Since we have all seen the video of the massacre, we can all draw our own conclusion. However, all that I ask is that we as future teachers do not put down the military for mistakes made long ago. Also, obedience in the classroom is something that needs to be taught. We have to be able to teach the students that blind obedience is not the way. I a m a very obedient soldier, I have had to be to make the rank I have made. However, I do not follow blindly, I am a man with a mind and I use it all the time. This is what we need to teach the kids, obey when when you have to, but also know when to question authority. We need to teach the upcoming leaders that it is alright to think for yourself, even when your are following orders. The military does train killers, but they also train young men and women to do such jobs they would not have been able to do in the civilian world. It gives you an honor and a code to live by that you will take with you the rest of your life. Finally, if we go to war with Iraq, even if you dont support the reason or cause, support the troops. They are your brothers, cousins, neighbors, fathers, and friends; and all they want to do is come home and be with thier families, and they will do whatever it takes to get back.

I have to agree that obedience is necessary in the classroom. Obviously, we cannot let the students just run around, doing whatever they please. One technique which I have run across repeatedly in my education classes to avoid blind obedience is to have the students explain what they have done wrong and why they should be punished. It makes sense that if a child understands the problem, then they will be able to make their own moral decision. A good idea given to me by a current middle school teacher is to have your students keep a misbehavior journal. Whenever they disobey, they write down their feelings, what they understand the rule to be, and what they understand their consequences to be. This seems a better plan than simply setting the child in time out until "they decide to behave" or forcing them to apologize when they don't feel sorry. Maybe having the student take time to reflect on rules will keep them from simply "following the leader." Hopefully, they can learn to see which rules are necessary and which ones should not be followed.

I really agree with Jessica in what she said about disciplining children. They need to have someone talk to them about what they did wrong and recognize why it was wrong. That is another reason why smaller class size is so important. A teacher will have more time to work/talk with a misbehaving student if there are fewer students requiring her/his attention. I know that when I worked at a day care with 22 after school kids it was almost impossible to take five min. to talk to a misbehaving child every time there was a problem. To to the best teaching job a teacher should have fewer students in the class. I don't know how goverment authorities can say that smaller classes are not better!

I wish that you three-Hank, Jessica, and Caryann-could join the legistators making all of the decisions for education. You all have great ideas! Personally, that article really made me think, because the obedient students are always rewarded in schools, and their "lack of disobedience" is never discussed. Would you tell Johnny's parents that he doesn't disobey? Would they care? I would think that most parents would be thrilled to have obedient children, so this sounds like a real issue to me.

After seeing the video on Mai Lai, I admit it was disturbing. I have many family members who have fought and luckily they lived to tell. I can not say that I would not be the same way about killing anything in sight because I have not been in that situation. I support our military and the sacrifices they have made and will continue to make. I do not think we are teaching violence in school. War is our history, it is inevitable to sugarcoat some things. I also agree with discipline in schools. Being able to get children's attention early on will benefit. We need to instill in them as Hank said to think for themselves and at times it is ok to go against the grain. We as educators have that responsibility to inform.

I agree with Hank on his thoughts about obedience. I think that it is important that we teach the kids to respect the authority figueres and obey them. It is alos that we make sure that they have thoughts and beliefs of their own so that they can stand up and challange orders if they present a conflict with what they think is right. As long as we teach the students to obey and make sure that they know they can have a voice about something that they do not believe then i think that that is all we can ask.

All of you have some really good points. The one thing about that video that really made me think is whether or not the superiors or soldiers upset me most. In some ways I think the soldiers should have known better than to be killing, what ended up being, innocent people. Then I began to think that maybe the superiors are more to blame, because there should have been no questions as to whether there would be civilians or enemies in an area before they attacked and killed hundreds. Hank makes a lot of sense to me and helps me see a side of this discussion that someone who doesn't know alot about military might not see otherwise. My dad was in Vietnam, and although he didn't see any real action, he did see dead soldiers being brought back to camp. The few times he has talked to me about his experiences, I can sense the frustration that he carries. War is something that is scary to everyone and it can be full of injust actions, like in this case. It is like it is a no win situation at times, because it does help to have obedient soldiers, but also you wouldn't want a soldier that would just take a command, no matter how wrong or injust it might be. Sometimes I really began to wonder if some of the soldiers are victims too. In no way do I agree with the actions of the soldier at Mai Lai, but I think that maybe their "over" obedience made them do something that they will regret the rest of their lives. If soldiers are going to take orders with no questions asked, the superiors might want to think a little more about how confident they feel they are in the actions that their soldiers will take.

I know that a certain amount of obedience is necessary, and if soldiers in the military did not obey their superiors, very bad things could happen. I think that the Mai Lai video showed something other than just blind obedience. I think that it showed how "hopping on the bandwagon" can lead to something horrible. The soldiers were doing their duties, yes, but from what I got out of the video, they went a little bit overboard. The one man who was interviewed said that he cut people's throats and scalped them because he saw other soldiers doing it. That is the part that disturbs me the most, I think. Anyway, the video was obviously disturbing, and I know that it's hard to place blame for something like that. I know that images of Mai Lai are not what we should teach people as the only aspects of the military. However, I think in school, war is often glorified to a point that denies students education to the bad things that also happen through physical violence.