I believe that children are already members of society by the time they reach school. They are the vulnerable, disadvantaged parts of society. When it comes to school violence, I think sometimes teachers do overlook it. This is not done intentionally, but sometimes the signs are not always there or we miss them. It's difficult to see the signs when you have a class of 25, and there is only one of you. But is the teacher the only factor in a child's life? No, but I agree that we as educators are a huge part. I also feel it is important to think of all the components that factor into a child's life. School is not the only factor. We must remember that by the time a child starts school he/she has already been around for five to six years. How was that child raised prior to coming to school? What are the morals/values that take place in his/her household? Does the guardians of that child display violent acts?
I do believe that teachers play a role when it comes to school violence. As a teacher, we try to teach our students to become good citizens. We show them how important it is to take responsibility for your actions, use manners, use your words when you're upset, etc. We try to do this using indirect ways though; our daily rules, completing assignments, etc.
I think it is important that educators find the time to sit down with their students and talk about bullying and school violence. Teachers tend to get caught up in grading, lesson plans and tests that they tend to forget about issues like violence and bullying. I feel its important we explain that school is a community. In order for our community to be effective we must work as a team. This only can go so far though. If our students are learning differently at home, we can only hope they rise above their home life.
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I totally agree. It goes back to what Amy said about teaching character education in the school setting. It can only benefit kids if we keep encouraging good values and life lessons. Sometimes it's hard to fit everything in though. It's so easy to say take time to go over these ideas and concepts with your students but when it comes time to fitting it in the day with everything else we are mandated to do, it becomes so hard! But we must try to stick to it especially if it can make for a brighter future for our kids.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you as well. Your comments were very close to what I mention in my reflection. We cannot assume what is going on outside of our schools but we can try to make a difference inside our schools. I know at my school we have the attitude that we can make a difference. We have a character program that is a set part of our curriculum. We also have a separate bullying program that we discuss often. maybe we do need to discuss more about some real life lessons and not so much of the same old curriculum work etc. The article Early Warning Timely Response makes mention that "school communities that encourage staff, families, and students to raise concerns about observed warning signs and that have in place a process for getting help to troubled children once they are identified-are more likely to have effective schoools with reduced disruptions, bullying, fighting, and other forms of agression". This quote should make all of us think. Do your schools have a plan when you discover a troubled child? Do you have a plan in your own classroom? Have you thought about how you can talk to all of your students about warning signs that a student is in trouble? Perhaps a teacher looking out for these trouble signs and or a student approaching another student could save someone from an act of violence in our schools. Maybe this is why some schools are failing with school violence..are we doing enough...are we paying attention?
ReplyDeleteI do agree with the previous two bloggers that there is a need for an improved education on values and morals in the schools. Yes, our schools do offer a variety of character education for the students. Character Education that is meant to teach our students values and morals but let’s be realistic how deep is the education actually going. Especially when our students that learn character education during the day are going home to some of the worst role models possible their parents. I feel as though we can pound values and morals and talking out your emotions as much as we want to these students but when there is no discipline or reinforcement at home we are beating a dead horse. In the article Why Johnny Can’t Tell right from wrong: the most important lesson our schools don’t teach – values, in Maryland at workshops, “they were asking students how can we help them better withstand the antisocial pressures that buffet them?” One student responds, “That their parents have dinner with them more often.” If students are asking to just have dinner more often with their parents, how can we ever reach them? I believe one solution can be done much like most college atmospheres. My first day on campus, I had to attend a play/meeting on appropriate behavior in a school setting, issues on drugs and alcohol and rape. Right off the bat we are taught what is expected of our behavior and the consequences that could happen if something like this did occur. I feel that each year before school starts, the parents should have to attend an opening day presentation like this on school violence, bullying, values and morals. If their eyes are opened a little on what could be happening in their Childs life and how to look for signs it can help us a great deal at school. We are the educators but they are the parents and I believe it takes both sides to work together to improve our students behavior. If we don’t start working together we will stay in the rut that our society is currently in.
ReplyDeleteTeachers are definately a huge influence in a child's life. Values and morales are hard to teach in school though because once child leave the school community the go home where every child has different parents and different experiences. We have already talked about character education and how it should be taught in school but we as teachers know that it is hard to tell 25 children they should all act a certain way when their role models at home could have no morales or values what so ever. School violence ties into character education completely because if children don't know they are doing something wrong they are not going to change their behavior. Brian did a great job showing all of us how bullying can occur in school and how the onlookers are just as to blame as the bully themselves. It really opened my eyes with how much Brian showed us on Monday. I also think it is very important to use programs in the schools to open the kids' eyes such as the program Steff was talking about. I also think parents should have to attend the program so the community can all be on the same page and teaching the kids the same things. Once the parents learn about bullying and how media affects children ages 3-7 I think the students will be able to really think about what they are doing more so bullying can stop in schools. Bullying is something that needs to be addressed a whole lot more than what it is now.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad everyone is highlighting the correlation between violence and character education. (Brian would be proud!) A lot of the "old" issues we discussed re: character ed are resurfacing: the time factor, the effectiveness of some of the "boxed" programs... Amanda said, "maybe we do need to discuss more about some real life lessons and not so much of the same old curriculum work etc." But like Mandie (and others) have said, where do we find the time for these discussions? I think the reinforcement comes from it being an authentic part of their school life--and not just in the naturally occurring social interactions, but also when it is "naturally-occurring" throughout our curriculum as well. (Instead of, as you say, Amanda, "the same old curriculum work.")
ReplyDeleteHey everyone! Great to finally be on here! The blogs are great. I really think we have to find a way to educate the parents! I know our job is to educate the kids--but I love the idea of having a "Town Hall" type meeting maybe the week before school starts to give a presentation similar to the one I gave--where we outline exactly what bullying is and we lay out our discipline plan. Talking about and educating our parents and kids about bullying and media presented violence as entertainment would hopefully "open their eyes" and impact them the way it did some of you.
ReplyDeleteKids also need trained on how to report bullying and what they can do to help.