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Out of college, I hired onto a two-year rotational program with a Fortune 100 company. These programs are fairly common for large organizations who can recruit nationally and always seem to have 10–20 openings they are looking to fill.The idea is to recruit and hire 20–30 kids at one time, accelerate their learning through six-month rotations and constantly have a deep bench of ready-now talent to fill positions with. Over those two years, kids have an opportunity to learn about company culture and product offerings while obtaining technical and soft skills through direct application and shadowing.Most programs have a specific focus in sales/marketing, operations or finance. Though I had an engineering degree, I chose sales as I couldn’t stomach the thought of long hours in a secluded cubicle.My company was rigid in the schedule and set good expectations that I would have little say in where I landed for each rotation and final assignment. The program was run from corporate to ensure the “resources” were deployed in the best interest of the company. This prevented local teams in desirable cities from hogging the top talent.My first rotation was in Atlanta where I spent most of six months shadowing sales reps from around the company. I flew to a new city every week and followed the local sales reps on their customer visits. It was incredibly helpful, especially the time riding to and from customer appointments. I had a captive audience and could hammer each sales rep with questions.Why did you ask him about his budget? Was that guy the main decision maker? How many appointments did you need to get your first order? How did you find this customer in the first place? Why do you feel we have the inside position over our competitor on this deal?I took volumes of notes and got so fired up about selling that I started cold calling local Atlanta customers from an industrial directory. Nearly all of them turned me down but I didn’t let that bother me since no one expected me to sell anything on this rotation.Given my intense travel schedule, I did most of this prospecting during off hours. I would call customers early in the morning and late into the evening. Many manufacturers are open on weekends and I found Saturday mornings to be great times to get customers on the phone. I was working long hours but it never felt like work. The work was varied and I was learning so much that it all felt invigorating.My prospecting also turned some heads in our corporate office after I landed my first sale. It happened to be the only sale from any trainee on their first rotation. The result led to curiosity in how I did it. Executives called me and dug into where the sale came from and realized that I was the only kid on the program calling on new accounts. The rest were working hard but simply following the program. Later, the program would be tweaked to add prospecting into each rotation.Next, I worked my way into a rotation in Chicago. My girlfriend had just graduated from college and most of our friends now lived in the windy city. On this rotation, I took a more active involvement in several local customer accounts, acting as a junior account manager. I followed up on proposals, acted as project manager on small orders and developed presentations.Emboldened by my success in Atlanta, I also started calling on new customers. I chose large companies who were buying from our competitors and after a few months, had a few paying customers in my little portfolio.Again, this prospecting work took place outside of standard hours. I learned that each manufacturing shift had their own budget. Almost every sales rep called on the “daylight” shift managers but the “afternoon” and “midnight” shift had supervisors with budgets. I started bringing them donuts and getting to know them personally. This meant rolling up to steel mills and automotive plants at 7PM and 3AM when they were taking their breaks. No one gave these guys any marketing love and they appreciated it enough to start spending some money with my company.In essence, I was working three shifts, squeezing in a nap here and there. It never once felt like hard work. Chicago was my playground and each customer was so different that the job was never monotonous.Our Chicago office had several established sales reps who called on major accounts but did very little prospecting. This was a problem as those major accounts were spending less every year and the local office wasn’t bringing in new business to offset the losses.Then I took a call from our corporate office. I would be moving to Salem, Virginia in one month for my third rotation. The record stopped. My stomach sunk and I instinctively knew that I needed to do something dramatic to change the course of my career.Salem, Virginia was the location of our most important factory. I would spend the next six months working in this factory to learn about how our products were manufactured and how orders were fulfilled.I had a feeling this was coming and it still sucked.I was leaving one of the biggest cities in the world, my girlfriend and most of my best friends for a town that shut down by 9PM every night. Queue the sad horn.If I knew that I would be back in Chicago in six months, it would be different. That wasn’t the program. After Salem, I could be sent to any city in the country like a draft pick. If Birmingham had an opening in six months, I was on my way.I decided to make my case to the region manager who was looking to fill an open position in Chicago. He was new in this role and led one of five regions in North America. I asked some of the local guys to warm him up for me. They talked me up and got him interested in a conversation with the trainee.I laid out my case, being very careful to make this all about him. I carefully laid out what I had delivered in Chicago in a very short time frame. I showed him how I brought an element that was missing in his entire region. He was inheriting a veteran team but they were farmers, adept at nurturing established relationships with customers. He needed a hunter, a spark plug to show the team how to prospect. I was willing to do dirty work that others were not.If he let me go to Salem, he had a 20% chance of getting me back in six months. I needed him to make his case to corporate now while he had an open sales position in Chicago.In essence, I needed him to convince our corporate office to graduate me 12 months ahead of schedule. I went on to tell him that if he let me go, he would be kicking himself in two years when I am making another region manager look incredible.My pitch was filled with hyperbole and light on substance but these were desperate times because, well Salem. He agreed to make some calls, promised nothing and we agreed to meet again in a week.He sat me down and told me that he convinced corporate to let me graduate early but not without considerable grief. By pulling me out early, we were both hanging on a thin branch.If I failed, he would be questioned as to why he derailed the career development of someone who had demonstrated great potential halfway through the program. It would be further verification that the full two years is necessary to develop top performers.He also gave me my first lesson in corporate America with this line:“You have the job. You are no longer a corporate asset. You work for me just like the other 25 sales reps. I could have hired someone with 20 years of sales experience but chose you. Understand that I have a budget to hit. If I miss the budget consistently, they will replace me with someone who will. I am not doing this as a favor to you. You have the job because I believe you can sell better than someone I can find from outside the company.Understand that if you do not sell, I will replace you like any other sales rep on the team. I will coach you and fight for you along the way but 95% of this will fall on your shoulders. Congratulations. You got what you wanted. Now, go deliver.”Honestly, none of this scared me. I had already witnessed a few good men getting replaced in my short time with the company and understood this was a business that needed results. I was ready for it and would rather have that pressure under my terms than low pressure under corporate terms.I literally worked around the clock that first year out of college but what else was I going to do with my time? I had no wife, no kids and wanted desperately to succeed. Those hours never felt like work. Everything I worked on was energizing as I had everything to gain and nothing to lose.I had one goal driving me in that first year. Graduate the program early and in Chicago. That goal pushed me to make the extra calls, work the longer hours and take more risk. Success drove me to work longer hours and I never regretted it.I dropped cable television and even leisure time took a business route. I read newspapers and gobbled up sales books like candy.Looking back, I didn’t give up much. My friends were always waiting for me at the bar, regardless of how late I showed up. My girlfriend (now wife) was working hard on her career at the time and we had plenty of shop to talk. I didn’t miss many Friday or Saturday nights on the town. Chicago has no shortage of outlets to blow off steam after a long week and I became a regular fixture at the local bars when the Cubs were playing.The more fun we had in Chicago, the harder I wanted to work to reach the goal of staying there. Once I reached that goal, I had a brand new goal that was just as energizing and daunting.My new goal was making my manager look smart for taking a chance on me. This new goal drove me to work just as hard in the next three years as I had the previous. Guess what? It was one of the most thrilling periods of my career and again, I was energized by the challenge and long hours. I am still friends with that first manager today and still grateful that he took that chance on me.Balance is a function of your ambition.If you want to move up the chain in your company, you’ll need to earn it. As a young professional, no one cares about your work/life balance. The world cares about your results. Focus on delivering results that make your boss look great and put in the time.When you are starting out, you need to outwork people who have more experience and knowledge than you. Accomplishments take longer as you can’t rely on past experience to help you get things right the first time. A veteran might make 5 calls to get one appointment whereas you might need to make 30 calls.There lies the beauty in a capitalist society. Nothing is stopping you from making the 30 calls and working the extra hours. This is how young people generate similar results to those with much more experience. This is how young people earn respect and build their brand.It all starts with a big goal and delivering measurable results. Put yourself in a position where you manager relies on your results and selfishly wants to give you more responsibility so he or she can get more of those results.I am 42 years old and spend much less time working today. I still love my work but no longer need to work 12 hours a day. I have young children and spend as much time as I can with them. Working long hours early in my career put me in a position to have great balance today.Good luck out there.

Q. Is the Teachers College at Columbia University a good school?Yelp: an unorthodox rating of Teachers College - Columbia University from the students’ perspective, near unanimous voicing of disappointment and major problems. Unexpected for such a storied and renown institution, with distinguished alumni.Followed by two more conventional rankings/general info.Ranking: TCCU #7.Teachers College, Columbia UniversityColleges & Universities525 W 120th StNew York, NY 10027Phone number: (212) 678-3000Business website: tc.columbia.eduRecommended Reviews Teachers College - Columbia University.Dan T. New York, NY 1/2/2010 Listed in Awwww yeah: The Heights, Schools “Excellent educationally but much to improve--facilities/etc. should align with tuition to alleviate the faculty and student disillusionment for the cost of the education and services rendered.”Mike O. Brooklyn, NY 3/29/2014 One of the oldest and best ed schools in the country. Faculty are great. Students are bright and hardworking. Spent a year and a half here getting my M.A. as a Literacy Specialist and had a great, unforgettable experience.L L. New York, NY 8/7/2014 I know Yelp is not the greatest place to rate a school, but I have to say that I was totally disappointed by TC. First of all, if you just want Columbia on your degree paper, go for it, because TC is probably one of the easiest (and maybe the cheapest) ways to achieve this.Now I will talk about why I was disappointed. One of the common things people complain about is the faculty-student ratio. It's true. It matters because your advisor won't have that much time to try to guide you and even listen to you! It depends on people of course, but at least mine literally told me she didn't have time (during her office hours!!) to help me choose classes. Faculty-student ratio also matters because it is very hard to have in-depth discussions in a classroom with more than 50 people who are just trying to say something to show they are "participating".Their career services are also inadequate, and especially poor when it comes to international students who are already a large community at the school. No one even keeps a record of which employers would hire international students, because "it is not required by the US government". Since when an Ivy League school does not offer anything more than what is required by the US government?The quality of the peers is questionable. I am not sure how much the admissions threshold has been lowered within the last few years. All I know is that I got to see fewer and fewer people that are really competent. What bothered me the most is that some of its programs (including mine) are not academically rigorous at all. I've known people who pretty much didn't do anything in a term-long group project and could easily get an A. I've known people who copied other people's homework and could easily pass. Sometimes the professors might not have known what was going on, but sometimes they knew and they didn't care.Again, different people come out of TC with totally different experiences. I had those bad ones because I happened to meet certain people, happened to work with certain people, and happened to take certain classes. However, I am definitely not the only person who felt much disappointed. Talk to as many current students or recent grads as you can before deciding to attend TC, get an insight of where TC is heading towards, think thoroughly what you want and see what and how TC can provide, otherwise you will regret spending your time and money there.Craig B. Philadelphia PA 10/1/2011 Just spend a week at Teacher's College and you'll have a decent handle on what's wrong with education in this country. Here you are smack in the center of the Hogwarts for teachers, but it's really just an opportunity to hand over A LOT of money to get Columbia University listed on your resume. It should be criminal because these are teachers that we are talking about. At least if Teachers College actually imparted something useful that can be used to improve the quality of education in this country, but this is just a pure money grab.- Most of your classes have a minimum of 30+ students. Some have more than 50. Go look on the TC web site to see the number of students enrolled in classes under "Class Schedule". This is hardly graduate education. You're just being given articles to read and papers to write. Little to no class discussion. In graduate school, you should expect classes that have a max of 15.- Most of what you get from these articles is pretty basic and things that you will learn after you have taught for about two years. In two years no one is going to care that you went to Columbia; they are going to care what type of teacher you are, and you won't get that at TC.A good number of classes are taught by graduate students and adjuncts, in some programs more than half. It's something of a bait and switch because you think that your classes, especially required classes, will be taught by faculty, but really they aren't. Do the math. At about $4,000 per class, TC takes in about $150,000 for some classes and pays the adjunct maybe $4,000 to teach it. For example, here is Professor Joanna Williams trying to claim that she teaches a class in Educational Psychology when, in fact, she never teaches a class in Educational Psychology: tc.columbia.edu/academic…In fact here she even says "I teach a master's-level course in educational psychology" (1:52) when, again, a grad student or adjunct teaches the class. It's just deceptive. The administration knows about this. They are too busy counting your money to care. tc.columbia.edu/hud/inde…Faculty+Interviews- If you do get a class with an actual professor, it's pretty much read to you from the same yellowed paper that the professor has used for decades. Not a lot of adaptation or creativity goes into the programs.- Also do the math: you are charged for three credit hours, but most classes only meet for for about two hours.- TC accepts a massive number of students for the MA programs and herds them through. You will not have a problem being accepted because pretty much every application is accepted. This is to help pay for the PhD students. But many of the PhD students can't get work.One of the few respected programs, and one actually with any real rigor, is Organizational Leadership. Yet TC is one of the most dysfunctional bureaucratic environments that you'll find yourself in. Try dealing with the registrar, paying a bill, or getting your e-mail set up. People refer you to someone else and that person will refer you back to the first person. I was in one class that had a janitorial closet in the back and janitors would walk in and through the classroom during class time with ladders and other pieces of heavy equipment. In one case I applied for and was granted an extension by the registrar. Then later the registrar came back and said that I had an issue because I had no extension. I showed the registrar her own letter, signed by her, that clearly stated the extension and the terms of the extension, and that still wasn't enough. She said that she needed to meet with a special committee. This is very common. Most students can tell you a story like this.In the end TC graduates teachers who are burdened under a massive amount of debt. Try to pay that off on a teachers salary. I'm sure some of the students believe that they got a decent education, but they don't really have something impressive to compare their TC experience to. They think that TC is normal. Hope that they don't emulate it in their own classrooms.I've written all of this because supporting teachers is very important, and two months after you start classes at TC this is what you are going to wish that someone had told you when you were looking at graduate programs.If gold will rust, what will iron do?Erin M. Manhattan, NY 3/14/2011 Wow. I realize it has a good reputation, but honestly, it shouldn't. This is by far the worst school I've ever attended. Overpriced. Zero support from faculty or the administration. In fact, not only will they not help you, but they will build roadblocks to prevent you from accomplishing what you need to do. Poor classes, most of which are taught by graduate students. Some of the graduate students are fine, but why am I paying so much for my fellow students to teach me? Getting my doctorate there managed to make me less marketable, and to make it even harder to find a job. Well, all in all, it was a horrible experience and I will never recommend it to anyone.Zuleika R. Clifton, NJ 12/14/2016 Way overpriced for the quality of education it provides. Will take forever to process things (fasfa, petsa video,etc). You never get a reply back from emails. Also, majority of PhD grad students teach MA students rather than real professors. You get all of this for a huge amount of debt. In my opinion, it will take your whole life to pay the debt of teachers college if u become a teacher. Nowadays jobs are very scarce and tough to get. So make a wise decision. My friend got in here with a 3.1 GPA so it's not competitive.Lindsay S. New York, NY 11/23/201425 check-ins Not amused by my program.Teachers College Columbia University leverages the RingCentral cloud communications platformMarina S. Staten Island, NY 10/6/2014 Expensive, but it's a private school in the US, just like any other. The PhD students got a lot of attention from a few professors, which was very noticeable to us, the MA students. Sometimes we felt a bit ignored. I give as much as 3/5, because I got a Master's degree and that helped me get a job which I couldn't get without it.The professors are very knowledgeable, on the most part. We had a problem only with one instructor who hadn't even had a Master's Degree and was teaching a lab course strictly from slides with no additional information. (We know how to use basic Word and Excel. but we spent a few weeks worth of classes reading slides about it).In general, I learned a lot and I really enjoyed the course work. My concentration was in Motor Learning and Control (Bio Behavioral Sciences). I also met many wonderful people who were in the same or in related MA and PhD programs.I just would have liked it more if we (MA students) got a bit more attention from the few important professors in the program.Katya R. New York, NY 6/30/2013 I did an orientation as was considering a Master's there.The teacher to student ratios are quite large and from all my research this is far from a rigorous program.It seems like a veritable diploma mill where the basis for the transaction is very expensive classes in return for a Columbia branded resume (with not what one would expect at a master's level in between). If you fail out of this program, it is because you never showed up for class or the tests, ever.The very high acceptance rate supports this. Columbia has turned a very needed program into a cash cow. This model has been playing out in many of the MS level classes at TC and at the university at large.This is the Harvard Extension School (being very, very kind here to Columbia by even offering that associative reference) equivalent in a teaching program.Buyer beware, and do your own due diligence before you apply (since the above is more or less common knowledge).Tiffany C. Manhattan, NY 12/1/2011 Updated review The school is great! With all the money they have they should be able to remodel the place a little. I love the vintage look, but some of the classrooms need to be re-done. the programs here are great and so are the professors. I wish it cost less money to go there, but i guess you have to pay for a good education. The area around is nice, definitely one of the quieter places in the city.Sam W. Hoboken, NJ 4/21/2012 Want an Ivy League degree barely worth the paper it's printed on? Then TC is for you.This place is an utter racket of criminally high tuition, mediocre to laughable instruction, flimsy joke degrees that will ensure our national education system is staffed by dim layabouts for a long time to come.I can't wait for the National Council on Teacher Quality to drill TC into the ground this fall.Tanya L. Boston, MA 4/10/2011 I really want to rate my graduate school higher. I am grateful the education graduate school of Columbia University admitted me with just a 3.3 undergraduate GPA and gave me the opportunity to get a Master's degree here.I am really appreciative I got a small minority scholarship for working on the academic journal, CICE (Current Issues in Comparative Education) at Teachers College. I would try and get my doctorate here, but the school does not fully fund doctoral students sadly.However, I thought the academic advising system was particularly bad in the department of International and Transcultural studies, as it is TC's policy to pair you up with a professor as your advisor. My former professor could care less about advising me. When she agreed to advise my thesis over the summer, she later flaked out on me when I got an impersonal, mass email from the department head mentioning that she was leaving to take another job in DC. My advisor couldn't even take 10 minutes to write a personal adieu to her advisees, or to say goodbye? Absolutely pathetic.Fortunately, this negative advisory experience was counteracted by a Teachers College faculty member who took me on last minute to help me graduate in 1 year time. In addition, I had several professors that were very good at teaching: Terosky and Hatch come to mind as great.However, I am disheartened by the school itself, because it doesn't seem to value hiring it's own alumni. I would love to work for TC, but I have not been one of the chosen ones. There are non-alumni working in its alumni affairs office and career services offices, and although I'm sure they do an decent jobs, there are alumni out there like me that would give our left arm to work for our alma mater and are not given interviews.Teachers College library itself is absolutely gorgeous: 3 floors of plush chairs and pretty wood desks. I found Teachers College to have enjoyable areas of study. The bookstore employees were always helpful, too.Another qualm I have is the career services center attitude that because I have a Columbia University degree that I will find full-time work soon. Au contraire: being Ivy League in this economy doesn't necessarily mean anything. You cannot advise Teachers College alumni to have hope through reliance on being affiliated with a well respected school. Furthermore, the alumni database the career center touts needs to be built up A LOT more because it is barely searchable as is.Diandra D. Pelham, NY 5/31/2011 I had the BEST time in graduate school ... to the point where I wish elementary, middle, high school and college could have been similar. I love the professors here. The buildings are clean, the classrooms well lit and ventilated. The surrounding neighborhood is perfect for students to let off steam or grab a drink after a grueling day of studying or attending lectures.I was fortunate to receive two strategically located student teacher placements, as well as an on-campus job, which made my intensive year program at TC manageable and enjoyable.My classmates and I typically didn't finish our last class until 10 pm (classes didn't start until 5 because all of us student taught during the day). Nonetheless, professors were always available to talk or answer questions whenever (and I do mean WHENEVER) we had them.We would frequently go to West End (before it became Havana Central- RIP) for drinks and food and stumble home discussing how we could use Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences to determine what alcohol said about our respective personalities. The good 'ol days ...I've gone back to the UWS sporadically to visit with some professors (one was even a guest at my wedding) and see the neighborhood, but truthfully, I'm due for another visit very soon.Elizabeth N. Irvine, CA 2/23/2013 The professors are great and so are the students! The Library and Thorndike are the newer or remodel places in comparison to Thompson, Grace Dodge, HM, and more that need some remodeling. I also love the dinning hall that seems so classic and fancy for a University cafeteria.A B. Boston, MA 6/26/2010 I LOVE TC. I know I am spending WAY too much money here and my loans are adding up, but I am getting a degree that will get me any job in the future (well not 'any' but, within reason). I think if you want to be just a regular education teacher you should not go here because of the expense. But if you are looking for a more specialized degree (special ed, ABA, speech pathology, etc) then this is a GREAT place to go.Paul W. Stamford, CT 3/20/2007 Since no teacher's college can teach a prospective teacher how to teach, either don't teach or find a less expensive way to get the same PC drivel elsewhere. Otherwise, great place to live, and lots of perks in the neighborhood. We lived for four years and I did two masters.Ashley D. Paris, France 4/22/2009 TC is expensive. The education programs are excellent from what I've heard. The psychology departments are good, but the large enrollment of the M.A. programs lend a "degree mill" sense I don't care for. Organizational psychology gets the best bang for the buck - I'm not sure the M.A. in clinical psych would be worth the price. I attend at a discount, but I would consider the cost (as well as living in NYC) very carefully before coming. That being said, I really enjoy my particular program (M.A. Organizational Psychology) and am very happy I have come.About TCABOUT TCACADEMICSADMISSION & AIDSTUDENTSFACULTY & RESEARCHAbout TC At a GlanceAbout TCTimelineA Legacy of InnovatorsDiversity & CommunityOffices and AdministrationOur Students, at a GlanceThere are 5023 students enrolled at Teachers College. Approximately 77 percent are women, and among US Citizens, 13.3 percent are African American, 14.6 percent are Asian American, 13.5 percent are Hispanic / Latino/a, and 3.5 percent have identified with two or more ethnicities. The student body is composed of 20.2 percent international students from eighty-four different countries and nearly 80 percent domestic students from all fifty states and the District of Columbia.College Profile 2016-2017Total enrollment: 5023New Degree Students: 17621398 Fall Enrollment364 Summer EnrollmentDegree LevelMasters: 3624 / 72.2%Doctoral: 1302 / 25.9%Non-degree: 97 / 1.9%StudentsFull-time: 1484 / 29.5%Part time: 3539 / 70.5%Gender Diversity of Matriculated StudentsFemale: 3868 / 77%Male: 1105 / 22%No Answer: 50 / 1%Among Domestic Students Only (Excludes International, Other and Unknown)African-American: 516 / 13.3%Asian-American: 564 / 14.6%Latino/a: 522 / 13.5%Native American: 7 / 0.2%Two or More: 134 / 3.5%Caucasian: 2121 / 54.9%Other & Unknonwn: 143 / 2.9%Among International Students Only (Excludes Other and Unknown)International students: 1016 / 20.2%Africa: 15 / 1.5%Asia: 780 / 76.8%Canada: 46 / 4.5%Europe: 57 / 5.6%Latin America & Caribbean: 82 / 8.1%Middle East & North Africa: 36 / 3.5%Median Student Age30 yearsTeachers College, Columbia UniversityGrad SchoolAll Graduate School RankingsOverviewEducation Admissions Academics Ranking Student Body Cost Teacher PreparationScienceSocial Sciences & HumanitiesHealthU.S. News Education School CompassExpanded School ProfilesAverage GRE ScoresCertification Statistics#7 Best Education Schools2017 Quick StatsAddress525 W. 120th StreetNew York, NY 10027Students1,713 enrolled (full-time)3,207 enrolled (part-time)Tuition$1,454 per credit (full-time)$1,454 per credit (part-time)Education School OverviewThe education school at Teachers College, Columbia University has a rolling application deadline. The application fee for the education program at Teachers College, Columbia University is $65. Its tuition is full-time: $1,454 per credit and part-time: $1,454 per credit. The Teachers College, Columbia University graduate education program has 150 full-time faculty on staff with a 4.6:1 ratio of full-time equivalent doctoral students to full-time faculty.Programs and Specialties#2 Tie Curriculum and Instruction#5 Education Policy#6 Educational Administration and Supervision, in Educational Psychology#2 Elementary Teacher Education, in Higher Education Administration#6 Secondary Teacher Education, in Special EducationAdmissionsApplication deadline rollingApplication fee $65Director of Admissions David EstrellaTOEFL and/or IELTS required for international studentsAcademicsFull-time faculty (tenured or tenure-track) 150Student-faculty ratio 4.6:1Degree programs offeredPrograms/courses offered inStudent BodyTotal enrollment (full-time) 1,713Gender distribution (full-time) Male (23.1%) Female (76.9%)CostTuition full-time: $1,454 per credit part-time: $1,454 per creditRequired fees $856 per yearTeacher PreparationStudents who took an assessment to become a certified or licensed teacher during 2014-2015 216Education School Overview details based on 2015 dataAlumniMuhammad Fadhel al-Jamali, Prime Minister of Iraq (17 September 1953 – 29 April 1954)Charles Alston (1931), artistHafizullah Amin, President of AfghanistanNahas Gideon Angula (MA, EdM), Prime Minister of NamibiaMary Antin (1902), author of the immigrant experienceMichael Apple, professor of Educational Policy Studies, University of WisconsinWilliam Ayers, elementary education theorist, founder of Weather Underground, and professor at University of Illinois, ChicagoSarah Bavly, nutrition education pioneer in IsraelAbby Barry Bergman, science educator, author, school administratorJohn Seiler Brubacher, educational philosopher; professor at YaleDonald Byrd, jazz and fusion trumpet player; music educatorBetty Castor, politician and President of the University of South FloridaChiang Menglin President, Peking University, Minister of Education, Republic of ChinaShirley Chisholm, first African American woman elected to Congress, and former US Presidential candidateNorman Cousins, editor, peace activistElla Cara Deloria (1915), Yankton Sioux ethnologistEdward C. Elliott, educational researcher and president of Purdue UniversityAlbert Ellis, cognitive behavioral therapistEdward Fitzpatrick, president of Mount Mary College and noted expert on conscription during World War I and World War IIClarence Gaines (M.A. 1950), Hall of Fame basketball coach, Winston-Salem State UniversityGordon Gee (Ed.D. 1972), President of Ohio State UniversityTsuruko Haraguchi (Ph.D. 1912), psychologistAndy Holt (Ph.D. 1937), president of University of TennesseeSeymour Itzkoff, Professor Emeritus of Education and Child Study, Smith CollegeGeorge Ivany (M.A. 1962), President of the University of SaskatchewanThomas Kean (M.A. 1963), former Governor of New JerseyMaude Kerns (M.A. 1906), pioneering abstract artist and teacher[32]H. S. S. Lawrence (M.A. 1950, Ed.D. 1950), Indian educationistLee Huan, former Minister of Education and Premier of the Republic of ChinaMosei Lin (Ph.D. 1929), Taiwanese academic and educator; first Taiwanese to receive a Ph.D. degreeJohn C. McAdams, associate professor of political science at Marquette UniversityAgnes Martin (B.A. 1942), artistRollo May, existential psychologistChester Earl Merrow, educator, U.S. Representative from New HampshireRichard P. Mills, former Commissioner of Education for both Vermont and New York StatesJerome T. Murphy, Dean Emeritus at the Harvard Graduate School of EducationGeorgia O'Keeffe, American artistThomas S. Popkewitz (M.A. 1964), professor of Curriculum Theory at the University of Wisconsin-MadisonNeil Postman (M.A. 1955, Ed.D. 1958), cultural criticCaroline Pratt (educator), progressive educator, founder of City and Country School (Bachelor of Pedagogy, 1894)Thomas Granville Pullen Jr. President University of Baltimore, Maryland State Superintendent of EducationRobert Bruce Raup (Ph.D. 1926), Professor Emeritus, Philosophy of Education, and critic of the American Education systemHenrietta Rodman (1904), teacher, feminist activistCarl Rogers (M.A. 1928, Ph.D. 1931), psychologistMartha E. Rogers (M.A. in public health nursing 1945), nursing theorist, creator of Science of unitary human beingsMiriam Roth, Israeli writer and scholar of children's books, kindergarten teacher, and educatorAdolph Rupp, Hall of Fame basketball coach, University of KentuckyWilliam Schuman (B.S. 1935, M.A. 1937), composer, former president of the Juilliard School of Music and of Lincoln Center for the Performing ArtsJames Monroe Smith, president of Louisiana State University, 1930–1939Karl Struss (B.A. 1912), photographer and cinematographer; pioneer in 3D filmsBobby Susser (M.A. 1987), children's songwriter, record producer, performerTao Xingzhi, Chinese educator and political activistEdward Thorndike, psychologistRobert L. Thorndike (M.A. 1932, Ph.D. 1935), psychologistMerryl Tisch, educator, Chancellor, New York State Board of RegentsMinnie Vautrin, (M.A. 1919), educator and missionary.Ruth Westheimer (Ed.D. 1970), sex therapistFloyd Wilcox (M.A. 1920), third president of Shimer CollegeJohn Davis Williams, Chancellor of the University of Mississippi (1946 to 1968)Zhang Boling (1917), Founder and president, National Nankai University, Tianjin, ChinaBest Education SchoolsRanked in 2016 | Best Education Schools Rankings MethodologyA teacher must first be a student, and graduate education program rankings can help you find the right classroom. With the U.S. News rankings of the top education schools, narrow your search by location, tuition, school size and test scores.Rank School name Tuition Total enrollment#1 Stanford University Stanford, CA $45,729 per year (FT) 373#2 Tie Harvard University Cambridge, MA $43,280 per year (FT) 891#2 Tie Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD $1,000 per credit (FT) 2,161#4 University of Wisconsin—​Madison Madison, WI$11,870 per year (in-state, FT); $25,197 per year (out-of-state, FT) 1,030#5 Vanderbilt University (Peabody) Nashville, TN $1,818 per credit (FT) 908#6 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA $47,364 per year (FT) 1,140#7 Teachers College, Columbia University New York, NY $1,454 per credit (FT) 4,920#8 Tie Northwestern University Evanston, IL $48,624 per year (FT) 318#8 Tie University of Washington Seattle, WA$16,536 per year (in-state, FT); $29,742 per year (out-of-state, FT) 938#10 University of Texas—​Austin Austin, TX $8,402 per year (in-state, FT); $16,338 per year (out-of-state, FT) 1,025#11 University of California—​Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA$11,220 per year (in-state, FT); $26,322 per year (out-of-state, FT) 686#12 Tie University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI$21,040 per year (in-state, FT); $42,530 per year (out-of-state,FT) 524#12 Tie University of Oregon Eugene, OR$16,032 per year (in-state, FT); $22,752 per year (out-of-state,FT) 592#14 Arizona State University Phoenix, AZ$10,610 per year (in-state,FT); $27,086 per year (out-of-state,FT) 2,627#15 Tie Michigan State University East Lansing, MI$705 per credit (in-state, FT); $1,353 per credit (out-of-state, FT) 1,862#15 Tie New York University (Steinhardt) New York, NY $36,912 per year (FT) 3,117#15 Tie University of Kansas Lawrence, KS$378 per credit (in-state, FT); $881 per credit (out-of-state, FT) 1,209#18 Tie Ohio State University Columbus, OH$11,560 per year (in-state, FT); $31,032 per year (out-of-state, FT) 989#18 Tie University of California—​Berkeley Berkeley, CA$11,220 per year (in-state, FT); $26,322 per credit (out-of-state, FT) 343#20 University of Minnesota—​Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN$15,844 per year (in-state, full-time); $24,508 per year (out-of-state, full-time) 1,861#21 Tie University of Southern California (Rossier) Los Angeles, CA$1,666 per credit (full-time) 1,866#21 Tie University of Virginia (Curry) Charlottesville, VA$14,856 per year (in-state, FT); $24,288 per year (out-of-state, FT) 937#23 Tie Boston College (Lynch) Chestnut Hill, MA $1,310 per credit (FT) 793#23 Tie University of Illinois—​Urbana-​Champaign Champaign, IL$12,060 per year (in-state, FT); $26,058 per year (out-of-state, FT) 792#25 University of California—​Irvine Irvine, CA$11,220 per year (in-state, FT); $26,322 per year (out-of-state, FT) 274

This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.Many have already answered very similar questions, without the political slant.The following is from: Fred Lead's answer to What should be done about school shootings?How can we stop the school shootings?There isn’t anything that will make mass shootings and school shootings end completely, but there are ways we can decrease the frequency and deadliness of such attacks.Learn from Serial Killings and SuicidesWe have been experiencing a massive drop in the number of serial killings in the US for the past three decades and a drop in the number of serial killers. Much like with “gun deaths”, the US has and still does outpace the rest of the world in serial killings. In some decades the US had about 500 more cases than the rest of the world. In every decade since the 1970s and 1980s the US has cut serial killer activity dramatically.http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/S...As serial killings have decline have mass shootings filled the gap?But this perception [that mass shootings are increasing] isn’t because of some unprecedented rise in the rate of mass public shootings—far from it. They’re roughly as common now as they were in the 1980s and ’90s. And the data offer a stark finding: Over the past decade, mass public shootings haven’t become particularly more prevalent, they’ve simply become deadlier.Mass Shootings Are Getting Deadlier, Not More FrequentWhat we see, thanks to a variety of variables, is (mostly) young disturbed men prefer to become mass shooters and not serial killers. The only difference is fewer are successful in acting out their plans. The general profile of serial killers and mass shooters are remarkably similar as well.Then there is this factor,The media's growing obsession with serial killers in the 1970s and '80s may have created a minor snowball effect, offering a short path to celebrity.The decline of the serial killer.The public eye has long moved on from the serial killer shows and news series of the past, placing mass shooters as the surest road to fame. The news reports have become more detailed, more graphic, and often focus on every aspect of the attacker’s life for weeks to months later. This kind of attention is appealing to those that feel nameless, faceless, and voiceless.This has been a phenomenon the FBI identified after a mass shootings in the 1990s,Ever since Columbine, the FBI has been studying what drives people to commit mass shootings. Last fall it issued a report on 160 active-shooter cases, and what Simons could disclose from its continuing analysis was chilling: To a much greater degree than is generally understood, there’s strong evidence of a copycat effect rippling through many cases, both among mass shooters and those aspiring to kill. Perpetrators and plotters look to past attacks for not only inspiration but operational details, in hopes of causing even greater carnage. Emerging research—including our own analysis of the “Columbine effect“—could have major implications for both threat assessment and how the media should cover mass shootings.Inside the race to stop the next mass shooterFrom a recently foiled shooting we can see pretty clearly the media attention is a pretty big deal, shooters are motivated by fame, and that they do learn from past shooters. From the journal of a foiled shooter,“I’ve been thinking a lot,” he added, according to the court records. “I need to make this shooting/bombing at Kamiak infamous. I need to get the biggest fatality number I possibly can. I need to make this count.“I’ve been reviewing many mass shootings/bombings (and attempted bombings) I’m learning from past shooters/bombers mistakes, so I don’t make the same ones.”https://www.washingtonpost.com/n...In addition to a shift in media attention we have also been experiencing a shift in general culture. We know with the advent of social media people have become more isolated and lonely, as well as instilling a preference for instant gratification. It would make sense that deranged people would gravitate toward instant results, but this is a topic I have not seen much research on.Just like with serial killings suicides decreased after media attention was severely curbed. Suicide research provides a pretty clear model of “behavioral contagion”, which may be at play with mass shootings as it most likely was with serial killings, emphasis mine,The media affords the opportunity for indirect transmission of suicide contagion, the process by which one suicide becomes a compelling model for successive suicides.1,2 This means of influence is potentially more far reaching than direct person-to-person propagation. Suicide contagion can be viewed within the larger context of behavioral contagion, which has been described as the situation in which the same behavior spreads quickly and spontaneously through a group.3 Behavioral contagion has also been conjectured to influence the transmission of conduct disorder, drug abuse, and teenage pregnancy.4,5 According to behavioral contagion theory, an individual has a preexisting motivation to perform a particular behavior, which is offset by an avoidance gradient, such that an approach-avoidance conflict exists.6 The occurrence of suicides in the media may serve to reduce the avoidance gradient—the observer’s internal restraints against performing the behavior. Social learning theory also provides a foundation on which aspects of suicide contagion may build. According to this theory, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling.7 Imitative learning is influenced by a number of factors, including the characteristics of the model and the consequences or rewards associated with the observed behavior.8 Consequences or rewards, such as public attention, may lower behavior restraints and lead to the disinhibition of otherwise “frowned upon” behavior.9http://www.columbia.edu/itc/hs/medical/bioethics/nyspi/material/SuicideAndTheMedia.pdfTo me the case looks pretty clear; some troubled people turn into monsters but now have shifted from serial killings to mass shootings in step with the shift in media attention and society in general. Media coverage is an important motivator for most shooters; it allows them to address a perceived wrong in front of the entire world, immortalize their name, and ensure the entire world knows all about their life. Past trends in serial killings and suicide show media restrictions can save lives.Dr. O'Toole, who is Editor-in-Chief of Violence and Gender, calls on the media to stop using the names of mass murders, which only fuels their desire for fame and is "a very powerful motivator," Targeted mass killings can be preventedMental Health ReformMental illness is often cited as the primary motivator in a shooting, but that is a flawed sentiment as there are obviously other motivators. If it were truly due to mental health issues alone mass shootings most likely would be completely random and not planned. Mental health issues are a contributing factor, but not the factor as many make it out to be,In an analysis of 235 mass killings, many of which were carried out with firearms, 22 percent of the perpetrators could be considered mentally ill. Checking Facts and Falsehoods About Gun Violence and Mental Illness After Parkland ShootingIf a minority of mass killings the attacker was found to have some sort of mental illness. Why does it seem mental health is such a big deal? We need to understand the motivations of the attackers in order to find any kind of predictable factors. Experts have researched this topic extensively,Although some mass shooters are found to have a history of psychiatric illness, no reliable research has suggested that a majority of perpetrators are primarily influenced by serious mental illness as opposed to, for example, psychological turmoil flowing from other sources. https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/appi.books.9781615371099The major issue with mental health reform as a primary mechanism against mass shootings is that mental health is completely voluntary.Even if mental health services are free that does not mean individuals who need them most, from society's perspective, will seek the services out. In fact, the mental health disorders that are most prevalent in violent individuals typically push those individuals away from help if left on their own. Anecdotally, someone in my extended family has some mental health issues that clearly damage the well-being of themselves and their children, but not to the point where Child Protective Services or law enforcement can intervene. This individual refuses to accept help, even though others have offered referrals and to pay for the services. No one can force mental health services on anyone until there is a breech large enough for the legal system to intervene. Oftentimes in the case of a mass shooter the individual is a loner and has no one to advocate for them and do not have any breeches that warrant investigation or intervention by the legal system.When these individuals are forced to use mental health services in many cases it is not like a medical procedure that operates separate of the will of the individual, and prescription drugs alone are not a solution. Psychotropic drugs have actually been shown to increase destructive behavior and the severity of the destructive behavior in many cases. The individual must necessarily want to be better in order for any treatment to be effective. Mental health is also a process, it is not a silver-bullet instant fix. Even if an individual is getting help they may still be a risk to themselves or others at any point during the process; once someone begins to get help that doesn't mean they are immediately fixed and peaceful. In fact, in many cases people become more irate and agitated by facing their issues and giving up destructive coping mechanisms throughout the process. I think many people have a deep misunderstanding of mental health; it isn't like yoga where you go for an hour and feel peaceful and relaxed afterward. Sometimes it works out like yoga, but in some cases it can be deeply unsettling and uncomfortable, but it is required to get to real long-term healing. For severe cases that justify the use of prescription drugs it's as simple as not taking the medication and you now have an individual that is on par with someone that has never had any help.We do need to increase mental health care in the United States and that may decrease the number of cases of violent crime, including mass shootings, but that is a difficult argument to make at this point. I do not believe better funded mental health services will end mass shootings completely, especially if it is viewed as the singular silver bullet fix, but I do believe it will benefit society as a whole. Mental health access in conjunction with other points here can help through a multi-layered approach to help reform people and shift them to a better path, but even that is not foolproof.InterventionWhat we find in the past profiles of mass shooters are preexisting motivations, consistent with the behavioral contagion theory in a previous section, that are obvious “warning signs” after the fact. The problem is there are too many people that have these warning signs that are adequately deterred by a number of conditions for these “warning signs” to have any predictive value. In addition, the actions law enforcement can take against the individuals that display such “warning signs” is quite limited until a breech that is serious enough is committed. In some cases this breech is simple assault, theft, or other petty crimes that could be called “cries for help” or otherwise emotional outlets, in the most rare of cases it is a mass shooting attempt.What can we do about this? We need to be involved as a community with our youth and those in our lives. Parents, family, friends, we are all the first line of defense for a safe society. We know the troubled people in our lives more than anyone else, and we are in positions to not only monitor them but intervene in their lives. We can help them find the help they need to keep their issues from escalating, if they will accept help and want to face their issues. The profile of mass shooters usually includes isolation and estrangement from family, lack of friends, and so on so this isn’t always possible, but it does help us as a society and may reduce the escalation of issues that lead to mass shootings.This idea has been tested and it has worked to a degree, but it is a constant effort,The threat assessment team had to decide just how dangerous Ayala might be and whether they could help turn his life around. As soon as they determined he didn’t have any weapons, they launched a “wraparound intervention”—in his case, counseling, in-home tutoring, and help pursuing his interests in music and computers.“He was a very gifted, bright young man,” recalls John Van Dreal, a psychologist and threat assessment expert involved in the case. “A lot of what was done for him was to move him away from thinking about terrible acts.”As the year went on, the team kept close tabs on Ayala. The school cops would strike up casual conversations with him and his buddies Kyle and Mike so they could gauge his progress and stability. A teacher Ayala admired would also do “check and connects” with him and pass on information to the team. Over the next year and a half, the high schooler’s outlook improved and the warning signs dissipated.When Ayala graduated in 2002, the school-based team handed off his case to the local adult threat assessment team, which included members of the Salem Police Department and the county health agency. Ayala lived with his parents and got an IT job at a Fry’s Electronics. He grew frustrated that his computer skills were being underutilized and occasionally still vented to his buddies, but with continued counseling and a network of support, he seemed back on track.The two teams “successfully interrupted Ayala’s process of planning to harm people,” Van Dreal says. “We moved in front of him and nudged him onto a path of success and safety.”But then that path took him to another city 60 miles away, where he barely knew anyone.Inside the race to stop the next mass shooterIntervention works until you stop working at it. Combined with mental health services and the coping skills they can provide intervention and social engagement goes a long way. Sometimes that intervention goes beyond logical discourse, referring to mental health services, and caring. At that point law enforcement must step in,[A]uthorities say that Cathi O’Connor contacted police after reading entries in 18-year-old Joshua Alexander O’Connor’s journal.Grandmother Stops Teen Who Was Allegedly Planning a School Shooting“This is a case where the adage ‘see something, say something’ potentially saved many lives,” Everett Police Chief Dan Templeman said late Thursday in the statement. “It is critically important for community members, to include students and parents, to remain observant and immediately report odd or suspicious behaviors with our children or with fellow students. We were fortunate that a family member believed there were credible threats and contacted law enforcement for further investigation. I’m sure the decision was difficult to make, but fortunately, it was the correct one.”https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/02/15/a-would-be-shooter-tossed-a-coin-to-pick-a-school-police-say-his-grandmother-foiled-his-plan/?utm_term=.c4f8a8bf1ab5Law EnforcementIn recent shootings many have placed the blame squarely on failures in law enforcement. Multiple tips were not followed up on, but that doesn’t mean we should stop reporting suspicious activity. To make our communities safer from all kinds of crimes community policing is the answer, as shown in New York City, which has experienced a steady drop in crime to all-time lows,The NYPD credited the stark reduction to its new precision policing approach to fighting crime, in which investigators focus on people who have shown a pattern of committing crimes.In March, several NYPD units, including the department’s detective squads and vice, narcotics, gangs and organized crime investigation divisions, were given new bosses — an “investigative chief” in each patrol borough. The chiefs, in turn, report to Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce, officials said.The overhaul — which dismantled the department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau, placing its units under Boyce’s umbrella — has been credited with reducing the number of shootings across the city, officials said.NYC saw historically low number of shootings in 2016Who could have guessed targeting career criminals would decrease crime? Oh yeah, criminologists,In an email, Pfaff pointed out that Monday’s data matched what scholars already knew. “Crime has always been highly localized,” Pfaff said. “Studies in several cities have shown that about half of all reported crime occurs in under 10 percent of all city blocks, and almost all crime in under half. And those ‘at risk’ blocks remain fairly constant over time. So talking about crime in ‘the U.S.,’ or ‘Illinois,’ or even ‘Chicago’ has always been somewhat misleading.” What the FBI's Latest Crime Report Really ShowsBut New Yorkers knew this already,It’s a very small percentage of the population in New York City that’s involved in crime,” O’Neill said in an interview with the Daily News in September. “If the same cops are there every day, they know who the good people are — which is the vast majority of them. ... It’s going to have a real effect on what goes on. NYC saw historically low number of shootings in 2016The move to effective policing not only results in lower crime and more lives saved it also frees up resources to conduct more on-the-ground investigations, the lack of which led to the failures by law enforcement in recent shootings. Generally, the community knows who the problem people are and can point police in the right direction. Why don’t all areas use community policing? Many can’t because a career in law enforcement is not appealing, so getting local applicants isn’t really an option. In some areas the local populace feels victimized and abused by law enforcement and so they have a deep level of distrust. This decreases the effectiveness of police and builds up an attitude of “us vs them”, also called police militarization.When people in authority abuse power, trust and connectedness to a community erode. "It leads to a breakdown of that which holds society together," Teresa Cordova, director of the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told us. "It's that sense of connectedness that has always been such a powerful part of Chicago neighborhoods."When Chicagoans don't trust police, the city suffersJustice officials make the case that building trust and combating crime will be intertwined. "For Chicago to find solutions — short- and long-term — for making those neighborhoods safe, it is imperative that the City rebuild trust between CPD and the people it serves, particularly in these communities," the report says.Chicago police use excessive force, scathing Justice Department report findsSo what does all this have to do with mass shootings? The more connected a community is with police and the more trust that exists the easier it is for police to do their job and the more likely they will do a better job of it as well. As we saw in the example of the grandmother calling on her grandson, the ability to pick up the phone to call the police, and feel safe doing so, goes a long way. If you suspect something call on it; see something, say something.We certainly don’t make it easy for law enforcement to do their job in many cases. The background check system is our most important law enforcement tool in terms of controlling access to guns. Federal gun control legislation in the context of mental health relies on this question on the background check form: “Have you ever been declared incompetent or involuntarily committed to a mental institution?”. That would leave out quite a few mass shooters of the past, and did not stop others. Here’s the real problem, though. Even with the laws in place they cannot be effectively enforced,There are an estimated 3 million living Americans who have been involuntarily committed to mental institutions. The NICS database only contains the names of about 90,000 of these individuals. There are only 17 states that provide information on involuntary commitment for inclusion in the NICS database. Many of the noncompliant states simply have not computerized their records on involuntary commitment. However, a large number of the noncompliant states are also grappling with serious health-information privacy issues and are reluctant to provide the required data to NICS before these issues are resolved.Under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, mental health records may only be released to medical professionals, health insurance workers and quality-control personnel. Ohio’s attorney general has not yet determined how to gain access to the medical records needed to process CCW applications. Because Ohio has a relatively new CCW law, sheriffs are being asked to assist temporarily in checking courthouse records for involuntary-commitment orders. This exercise is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. It’s also unlikely to produce all of the information needed to verify the accuracy of answers provided on Ohio CCW permit applications.Although federal and state laws establish involuntary commitment as a prohibiting factor for gun purchases, mental health professionals contend that there is no scientific basis for this prohibition.According to Dr. Paul Applebaum, vice president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), “checking for involuntary commitments…doesn’t make sense because past mental illness does not predict future violence.”Mental Illness And Gun Ownership - Guns & AmmoWe could take recent events and use it as a rallying cry against law enforcement, but we really need to stand by our law enforcement officers and find ways to help them do their jobs better because our safety is not their job, it’s everyone’s job. We also need to look at some of the gaps and ineffective policies in the current laws we have to make them more easily enforceable and more effective at getting the results we want.ResistanceMetal detectors, harsh punishments for infractions, and general education are all great, but will not stop attacks. These measures all have flaws that can allow an individual to slip through the cracks and do not matter to a motivated monster. The only measure that will save lives when all the preventative measures have failed or been completely skipped over is immediate overwhelming force. Overwhelmingly mass shootings have taken place in gun-free zones. Whether it is the gun-free zone policy that impacts the location picked is up for debate; there is usually a primary motivator beyond just the gun-free zone status, such as some kind of injustice, but with the recently foiled shooting plot we do see a clear case that the location was picked for “maximum damage”. Regardless, making it easier to kill doesn’t help the people in those situations. Armed resistance is a simple way to save lives.This can take many forms. There is the idea of arming school teachers (or simply allowing them to be armed) that are willing or have already become licensed and trained to carry a firearm. Some teachers have already taken the necessary training and licensing to carry a concealed firearm in public, but cannot carry inside the school building. What makes them fundamentally unfit to carry a firearm in a school building when they are deemed fit to carry a firearm in public, sometimes around the same children that are in the school? If the concern is due to a firearm on the teacher’s person there is the idea of securing a gun safe in the room with access to the teacher and an administrator. In the case of a shooting accessing the firearm does not change the lockdown procedure.Since some deem teachers inept and fundamentally too incompetent to carry a firearm upon entering a school building there is the idea of external security, such as security guards. The idea of employing veterans to do this has been tossed around as well. School Resource Officers can be found in some schools but not all, so some argue we should apply the same protection to each school, employing a SRO for security and general order in the school.Each of these ideas have backlash, but the idea is sound. Responding police have the luxury of waiting in safety for backup (and have in many cases in the past), despite going against protocol. When you are faced with an attacker you have to respond, being armed gives you one more tool to respond with, otherwise you are limited to running and hiding and cannot help anyone but yourself.There are many instances where armed resistance has stopped a shooting. Most of the stories are not as well-publicized as the “successful” mass shootings, most likely because they don’t have the same ability to keep viewers (and sell ads).How an Assistant Principal With a Gun Stopped a School ShooterOpinion | Do citizens (not police officers) with guns ever stop mass shootings?These examples are often ignored or even worse said not to exist in the first place. The arguments against immediate armed resistance are head-scratchingly fuzzy, such as Mother Jones arguing because an individual may be wounded or killed by the attacker they should not have the ability to shoot back at the attacker and instead it would be better to be wounded or killed while unarmed or that in some cases the responding individual was a security official or ex-military/LEO. These cases clearly show armed resistance acting immediately can save lives, it doesn’t matter who makes up that resistance. There is also the argument individuals should not be armed because in one case,it was “not clear at all” whether the kid had intended to do any further shooting after he’d left the building.I don’t believe “the kid only killed the people he wanted to and left” is a good reason to keep people that are licensed, trained, and willing to carry firearms from being able to do so.Armed resistance also presents a deterrent effect, although we can’t really measure this effectively for any topic. One of the interesting shifts in programming around serial killers was a move from “we’ll never catch them”, “cold cases”, “mystery murder” shows and news programs to “how we caught them” shows. The messaging changed from “serial killers can’t be caught” to “serial killers will be caught”, changing the way people feel about serial killers, including those that may have considered doing it themselves. This created a deterrent effect that we really can’t quantify. The issue with mass shootings is the attacker is usually motivated enough to not care about dying or actually wants to die, but we also know mass shooters are cowards. We can’t quantify and compare the “coward quotient” compared to the motivation to conduct a shooting, but the potential benefit from armed resistance remains: lives saved.The SolutionThere is no single silver-bullet fix to end mass shootings or school shootings. We need to do the hard work of building up and maintaining a stable and peaceful society. That means being active in our communities (especially with youth), improving access to mental health, supporting our police, calling for effective evidence-backed legislative policies and not “feel good” legislation, and protecting what matters to us all along the way. I wish there were a way to pass a law and end all bad things, but that is not the way it works. Evil will always exist, but we can work in the lives of those around us to integrate people into society and create a sense of belonging. One pattern seems to emerge from the past; whether it be serial killings, suicides, or mass shootings, the people that commit these acts overwhelmingly feel disintegrated from society, isolated, alone, and “other” from those around them. With the prevalence of social media in place of social interaction the main factors that cause negative patterns to develop are only exacerbated. We all need to do the work to keep us all safe, including those that on their own would develop into monsters we could one day hear about on the news.