Violence in Schools - My Perspective

Initially I was going to do a continuation to my blog from last week... However, today I got into a conversation with a friend about an issue that occurred at the high school she is currently teaching at, and this gave me a new idea for a blog. Therefore I thought that expressing my thoughts on the overall scope of this issue would be something a little different and closer to home. The topic of discussion with my friend today was about a violent situation that occurred between two students at her school, what made this potentially light conversation spark interest was the fact that the violent situation involved a weapon. As a result of hearing this I instantly began to form my own opinions about violence in schools. I began to reflect upon my own experiences in high school as well as my younger siblings experiences at the same high school. And it has been through the reflection of these issues that I have decided to take my blog in the direction of my overall opinions concerning violence in schools. It is my hope with this blog that I will provoke some interesting comments and discussion – as I know there are prospective teachers and existing teachers who read my blog!     

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In my opinion, the problem of violence in schools is much larger than that of a regular old fist fight, it has escalated to the point that our youth are learning to believe that it is somehow acceptable and the norm to bring weapons – such as knives and guns – to school to ‘protect’ themselves and their friends. I feel that it is our current job – as a society – to look into the possible reasons for why young persons are believing that using a weapon is the most appropriate and effective way to solve their problems.

It is through this process of determining why our young are turning to these types of ‘resolution’ that I feel violence starts as a community problem, and then progressively becomes a school problem because of a number of contributing societal factors. In my opinion parents are the lead cause of violence affecting our youth today. Parents are spending less time with their children, being less affectionate toward them, and are not reinforcing healthy appropriate morals, values, and beliefs. They are not monitoring their children’s television, gaming, and internet use – therefore not teaching them the differences between what is real and what is fictional. And worst of all they are not teaching their children self respect, respect for their fellow peers, their elders or authority figures. Therefore, if an individual has no concept of self respect, then how are we to expect them to respect someone else’s personal space, property or well being. It is as a result of parents allowing their children to ultimately raise themselves that these issues stem from.

Having been in high school once myself, I have determined that it is a part of our human nature to want to be apart of a group. As a result of our children growing up without a solid moral foundation, in that they have no concept of what is morally right or wrong, they are therefore clinging to any group that will accept them. And it is within these groups of children that they begin to develop their own rendition of what is ‘appropriate’ and ‘acceptable’ behaviour as well as developing their own morals, values, beliefs, and concepts of ‘respect’ in relation to what they have learned from TV, internet, and video games. [For a moment let us imagine 1 group of youth for every small community – these youth then move into high school where 10 small communities have come together... this then becomes 10 different groups of youth all going to one school. And with these different groups come different ideas of what it means to respect one another, and a dozen or more youth with a personal identity that is linked to the group they are associated with. As a result, the school becomes a melting pot of lost, undirected young people all trying to protect their identity because it is all they know. And because this is all they are familiar with, it seems as though they are willing to go to great lengths – even if that means using a weapon – to protect this identity without  any fear of authority, the consequences or the repercussions of their actions.

It is with this that I feel that our young people need to be ‘reprogrammed’ toward a healthier, more appropriate way of thinking and behaving. They need to be re-taught and learn the appropriate morals, values, beliefs, and concepts of respect. And all of these things need to happen with the involvement of the whole community – parents, teachers, students, support workers, principals and vice-principals, board staff, community residents, police, and any other community partners – everyone needs to be on the same page to wanting to help the children of the community. I feel that using preventative strategies to try and limit the amount of violence through early intervention and by actively engaging all partners, the school as well as the community can then start to focus on teaching their youth how to develop a healthy lifestyle and maintain healthy relationships, as well as learn appropriate conflict resolution strategies, in addition to developing a proper sense of citizenship.

It is through strategies such as early intervention that we can begin the process of re-culturing our youth to lead healthier more successful lives. It cannot be stressed enough, that all members of the community need to be involved with our youth in a positive and constructive manner if we are ever going to see our schools as a permanently safe learning environment. We need to take small steps in order for there to be big changes, and our first step needs to be with parents involving themselves in their children’s lives, because if there is involvement by the parent(s) than common ground can be met by the school and communication between the two becomes much more sustainable.

Violence is contagious, just like an epidemic; if we can catch it early, than maybe we can prevent it from spreading and destroying everything in its path. But in order to do so, we need the help and support of the community as a whole.