There were a few minutes to spare near the end, but I decided to not ask students to share their opinions/feelings just yet, mainly because I didn’t want the class to be a lot of “well I heard?”

Now that I’ve just watched the 10pm news and found out the student was an English major, I [like Dennis] feel guilty. My reasons for this guilt are for not yet allowing my students to talk this event through, even if that venting was all speculative. It looks like this student could have used a space in which to vent. —Daisy Pignetti —VA Tech, a teachable moment? (Doctor Daisy)

Our brains are good simulators… it’s impossible not to try learning from this situation by trying to place yourself into the situation, and imagining what you could have done to make it unfold differently.

Blaming the Va Tech president for not sending out an e-mail sooner strikes me as misguided. Now that the suspect has been identified and we have documents to examine, I think reporters looking for a story to publish won’t emphasize the anger at the administration.