The Very Poor Case for Arming Teachers

    Some schools feel the need to take further security measures in case of a life threatening attack, and are trying to pass laws that give teachers permits for concealed weapons as a form of defense, which Ramsey claims is very unwise. She says that teachers are already expected to do so much, like handling uncooperative students, that asking them to use a weapon in from of their class during a real emergency could be too big of a responsibility and become too overwhelming of a job for them.

    I thought that the most important line in her column about arming teachers, was actually one that was used as an entire paragraph right after Ramsey explained her reasons for not seeing this idea as that of a particular good one. The line is, "It's unrealistic and, in fact, insulting to think people who entered the profession of education should be turned into teacher-law enforcement hybrids." This line is of utter most importance because it is really emphasized in the article, since it is surrounded by sentences of different structures, which puts all of your attention to this line in specific. This line is so emphasized because it sums up all of the authors ideas into one sentence, or paragraph, in this case, and it really pulls all of her evidence against arming teachers together and makes you want to agree with her in an instant.

    The writing style that I noticed in this article, seemed to be pretty basic, but used in a really effective way. Ramsey began by explaining the situation that she was planning on writing about and subtly giving her opinion on it, without directly stating it with an "I think..." or "I believe...", and she instead just suggested that it could have the potential of being a very unwise idea and could have a lot of cons. She then used evidence that she gathered prior to writing to support the hidden claim. After she gave readers a reason to agree with her and want to take action against the situation, Ramsey finished with what they could do to make a difference. The author used mostly casual diction throughout the entire article, except when she wanted to put a lot of emphasis on a particular sentence or idea. I thought that this was very affective because it made readers want to further think about what she was really trying to say.

    Questions for the author:
1) How do you think a teacher would feel in a situation where they are forced to use a concealed weapon as a source of protection?
2) How long did it take you to perfect your favorite style and way of writing these articles?
3) Have you always wanted to be a columnist? When did you know for sure that this was the career for you?

Link to article: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/22/krista-the-very-poor-case-for-arming-teachers/5744065/