SCHOOLING FOR HUMANITY
When Big Brother isn't Watching
davidsol.gif
by David O. Solmitz
 

From Chapter 6, Dissidence Confronts the Status Quo

 

The Relationship between Pain and Social Class

 
Much of the pain from which students suffer in school undoubtedly has to do with issues of social class. Our schools, public and private, are geared toward preparing youths to become gainfully employed. By becoming self reliant, as opposed to being dependent upon welfare, they can be avid consumers who keep the economy on a roll. Those students who come from low income backgrounds, whose parents do not value a college education for their children ... [who] are immediately designated as losers from the time they enter kindergarten. When they enter high school, they are assigned to the lowest track.
 
Because many of these kids have been told that they are failures throughout their schooling, some simply become lethargic and eventually drop out of school. Others have discipline problems and take it for granted that they will be suspended - which implies being given a short reprieve from the horrors of school.
 
Because of low-self esteem, some boys and girls bully other kids. As much as they feel looked down upon by more than a few teachers and by fellow classmates among the preppie-jocks, some feel a need to pick on kids weaker than themselves. A common target is the little nerd boy. He might be stuffed into a locker or his books may be thrown into the toilet. Other targets are students in the special education classes some of whom severely lack any kind of social skills
 
According to Fine, Weis, and Addelston (1998) white working class males "are drenched in a kind of post-industrial, late twentieth-century individualism" (149). Because they are adversely affected by deteriorating economic and social conditions, they "scour their 'local worlds' for who has robbed them of their presumed privilege - finding answers in historically likely suspects, blacks, women and sometimes gays" (Fine et al., 1998, 150). Therefore, it is not surprising that boys, particularly from the lower economic group, tend to be outwardly homophobic. They are apt to be authoritarian, controlling in their relationships with girls, often emulating the attitudes of their fathers. Because of insecurity, they tend to enforce the norms of male sex-role behavior and fear any change of the male sex-role. Gregory Lehne supported this concept in his article "Homophobia among Men" (1976). He noted that "homophobia is a threat used by heterosexist individuals to enforce social conformity to the male role, and maintain social control. The taunt WHAT ARE YOU, A FAG? is used in many ways to encourage certain types of male behavior and to define the limits acceptable to masculinity" (Lehne, 1976, 1).
 
It was only in the spring of 1998 that the first student at Madison High School came out of the closet admitting that she is lesbian. Apparently a great athlete, she was not severely harassed. However, in 1999 a sophomore boy admitted being gay. Although he was a student in the "elite" college prep group, he was not one of the preppie-jocks. He admitted that the ridicule he received came primarily from boys in the lowest academic track. I discussed with him various diplomatic forms of action we could explore ranging from an all-school assembly program with follow-up small group discussions on harassment to directly confronting these boys together with the guidance director. Although he constantly reminded me that their taunts didn't bother him, he chose to work together with several other students and myself in developing an all school program. (See chapter 8).
 
Many homophobic boys tend to be racist as well. Although they make the politically correct statement that they are not prejudiced against Blacks, they often admit to unwillingness to date a girl of color. However, some blatantly spurt out that they would have no problem having sexual intercourse with a girl of color while drunk or stoned at a party. Until just a few years ago, such boys said they would refuse a blood transfusion in a life or death situation from a Black person. Now most are willing to do so having learned in their science classes that blood frorn people of color won't change their appearance.
 
Race is another issue that is contentious. In the early months of 1999, three siblings from California came to our school. All three showed signs of having had a tough life. They appeared streetwise, sullen, and even angry. As the complexion of the two boys was darker than most of the lily-white students at the school, they were harassed as being "Spics," even though they were of Portuguese descent rather than Puerto Rican. However, of course, using epithets like the one mentioned is never acceptable.
 
One noontime in the lunchroom, three junior boys in the lowest-track division taunted them with racial slurs and obscenities. The two boys launched back with anger. At this point the assistant principal intervened. Instead of pursuing the taunters, he yelled at the newcomers. The two brothers, already humiliated and angered, were not about to be blamed for their behavior. Apparently, they yelled at the assistant principal telling him they would fight it out with him. He promptly told the office secretary to call the police. Because of the threatening behavior of the two brothers, he succeeded in suspending each for at least five days. That afternoon, after talking with the older brother, I called the hate-crimes unit of the attorney general's office for the State of Maine. Upon investigating the situation, they were able to get the assistant principal to reduce the number of days of suspension assigned to the brothers. However, still no school administrative action was taken against the perpetrators.
 
All too often girls from the lower social economic strata, who usually belong to the lowest academic track, are labeled as sluts, even by their own peers. Some are disposed to demean other girls verbally. On occasion, humiliating comments relating to these girls are inscribed on the walls of the girls' toilets.
 
Since the dominant social groups determine what is valued in the educational and social systems, the subordinate, or lowerclass groups do not meet the criteria established by the dominant ones. Therefore, the self esteem and academic performance of these lower-track students often suffers as a result of their social status. In reality these students are not inferior; they are simply judged as deficient by the standards established by the school made up of members of the small dominant class in the community, state, and nation.
 
Teacher Adherence to the Status Quo Alienates Some Students
 
Teachers and their administrators reflect the status quo of the middle class. Even if some have been raised in this social stratum, they have become middle class. Like the college prep students, who most favor teaching, they were members of the same elite when they were in high school. On the whole, school was easy for them. They did what the teachers asked, did well in feeding back the information that their teachers dispensed to them. They raised their hands in class, answered the teachers correctly, and mastered short answer, matching, and multiple choice tests. Many were elected members of the National Honor Society. Numerous played sports. Some were involved in drama, public speaking, and debate. More than a few teachers held class office while in high school and were active in a wide variety of organizations that ranged from the Key Club to Science Club to the Drama Society. Naturally, they feel an affinity to those students whose socioeconomic background, ability to comply with the system, and aspirations remained well within the range of the status quo.
 
Many administrators and teachers alike appear to champion the concept of the student who receives the "student of the month award." This type of student excels in academics, sports, class activities, and community service. They represent the all-around good citizen who will succeed in today's corporate world. If they do not go into business and strive to become corporate executives, at least they will become "productive citizens." They may become lawyers, doctors, or scientists who will further the stereotypical image of the United States as a prosperous nation with few if any social and economic problems.
 
Because many teachers feel that they are servants of the community in which they work, they believe they have an obligation to uphold its values. When Eva once handed in an assignment to her English teacher to analyze a poem or a song, her analysis of a song written by the rock band Dead Kennedys was handed back to her. The lyrics of the song were unacceptable to the teacher, even though she agreed that its message about our violent, sex driven society was relevant.
 
The teacher, with whom I spoke, explained that even though she may have allowed her teenage sons to listen to such songs, the obscene language in the lyrics did not represent the values of the community. When asked what the values of the community may be, she answered rather romantically, that they represented the conservative views traditionally held by majority of the people of this little, staid New England community.
 
Two years before, a girl published a poem that explored the beauty of making love as a spiritual experience in the school's second issue of "Paw Prints." An elderly woman, the chief cook at the school, [allegedly] found the poem offensive and promptly reported her concern to the administration. The entire paper was banned. Upon telling the story to Gerry Boyle, a columnist for the regional paper, he wrote the following piece for his column entitled "According to Boyle." In it he expressed sympathy for the lack of understanding that many teenagers experience in their relationships with adults, especially their teachers and administrators. He empathizes with their yearning to be heard and understood.
 
"School paper runs afoul of grandma"
 
The first edition of Paw Prints, a student publication at Madison Area High School, got mixed reviews. Some students thought there were too many poems and stories and that too much of the poetry was about dark stuff, like teen suicide.
Coeditors; Jennifer Trask and Katrina Stewart didn't really agree, but they said they would lighten up a bit.
 
"Our intent was not to depress you," the editors wrote in the preface to issue No. 2 published last month. "We just wanted you (not so much students as adults) to understand what it is like to be a teenager in 1997."
So the last issue led off with a haiku-shaped poem about being confused and lost, something any teenager can relate to. There was a poem narrated by someone in a mental hospital. And perhaps because the paper came out on Valentine's Day, there was another matter of great interest to teenagers.
 
Untitled, it started off like this:
 
Lately I've been dreaming
A perfect dream of you
I touch your face and feel the
Moist warmth of your mouth
Upon my finger tips
I find it impossible to keep my lips
From you
Our bodies pressed together
I can't get enough of you and
Your hands travel down my hips
Undressing is a slow torturous
Battle that we soon conquer
And become yet closer
Burning flesh entwined so tightly
We pulsate as one.
 
And so on, for another 24 lines that include references to pain and ecstasy, naked bodies, and love. You've got it. The S-word. Sex.
 
"But if you read into it, it's about more than Sex," said Trask, a 17 year-old junior. "It was about two people becoming one. It was about love, but it was more than the physical aspect. It was emotional and spiritual."
 
The poem was written, though not based on firsthand knowledge, by a student named Tasha. Tasha, a junior who is 16, loves photography, writing, and The Grateful Dead, and dreams of someday shooting pictures for Rolling Stone magazine. But now Tasha is at Madison High School, where her artistic endeavors had barely hit the newsstand when they already were causing a stir.
 
According to Tasha, Trask, and others at the school, 300 of the freshly printed (copied and stapled) papers were put on a table that morning. About 30 papers had been taken when the alarm went out.
 
"I was in class," Tasha said, "and they came in and they said they took our paper and they were going to burn it."
 
Which wasn't true. The papers weren't burned, just confiscated.
 
"Essentially this is a publication that wasn't filtered through the normal channels and I had to pounce on it first and ask questions later," said Vice Principal William "Pete" St. John.
 
Well, questions were asked, at least by Trask and Tasha, who pronounced themselves appalled by the school's action. Trask, admittedly, lost her temper with St. John and was handed three hours detention for using inappropriate language.
St. John, at the school last week, stood by his action.
 
"We wouldn't have printed that in pictorial form or any other sort of artistic form," he said. "We would censor lyrics like that if they wanted to play them at a dance or before a baseball game or something like that."
 
St. John said he wasn't criticizing the poem's literary merit, and said it might be well suited to another publication. But he said the poem was too graphic for younger students, and for the rural Maine communities the school serves and reflects.
And the poem was about teenagers and sex.
 
Most parents, he said, don't want the school "to moderate that discussion for them." "It's got to pass the grandmother test," St. John said.
 
Literally, according to Trask and Tasha. They said they understood that the first alarm was sounded by an older woman who works in the cafeteria and picked up the paper that morning. St. John said that may have been a misunderstanding stemming from his use of the cafeteria worker as an example of the kind of sensibility students should consider.
 
Either way, the poet herself said she doesn't get it.
 
"I'm just kind of surprised because I didn't think it would be that big of a deal," Tasha said. "I don't understand why they would ban the paper because of a poem about sex, a poem about love."
 
I think I have an idea.
 
For one thing, I think the administration knew that some parents would have been less than pleased to have this poem read aloud at the supper table by their freshman girl or boy. Some parents would have been a, hot as the poem is, by their standards, steamy.
 
In fact, yanking the kids' Paper may even have reflected what the parental community would have wanted, but it raises other questions, such as:
 
Do we think 15-year olds really don't know what goes on around them? Whom are we kidding? Ourselves, not them. ce for others' view One Madison High School teacher David Solmitz said the issue was about freedom of expression for students, about tolerance for others' view in a democracy. Solmitz passed along some proposed legislation on student expression, which Augusta lawyer, Jed Davis, has given to House Speaker Libby Mitchell.
 
The legislation would give students the right to publish and say what they want, unless it's obscene, libelous, invades privacy, or incites students to riot.
A "grandmother test" is not included.
 
But it was at Madison High School, and though I can understand why, I still wonder what message this sends kids. Teen suicide is a fitting topic, but an innocent and honest poem about sex and love gets yanked?
 
But really, folks, this little skirmish in Madison just reflects the rest of us. We don't talk to kids about sex in our culture, except, of course, in the din of videos and blue-jean ads. When sex appears it's usually in the con, text of some sort of violence or degradation. You won't see a breast on TV, but you will see a barrage of brutality.
 
Sex and love? On prime time, the two do not coexist. When was the last time you saw a made-for TV movie about a couple happily married and doing you know what.
 
For the last 50 years? Isn't it funny that we don't talk about sex with the next generation, when without it, there wouldn't be any next generation at all? But it's happening all around us. As you read this, somebody is experiencing just what
Tasha wrote about in her poem for a Madison High School creative writing course.
"I did pass it in, and the teacher didn't have any problem with it at she said.
 
"Did you get a grade?" she was asked.
 
"I got an A." Tasha said.
 
Two naked bodies wrapped up in
Each other's arms
It's so beautiful
Your breathing is so peaceful
The rhythmic way my head rises
And falls on your chest soothes
Salvation surrounds us
We have shut out the hatred
of the outside world
Our love is all that matters.

(Morning Sentinel, 3/9/1997)...............

 
Because of their own middle-class background, their revered status as students of the college-preparatory group, and their adherence to the values of the norm, all too many teachers do not like and have difficulty working with lower-track students. It is these students who are least appreciated by most of their teachers. Therefore, they perform to a "T" to meet the labels given to them even before they entered kindergarten.
 
These are often kids, like Johnny, who come from low-income, broken homes. They may be bright, but they are seen and treated as troublemakers. They are not motivated to learn within the conventional system. Often they are discipline problems. They are all too frequently criticized for their use of profanity and for their coarseness. They are the students who are most likely to be suspended frequently and even expelled. In Madison, by the time such boys reach high school, they are often referred to as "Skidder Boys," because of the work boots and flannel shirts they wear that identify the men who work in the logging industry.
 
Some of the girls in this group are stereotyped as low life. Although these girls may be less of a discipline problem, they are no more motivated than the boys. Often it is kids from this group who make the "Court News" section of the newspaper for losing their driver's license for OUI (Operating Under the Influence), for breaking and entering, and for burglary. Of course, we don't hear about the rare few of their classmates in the college prep group, who years later, as successful professionals and pillars of their community, are charged with embezzlement, tax evasion, or even pedophilia. Most of the lowest-track kids will get minimum wage jobs. A few might end up on the welfare rolls.
 
Low Self-Esteem Enhanced by Tracking Fuels Emotional Problems
 
Even though some students' problems are socio-economic, others are cultural, and a large number are home based, teachers and administrators must understand and respond sensitively to the reasons why so many students do not function effectively at school. To be able to do so, they should have a basic understanding of psychology. Take, for example, the case of Frank, a sophomore at Madison High School during the 1998 to 1999 academic year. At age thirteen, this bright and sensitive boy was already in trouble with the law. On one occasion the police discovered a package of unopened bullets that had been stolen from Madison's police station. Frank recalled that he was lucky that the gun he and other boys stole from the police station was I never recovered, and no evidence was found that he was involved in the ,actual burglary. Nor was he ever nailed for removing the steps to the police station on a Halloween night.
 
Frank liked to party. He, like his father, was a heavy beer drinker. Some kids described him as coming close to being an alcoholic. He also used drugs, relying primarily on marijuana but was also an admitted user of the hard stuff. His mother, whom I recall as a bright and involved student in my college preparatory class, did go on to college. However, she returned to Madison, had two children from two different men, and became addicted to crack cocaine. At the same time that she tried to raise her two sons, she worked hard to further her education. As a result, she was not home all that often, leaving Frank to his own devices.
 
When I had Frank in school, during the 1998-1999 academic year, he was in the lowest academic track. However, in my g6vernment/economics class he was a prize student. He got involved in projects, especially one on problems at the Maine Youth Center. He read articles on complaints about the Center brought forth by Amnesty International. He read up on the history of the state's reform school and brought to class a couple of his friends
who had been incarcerated there for participation in a lively panel discussion. He spoke articulately about more humane means of reforming youths by showing appreciation for the good things they do rather than always emphasizing the bad.
 
Due to the fact that Frank skipped a lot of school, his mother, out of desperation mid-way through his sophomore year, sent him to live with his father. This huge man, especially, when drunk, was both physically and verbally abusive. He, too, had his share of unpleasant encounters with the law. He seems unable to hold a job since he is usually fired within a short period of time.
 
Frank, eager to get to know his dad more closely, asked him about his experiences during the Vietnam War. Since he would not share these with his son, Frank read books and rented numerous Vietnam era movies. He was particularly moved by Oliver Stone's films: Platoon, Between Heaven and Earth, and Born on the Fourth of July. At Frank's suggestion, we invited several Vietnam veterans to share their experiences and thoughts about the war with the class. Frank was deeply engrossed in these discussions, raising thoughtful and thought-provoking questions.
 
Frank had a girlfriend of whom he was exceedingly possessive. He often left sessions to drag her out of class or meet at an appointed time in the corridor. He never let her out of his sight. It was reported that he was both verbally and physically abusive to her. For roaming the halls without a "pass," for skipping school, for failing to report for after-school and also for Saturday detention, and for talking back to the assistant principal, he was frequently suspended. Because of a school policy that says if a student misses more than ten days of school, he or she will automatically fail all courses, in mid-May he had to appear before an appeals board consisting of the assistant principal, guidance counselor, and a teacher. Naturally, the days for which he was suspended were counted as days missed. Since he wasn't granted a waiver, he had to appeal to the principal. That appeal process never materialized.
 
In early June, within an hour before the end of the school day, the assistant principal, with whom Frank had numerous confrontations, approached him in the hall. He did have a pass. However, since he had his backpack with him, in violation of school policy, the assistant principal in his words "made him take it to the office so it could be searched." Lo and behold, an unloaded gun, two unopened beer cans, and a small amount of marijuana were found in the bag. Within minutes three police cruisers descended upon the school.
 
The assistant principal took great pride in announcing to the staff at an emergency faculty meeting how he enhanced safety at the school. He noted he had already submitted the paper work to the superintendent to have the boy expelled from school. By having him sent to an adolescent treatment program, he felt he did a good deed in helping the lad work through his problems. (Frank was released within three days). However, it was only through questioning on the part of a teacher at this meeting that we learned the boy had no ammunition with him, that he was of no danger to anybody other than himself. He intended to use the gun on himself.
 
It was very evident that Frank was experiencing severe depression. He looked for relief in drugs. Anything he could do straight, he could have more fun doing buzzed. His abusive relationship with his girlfriend was a sign of low-self esteem if not depression, Neglect and abuse by parents only added to his despondent state of mind and low self-esteem.
 
According to Terrence Real in his book I Don't Want to Talk about It (1998) a traumatized youth, in Frank's case by his father's rage, becomes a tormentor himself. At the same time his parents' emotional neglect caused him to hate himself and feel powerless as well as shamed. Real, by reflecting on his own life, suggests a similar pattern adopted by Frank. The difference is that Frank never had even the cultural encouragement to pursue college from his parents as Real had from his. Even so, the similarity between Frank and Real is obvious: "Cold blackness has been my companion for decades. Through my teens and twenties, my unwillingness to sit still inside that darkness drove me into drug abuse, wildly inappropriate relationships, risk taking, and petty crime" (Real, 1998, 251).
 
The last I heard about Frank was that he had a new girlfriend and was no longer attending school.
 
Had we as teachers and administrators understood Frank and responded appropriately to his background, we might very well have been able to work with him through his depression that caused him and others serious problems. Had we developed a trusting relationship with him, there is no doubt that he would have responded positively. For example, he told me that his English teacher had given him a book on the Vietnam War that she had found at a yard sale. He read it voraciously. Obviously he was touched by her thoughtfulness. In Frank's case, and undoubtedly in many others as well, the "tough" stance, that all too many "educators" take to uphold their image as strict disciplinarians, only antagonized him more and continued to deflate his self-esteem and enhance his despondency.
 
Real tells us that "one of the ironies about men's (boys') depression is that the very forces that help create it keep us from seeing it." (Real, 1998, 22) Since men are not supposed to show pain, if they do, they most likely feel shame. Even their family and friends may feel that shame. Therefore, by keeping their pain secret and hidden deep within themselves, the effects are often physical illness, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, failures in intimacy, and self-sabotage in their careers. By extemalizing their pain, men are more likely to feel victimized by others and release their distress through violence. All of these factors appear to have affected Frank.
 
Girls, on the other hand, internalize their pain. They tend to blame themselves and as adults "draw distress into themselves" (Real, 1998, 24). However, when girls experience pain, as is evident among high school girls, they will turn to their friends for comfort. Often I have excused a girl from my classroom because she was in distress. Without exception another girl would accompany her to the "Girls' Room" where they could talk.
 
On the other hand, Real notes that when boys disclose depression, they are frequently met with outright hostility from their male peers. Such boys are alienated from other youths. They often have few or no friends. They seem to hide within themselves. Often as a teacher I sense a lot of anguish, while at the same time many of these boys appear to be numb. They suppress their emotions since they simply do not know how to handle them. Real explains, since boys are ostracized from showing their feelings, they can only manifest their pain externally. In this way, they avoid the outward signs of depression. However, this behavior drives them into covert depression. They turn against themselves and even lose their capacity to feel anything at all.
 
As teachers we are neither trained to be therapists nor do we have the time and energy to work extensively with young people in helping them overcome their often deeply rooted problems. Since many teachers have not had sufficient training in psychology, it might be worthwhile for schools to hold workshops on such psychological issues as teenage depression, its symptoms, and how to deal with them. Certainly, continuing education courses for teachers could be offered in this field. For instance, we may learn not to take youthful misbehaviors personally. Such training may also help us understand how to deal with a troubled boy or girl so that we may be able to help avoid or at least effectively defuse a difficult situation. Finally, we should have sufficient knowledge as to whom to refer a student with problems, be it the school guidance counselor or the school social worker, should the school be fortunate enough to have one employed. In some rare instances, students may have to be sent to the principal. Once a student realizes that the teacher genuinely cares about him or her and is skilled in dealing effectively with his or her conflict, then the student gradually develops greater respect for and trust in the teacher. These are important factors that help make a teacher a successful educator.
 
Simultaneously, though, teachers need to have fundamental self-knowledge. Teachers should know why certain students push their buttons, why they favor some students over others. They must also understand why they wanted to become teachers. With this knowledge it is important for the teacher to explore those forms of discipline they wish to pursue to fulfill their own professional purpose. Do they simply comply with the traditional norm of classroom management that says that if the teacher isn't in control of the class, the result will undoubtedly be chaos? Doesn't the same philosophy also warn that children need to be told exactly what is expected of them or face the consequences? Does a teacher often use this approach to maximize time on task and obedience to authority? What might happen if the teacher's primary objective were to motivate young people about the joys of learning and to foster a greater depth of understanding? Would the results be negative if teachers tried to develop mutually respectful and trusting relationships between themselves and the students? Would such a relationships also allow students to genuinely appreciate the uniqueness of each of their classmates? Will the students be able to grow, to become in Pindar's words who they are? (Kohn, 1996).
 
Discipline Upholds Mainstream Community Values
 
In order to adhere to and maintain the established standards of the school and community, the school focuses primarily on discipline. In this way the school appears to imagine that by trying to control youthful behavior, it will successfully mold students into compliant but competitive, marketable employees or lucrative employers. However, the rebellious behavior, low academic scores, and the high dropout rate of lowest-track students are not the result of a lack of self-discipline, stupidity, or their inability to see a bright future at the end of the tunnel. These kids, often the very brightest and insightful of the school population, simply see no point in playing the game of the system.
 
Alfie Kohn in his book Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community (1996) explores why the traditional pattern of discipline is ineffective. Trying to control student behavior with the carrot and stick approach, reward or punishment does not create healthy, independent thinking, or self-actualized individuals. He notes that this approach is negative. At best it can only accomplish temporary compliance. Teachers and administrators can only manipulate a student's actions. They cannot and do not help a student to become a kind and caring person. I have already offered evidence from my own experience that punishment "can't possibly have a positive effect on that person's motives and values, on the person underneath the behavior" (Kohn, 1996, 26). Kohn argues that punishing the same students over and over is deeply rooted in rigid values. Adults are in charge and students must be obedient, even if they perceive the adult to be in the wrong.
 
Kohn explains that punishment never solves a problem; it only makes it worse. The more one punishes a person, the angrier the person becomes. Since the need to punish intensifies, a vicious cycle is underway. That is why at Madison High School the assistant principal is so much hated by many students. It is the same ones whom he detains and suspends time and time again. No wonder students accuse this man of being on a power trip. What might have happened, not only to his relationship with students, but to their own development had he tried to reason and negotiate with them? Wouldn't the values he would be teaching here be more in tune with the principles of a democratic society? Kohn realizes that "punishment actually impedes the process of ethical development. A child threatened with an aversive consequence for failing to comply with someone's wishes or rules is led to ask, rather mechanically, 'What do they want me to do, and what happens to me if I don't do it?' a question altogether different from 'What kind of person do I want to be?' or 'What kind of community do we want to create?"' (Kohn, 1996,28).
 
Last year a student of mine, disheartened by the antagonistic relationship between many students and some teachers, including the assistant principal, did a research project for my government class in which she visited two alternative schools; one public for "at risk" students and the other a small, private venture, comparing their approaches to discipline to Madison High School.
 
This student became a mother before she completed high school, she suffered from bi-polar disorder, and she had been a patient at an adolescent treatment program recovering from substance abuse. Furthermore, she displayed a slew of behavior problems for which she was frequently suspended, and she was labeled as a slow learner and placed in the lowest academic group. Now married to her child's father, she is attending college. Clearly, the reader will find Marianne to be an insightful, open-minded thinker, whose point of view is articulately expressed and should be taken seriously. In a March 1999 essay she wrote for my government/economics class, she compares the authoritarian approach to students at Madison High School with a more humane attitude at a small, private alternative school, Evergreen-Sudbury, in Hallowell about an hour's drive from Madison:
 
I started this project in hopes of reaching a compromise between the students and teachers to make Madison High School run smoother...
 
The reason behind this project is Madison Area Memorial High School has recently been struggling with many problems. The students feel that it is the result of the authoritarian approach of the vice-principal, teachers, and staff. We think such problems like truancy, tardiness, and passes have been handled incorrectly.
 
I feel the way rules are enforced by the staff is the major problem in the school. Though I agree that the rules are reasonable, the handling of the infractions border on abuse. Throughout the year I have observed the authoritarians, the ones that are to be the mature adults in the situation, [are] often yelling at, degrading, and making fun of the students involved. This leads to many more problems, personality conflicts, and it just magnifies the situation. While the student maybe shouldn't have broken the rule at all, once the damage is done, it is up to the adult to de-escalate the situation and bring things back to normal.
 
An example of the problems we've experienced within the school would be a situation that happened last year. A student and teacher were in the hallway, and they were arguing about something the student had done. When the teacher was done hollering at him, and turned around to walk away, the student then made an offensive, obscene gesture to her. Another teacher in the hall saw this and reacted immediately. The student was brought to the office and sat down in front of everyone. The teacher with whom the student had been fighting and the teacher who had witnessed the gesture, ganged up on him. One got in his personal space, finger in the face, and began to holler at him using words like "punk" and "hoodlum." Meanwhile, the principal and other teachers stood watching silently. The student received three days suspension and the teacher's actions were overlooked. I, myself, was sitting right next to this situation as it happened and feel it was very inappropriate....
 
While I visited the alternative school, I made it a point to notice the way students were treated. They seemed to have a fine relationship with the staff. I asked about why they thought they got along. A response I got was that the teachers treat the kids as though they are adults. Each teacher is referred to by their first name and is the first one to stick up for the kid in a problem....
 
Equality in the schools seems to be quite important. Maybe not a first name basis for a public school, but definitely listening skills are required to get anywhere in life. Maybe when a student is obscene, the teacher can pull them away from everyone, maturely talk about the situation. This way the student will feel respected and the relationship will improve.
 
At the alternative schools, when a problem occurs, it is approached in a mature and understanding manner. Both the student and staff member sit down to give points of view and let each other have their turn in talking. The staff talks without prying into the personal business of the student, which brings about trusting and understanding relations in the school. Maybe, the alternative school can be a good example to the public schools. In the alternative schools, a student is treated very fairly. But this isn't a one-way thing: the student treats the teacher with respect. Like I scratch your back, you scratch mine kind of thing, but all respectfully portrayed. If the students at Madison High School learned to become more respectful and mature, then there wouldn't be as many problems in the first place. Things would be just as peaceful with a less stressful atmosphere.
 
Still the thought of the alternative school's approach of teaching and policies on certain things, I feel would not be good to use for public schools. First, the extreme change would come as quite a surprise to the district, and the students would become very destructive. They might not even attend regularly because it would be like a field day (every day) to them. Even so, some of their structures and policies would be quite a relief on everyone if the public schools filtered in some new rules. High school, as the teachers say, is supposed to be a wonderful learning experience. Some of the adults in our lives believe it is supposed to be the best years of your life. So why make school so much like hell? Of course, the students, too, have a part in the way things are handled. They have a part in what rules are made, just by the way they act or present themselves.
 
So if everyone wants a better school, then everyone should try to take part in cleaning up attitudes, behaviors, and teachers, too. Maybe, Madison Area Memorial High School can view or research the alternative schools along with others to learn new ideas. Maybe, they could even adopt some rules and regulations to help make school for kids more enjoyable and less stressful for the staff. They should try to talk to the student and see their point of view and build a trusting relationship with them. They should try not to yell or fly off and bring themselves to a lower level than maturity. Maybe, they will see that honey attracts more flies than vinegar. Finally, the students become more mature themselves, follow the rules, and better quit complaining about how bad it is.
 
Marianne's essay effectively illustrates the debilitating effects of many years of authoritarian rule on students, causing many to take more blame for their actions than they deserve. Kohn acknowledges Marianne's insight by demonstrating that the more rules the school makes, the more students, like lawyers, try to find loopholes through which they can escape. Teachers, then, become police officers trying to enforce these rules. They are not facilitators for students in their search for knowledge and meaning. Because rules divert back to punishment, teachers do not solve problems together with them, nor encourage them as a group to resolve these. Rather teachers simply enforce the rules often resulting in unfortunate consequences for the students.
 
To try to make sure that students comply with the goals of the school, rewards are given if students achieve high grades. Not only are these students recognized at an assembly attended by the entire student body but also their names are also listed on an honor roll that is printed in the regional paper. Some parents even have bumper stickers on their cars noting that their child is an honor roll student. One such bumper sticker reads, "My child is on the honor roll at Benton Elementary School, just can't hide my pride."
 
Local businesses such as the Pizzarama will give honor roll students a discount on their next purchase of a pizza. Honor roll students pay less for auto, mobile insurance. In the spring of the year when seniors are accepted at college, their acceptance is announced to the entire student body over the school's public address system.
 
For students who are not successful, such recognition of the compliant achiever weakens any desire they might have to succeed in school. If this is not enough, they are further punished. As already noted, they are restricted from use of the school's library, unless given a pass from a teacher indicating that they will actually be doing research for that class. The work must be shown to the librarian before leaving the library. Students on the restricted list, during study hall, must study the full 80 minutes. They may not even whisper to one another.
 
Kohn states that the only way to help students become ethical people, as opposed to people who merely do what they are told, is to help them construct moral meaning. It is to help them figure out for themselves and with each other how one ought to act. That's why dropping the tools of traditional discipline, like rewards and consequences, is only the beginning, It's even more crucial that we overcome a preoccupation with getting compliance instead of bringing students in on the process of devising and justifying ethical principles. (Kohn, 1996, 67).
 
The direction in which public education is currently moving makes it increasingly difficult to achieve Kohn's practical ideal. For example, school administrators and teachers control students even more heavy-handedly in light of increasing school shootings in middle-class community schools like Columbine. In addition, they are concerned with their schools' reputation resting heavily upon broadly published student achievement scores.
 
However, in order for our students to achieve the very skills that the Maine Learning Results want them to acquire, it is necessary to adhere to Kohn's pragmatic wisdom. In Maine the skills and goals "with which each student will leave school" according to the Guiding Principles of the Maine Learning Results are that the students have:
 
• the ability to communicate clear and effectively
• the ability to learn under self-direction and throughout their lives
• the ability to solve problems creatively and practically
• the desire to be responsible and involved citizens
• the ability to work collaboratively and to do quality work
• the ability to think independently and the desire to be informed
 
However, Kohn explicitly explains that the primary objective of a teacher should not be simply to get students to comply. Rather he states the teacher must "first maximize the opportunity for students to make choices, to discover and learn for themselves, and second, creating a caring community in the classroom so that students have the opportunity to do things together" (Kohn, 1996, 68). He warns that there are now programs available that allow the students to come up with the very rules that teachers have in mind. Such decision-making, of course, is deceptive, as it does not empower the students to think for themselves, independently, and for the good of the class as a whole. Instead of fostering the principles of a democratic classroom, these programs are created to cause students still to try to please the teacher.
 
Kohn suggests, as the Guiding Principles of the Maine Learning Results imply, that the role of the teacher is to engage the class in discussion about the ways they would like their class to run, and ways in which all class members, including the teacher, feel comfortable. Through a process of discussion, which includes the ability to listen and respond to others, the end result cannot help but be positive.
 
Ideally, students should learn to reach decisions by consensus. After all, decision-making through voting remains a contest among students. There are winners and losers. Naturally, the losers have less commitment to the class than the majority. Therefore, no real sense of community, which includes the ability to appreciate and trust one another, has been accomplished. By helping students to become active participants in their own social and ethical development, the teacher is really putting the Guiding Principles of Maine's Learning Results into practice. Students are learning to discipline themselves rather than be controlled by others.
 
Democratic schools should encourage and empower students to become independent thinkers who are able to listen to and respond with appreciation and understanding to the thoughts and opinions of others. Together, they develop the ability to create an environment that is harmonious. In the following chapter, using my own experience as a classroom teacher, I hope to demonstrate that it is possible to teach a classroom democratically and to enhance the very principles throughout the school upon which our democratic nation was founded.
 
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Click here to read an essay entitled "Against School" by John Taylor Gatto
Click here to read an essay entitled "Against School As Presently Constituted" by Mary Leue