Other parts under construction. Stay tuned.
If you think my thoughts run on a particular pattern, you are paying attention. Whoever says life is not predictable is probably defending someone in court.
This is a work divided into parts.
Like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives. TV Soap Opera writers made a successful show for years (may still be on the air, not sure) using that expression. Did they coin it or was it just a lucky choice for the title?
I don't watch soap operas anymore on TV, or do I? I watch trials on school violence: prevention and failures; breaking news events at schools; and the news on kids gone wild in my city, other towns and communities across the globe. Drama in disturbed minds and homes play out in public areas. Most scenes are scripted by adults, but the most troublesome to me are the ones scripted and acted out by children.
I lived my own soap opera from 1998 to 2005. Most of it is history, but the news feels like it was just yesterday or even today.
For the purposes of discussion, school violence is not just about the extremes of school shootings. Make no mistake, we pay for even the small events that do not make the YouTube or podcastors circuit.
Life is a soap opera. Even non televised life gets down right dirty at times. Proctor and Gamble were smart business people early on. Their products still sell. But as we all know, some stains remain for all to see.
Real life soap operas do not have a director and no one seems to call, "Cut" in some locations. However, at least in schools, many are paid actors. All the world is a stage, right?
My next parts will be about ideas, both lower case "idea" and upper case, IDEA.
Stay tuned. Life can get bumpy, especially when the some narrators tell you nothing is predictable.
Shannon Wright, in 1998, died because she inwardly predicted that the trajectory of a bullet would hit a child so she stood in front of the student whom she saved. Shannon died protecting that child. She was good fruit.
I would not say the same for many others in education, past, present and most likely future. One does not have to be a soothsayer to predict other school violence on an extreme level will occur. There are bad fruit in education. You know, one bad apple theory, right?
Marian R. Carlino
May 29, 2026