Americans are worried about violent crime, more so than about any other problem. And of course they are worried about how to solve it. The Clinton administration has set up a task force to find solutions. This is a welcome move. Schools, too, need help in coping with the eruption of violence that threatens to turn them from safe havens into extensions of the street. But schools are also part of the solution to ending the violence afflicting our entire society.
Beginning in kindergarten and continuing all the way through grade 12, school is one of the chief places where youngsters learn about rules and responsibility. Do they learn that obeying rules gains them approval and respect and helps them succeed, whereas disobeying rules brings unpleasantness, punishment and failure? Or do they discover that they can get away with breaking rules-- and, indeed, that if they do it with enough flair, they can become big heroes and leaders of their peer group?
Many of us remember how, in second or third grade, some kid who was trying to show off repeatedly yelled out bad words in class. If the teacher was unsuccessful in getting the kid to shape up, the principal appeared and led him off-- and the kid didn't come back to class that day and maybe for several more. The rest of us didn't know what had happened, but we were sure it wasn't good, and we thought, "Thank God that wasn't me."
A lot of people would say that pulling a kid out of class-- or having his parents come in, which sometimes also happened-- is too stiff a punishment for a little thing like yelling out. But if youngsters don't learn that rules are to be taken seriously for little things, pretty soon you have to deal with much bigger problems, like shouting obscenities or hitting someone, and you have a school in which very little learning can take place.
But rules that are fairly and consistently enforced have another important function: They teach youngsters about taking responsibility for the results of their actions. And when they see that lesson reinforced time after time in school, that experience becomes a permanent part of their character.
Our schools today tolerate a tremendous amount of disruption and disorder. Kids do and say pretty much what they want, without fear of the consequences. In a recent article in the Baltimore Sun (October 22,1993), a teacher reported that a student told her, "I'm going to come back and kill you. You can't do anything to me." There are rules against this kind of thing, but they are not being enforced because some people say that suspension or expulsion will not help the kids who are tossed out. That may be true in some cases. But it does a world of good for the majority of students, who can now enjoy an orderly and learning environment. And it's not just a question of reading and writing. When students see rules enforced, they are learning the habits and sense of responsibility that people need to live together civilly and safely.
What's to be done? First, we should adopt the idea put forth by John Cole, President of the Texas Federation of Teachers, of "zero tolerance" for the violation of rules and regulations that are necessary to carry on learning. Having zero tolerance means that students will find there are consequences for violating rules and that these consequences will increase with increasing numbers of violations and with their seriousness.
If we are to be able to follow through with consequences for seriously disruptive kids, we have to reexamine state regulations and court decisions dealing with suspension, expulsion and placement of students outside of regular classes. In recent years these decisions and regulations have made it difficult or impossible to remove even the most disruptive student from regular classes. We should not put these kids out on the street, but we do need to create special classes or facilities for students who are so violent or disruptive that they prevent others from learning.
We are unwilling to suspend or expel students in this country, or even put them into separate facilities, because we fear violating their rights. But we have to realize that no other country permits a small number of kids to destroy the learning of the majority. No matter what kind of standards and curriculum we set up, if we allow one or two kids to stay in a class where they ruin learning for everyone else, we can forget about achieving world-class educational standards. And if what kids learn in school is that any rule can be broken at any time, we will continue down the road to destroying our civil society.