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The problem of violence in schools is becoming increasingly prevalent in many countries , particularly in North America and some parts of Europe and is posing serious challenges to educators as well as to the larger society.
Cheli Cerra, M.Ed., America’s Most Trusted School Principal points out that in a 2001 survey of high school students, 17.4% had carried a weapon to school during the 30 days preceding the survey (Graunbaum Ja. Kannl. Kinchen SA. Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance United States 2001, In Surveillance Summaries, June 28, 2002).
Todd Bowerman in his article: “How to Deal With School Violence” notes: “Violence in schools is an issue that troubles parents, administrators, and students. When a violent event occurs at a school, people will feel a variety of emotions including shock, anger, fear, and grief. Dealing with these emotions is critical in getting your school functioning again, and will help to provide everyone involved with the school with an outlet for their feelings. There is no quick fix for a problem such as school violence, but understanding what happened and framing your feelings can go a long way towards repairing the emotional damage.”
And it has dawned on us as well in recent years. In the past it was something almost unknown to our school system, but recently it has become alarming with several deaths stemming from violence and at least one incident where a child was seriously injured to the head. And more recently an eight-year old met his death after a colleague allegedly pushed him down a stairway.
Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), Ms. Ann Greene has said that, with gang violence among youths quickly becoming a problem at never before proportions experienced in schools, there is an opportunity to nip it in the bud. Fresh from a leadership retreat in the United States (U.S.), aimed, particularly, at tackling the scourge, she said, in order to stem it will require “combined efforts which must involve the community, local groups and the families.”
Greene said working with families is crucial in the fight “or else we will just be doing what the adage says of taking the dog out of the kennel, bathing him to get rid of fleas but returning him to the kennel, where no cleaning was done.”
She is adamant that arresting “this destruction of youth necessitates, providing greater “assistance for the families.”
Ms. Greene has hit the nail on its head because too often parents see their role as just providers of material needs and do not bond with their children to nurture the right attitudes and behaviours. They see that as an exclusive responsibility of teachers, forgetting that they are the first teachers and at the same time children spend only five hours at school, as such, the bulk of their time is spent outside of school where they are subjected to varying influences, many of which have negative effects.
However, another critical area is the monitoring of what children are exposed to, but in this age of information technology, that is posing a serious challenge because nearly every child has access to the internet and television where in many instances violence is glorified. This obviously would influence children to think and act violently and is another example of where advanced technology has both advantages and disadvantages.
So Ms. Greene is right. It is a problem which we need to nip in the bud, but it has to be a collective effort of our society if we are to succeed in overcoming this alarming development.
Cheli Cerra, M.Ed., America’s Most Trusted School Principal points out that in a 2001 survey of high school students, 17.4% had carried a weapon to school during the 30 days preceding the survey (Graunbaum Ja. Kannl. Kinchen SA. Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance United States 2001, In Surveillance Summaries, June 28, 2002).
Todd Bowerman in his article: “How to Deal With School Violence” notes: “Violence in schools is an issue that troubles parents, administrators, and students. When a violent event occurs at a school, people will feel a variety of emotions including shock, anger, fear, and grief. Dealing with these emotions is critical in getting your school functioning again, and will help to provide everyone involved with the school with an outlet for their feelings. There is no quick fix for a problem such as school violence, but understanding what happened and framing your feelings can go a long way towards repairing the emotional damage.”
And it has dawned on us as well in recent years. In the past it was something almost unknown to our school system, but recently it has become alarming with several deaths stemming from violence and at least one incident where a child was seriously injured to the head. And more recently an eight-year old met his death after a colleague allegedly pushed him down a stairway.
Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA), Ms. Ann Greene has said that, with gang violence among youths quickly becoming a problem at never before proportions experienced in schools, there is an opportunity to nip it in the bud. Fresh from a leadership retreat in the United States (U.S.), aimed, particularly, at tackling the scourge, she said, in order to stem it will require “combined efforts which must involve the community, local groups and the families.”
Greene said working with families is crucial in the fight “or else we will just be doing what the adage says of taking the dog out of the kennel, bathing him to get rid of fleas but returning him to the kennel, where no cleaning was done.”
She is adamant that arresting “this destruction of youth necessitates, providing greater “assistance for the families.”
Ms. Greene has hit the nail on its head because too often parents see their role as just providers of material needs and do not bond with their children to nurture the right attitudes and behaviours. They see that as an exclusive responsibility of teachers, forgetting that they are the first teachers and at the same time children spend only five hours at school, as such, the bulk of their time is spent outside of school where they are subjected to varying influences, many of which have negative effects.
However, another critical area is the monitoring of what children are exposed to, but in this age of information technology, that is posing a serious challenge because nearly every child has access to the internet and television where in many instances violence is glorified. This obviously would influence children to think and act violently and is another example of where advanced technology has both advantages and disadvantages.
So Ms. Greene is right. It is a problem which we need to nip in the bud, but it has to be a collective effort of our society if we are to succeed in overcoming this alarming development.
