looks
anonymous and doesn't think about it at all,
he's in the conversation.
And thinking back to the very gradual tipping point
of the country in relation to the Southeast Asia war,
when I was in my 20s and early 30s, we go through these things.
And we create stereotypes of one another and then we over-- this
is what I mean by cultural issues.
And in some impossibly good world,
you might have a conversation with that guy.
I might or you might.
And you might try to say, "I'm not going to be aggressive with
you, but can we talk about your shirt?"
In some ideal way, there is a terrible thing going on.
And it's not only our children, it's the people and the place.
And it's not only that it's bad policy but just about
every measure that I know of, it's
also what's happening to the people who actually are there.
And this has happened before.
There's a kind of despair, I feel,
having felt this once before.
And what it would be like to have
your child or your grandchild or somebody
being one of the tokens, one of the counters being pushed
in there, it's unthinkable.
It's really horrible that we should try to think about it.
But that guy coming out of the men's room with bad body
language, in a way there's more hope in that.
In the way-- and I'm using the analogy
from my own little province.
I give myself away when I use a teaching analogy.
But even in family life, if your kids
are able to make fun of your shirt
or your kids are able to say, Dad, you're a hypocrite.
You say blah, blah, blah.
There's a conversation going on.
And that's better than a kind of sullen ignoring one another,
keeping out of one another's way.
So as I say, I apologize for the long view,
but he isn't necessarily entirely the problem,
maybe he is partly the solution.