I read this article about where the public education system is headed:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/09/21/10950/perps-or-pupils-safety-policy-creates-friction-new-york-city-schools
If you live in New York, or a city where this type of system exists or is being considered, I strongly encourage you to contact your city council and school board members to speak out against it, and encourage your neighbors to do so, as well.
Firstly, schools should be educational institutions, not preparation centers for creating inmates. Police officers (or agents, in this case) are not trained to help kids learn and grow, they are trained to pursue, subdue and incarcerate criminals. In addition, constant police presence and overarching authority over school officials tells students that they are viewed primarily as criminals, and treating kids like criminals doesn't make them better students.
When kids act up, as they often do, the knee-jerk reaction of someone trained to be an officer is different from a professional trained as an educator. If that officer, who does not understand the ramifications of his or her actions on the long-term development of the child, has authority to override the decision of the educational professional, we lose the kid. We already suffer from brain drain. Americans used to take pride in "thinking outside the box" and innovating, but we now have to import inventors from Asia, the area of the world we once scoffed at for being stringent and constricting.
Secondly, the schools are not as bad as those who would wish to maintain control would make it seem. The officer interviewed in the article states:
"we have students who don’t want to abide by the rules and regulations"
What he fails to comprehend is that kids test boundaries, it's part of growing up. Sure, you have to dole out punishment on occasion, but you also need to recognize and acknowledge the good and make corrections as necessary, and for eff's sake, you don't punish an honest mistake! No matter how bad things are made out to be, the majority of kids, even at the worst schools, are NOT counterfeiters, smugglers and explosives fabricators. I have been on inner city school campuses and they are not the war zones he makes them out to be. The vast majority, even some that other adults have labeled as "bad", have just been regular kids.
Thirdly, we have become too quick to allow, and even welcome, institutional invasiveness and authoritarianism into our lives in the name of security in this post-911 world. As mentioned in the article, part of the reason this system passed so easily is because some bad incidents allowed feelings of fear to have a disproportionate amount of weight in the decision making process. While those incidents were horrifying, it's necessary to step back and take a wider view. Rather than openly accept such stringent protocols, it will be better in the long run to develop ones that are more appropriate to the situation at-hand.
We need to think first about our students' long-term development and whether we want to raise automatons and fodder for our jails, or productive members of society who will be proactive in keeping this world a healthy, viable place to live. Again, if you live in a city that has these types of protocols in place, or is considering implementing them, please do take a little time to voice concern to your council and school board members.
This all started years ago when we decided to cram large numbers of students into classrooms and expect one teacher to be able to teach/control the situation. It was a recipe for failure. But it was cost effective. And it was nothing more than the warehousing of our children. It had nothing at all to do with education. From this absurd early beginning we now find ourselves looking squarely at what we've wrought. Generations of violence on the hoof who are either afraid to think for themselves or are anarchists from the first step into the institutions of what were once the halls of learning things other than fear and management by bullies in uniforms.
ReplyDeleteMiki said as much on G+. People don't think about what's best for the students in the decision process.
DeleteGreat blog -- couldn't agree with you more.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that the community where I live is considered the equivalent to teaching in an inner-city school because of the socio-economical status of the community? That being said, I live, go to work and thrive in such a community. This isn't to say that we don't have our problems -- we do, but every day reaffirms my belief that kindness and reasonable responses teach more than authoritarian control.
Wow, I agree 100%. It's something that is deplorable in the school system, but does occur everywhere and on some level.
ReplyDeleteTerrible things happen and a committee sits down and says "What protocol do we put in place if this happens again?" Instead of saying "What types of things created this, and what should we be looking at to prevent it?"
Violence Prevention.. it's become an act of aggression when it should be an act of compassion.
↑ that's good.. you can quote me on that.
That is good. Better copyright it before someone steals it for an ad!
DeleteWhere I am we are very lucky. But it's very difficult to stop that ball from rolling once it's begun.
ReplyDeleteand most times it happens so slowly you don't even realize it until suddenly you're in a police state.
I never thought about the police presence in schools until my niece got a job teaching high school in the Philadelphia 'inner city.' That's where new teachers are required to start.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to take a populist view of big bad police picking on poor disadvantaged students, when we're safe in our nice homes and neighborhoods. But some people live in the real world, rather than just visit it occasionally. Has NYC overreacted with it's police presence? Probably. Metal scanners are silly. The seduction of wanting big government to take care of all our problems is the easy route. But I know from experience it's difficult to concentrate on learning if my main concern is safety, and just getting through the day. A police officer walking the halls is not such a tramatic event when safety is an issue.
If the community is a war zone, that's a whole other issue. The schools are charged with keeping the war, caused by drugs, out of the schools. An unsafe school is what causes trama and people to drop out, not cops in the hallway.
There is a big difference between having a police presence to support the school and its policies, and the police having ultimate authority. And, when you think about it, an unsafe school is really a symptom, the final symptom most likely, before the breakdown, rather than being the cause.
DeleteI wasn't forced to teach and coach in the inner city, I chose to be there six or seven days a week (coaches work weekends). It wasn't all fun and games, but at least part of the problem can be pegged to how the adults view and treat the kids.
Or maybe part of it is the fact that the least experienced teachers are forced into these positions. That said, a contact on one of my other blogging sites mentioned that she felt unsafe at her old high school, not because of gang activity, but because the kids causing problems there were from privileged families and were therefore untouchable. So even desirable schools have their problems, too. Either way, the kids who are most negatively affected are those with lower status.
This piece is spot on. But what's to be done? As usual, we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. But when we are willing to relinquish our liberties one by one in the name of "safety,"
ReplyDeletethe result IS a de facto police state, and we have only traded one type of evil for another, as "choose your poison" becomes the watchword of the twenty-first century.
P.S. I miss your picture.
I truly hope that people will realize that chronic problems are symptoms and not causes, and that treating symptoms doesn't yield positive results in the long-term, Tim.
DeleteI also hope that New York is the exception. Their police department has enjoyed overarching undue authority these past few years, not just in the schools. What surprises me is that their methods have not been struck down by the courts.
p.s.: for what it's worth, the old picture was taken several years and pounds ago :)
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