A Sense of CrisisAround the world, governments see violence in schools as a growing proble
A Sense of Crisis
Around the world, governments see violence in schools as a growing problem.
The subject is on the agenda at a meeting of G8 education ministers in Japan in April, according to the European Commission, which is coordinating efforts by member governments of the European Union to deal with the issue. UNESCO, the United Nations' educational body in Paris, is preparing an action plan. And the U. S. administration is turning schools into hightech fortresses(堡垒) in its determination to defeat the problem.
Many educators, however, my governments are missing the point, which Kisa Savolainen of unesco says is that violence "is a problem of society reflected in the schools," and that schools are ill equipped to deal with the problem on their own.
Mrs. Savolainen, director of UNESCO's department for culture and peace, wondered how the situation would improve so long as some governments spend more money on prisons than schools, while domestic violence remains a daily reality for many children, or while teachers in somewhere continue to subject children to corporal punishment (体罚).
Nor does the American technological response do anything more than treat the symptoms, she said. It reinforces the idea in children's mind that "the whole structure of society is based on violence."
Karen Colvard, senior program officer with the Harry F. Guggenheim Foundation, which studies violence in societies, said that the security introduced in innercity high schools in New York and elsewhere played more to public misinformation that the worm is meaner than it actually is. She said the real issue was the poor quality of education in those schools.
"The Board of education should have other priorities," she said. "It should be paying more attention to educational issues, which will have a bigger impact in the long run."
While violence clearly is an obstacle to education, a response wholly based on security considerations creates an environment that is not conductive to learning, according to an educator in New York, Peter Lewis. In a study for the American Anthropological Association, he described the oppressive atmosphere of a typical innercity school: the crackle of guards' walkietalkies, the constant sirens and alarms, flashing strobe lights, beeps from metal detectors and the constant yelling of violent words derived from rap songs.
Nevertheless, following the killings at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and other shootings last year, authorities in the United States are spending millions of dollars on alarm and video systems, metal detectors, physical barriers and uniformed guards—money that many educators say would have been better spent on teachers, books and better buildings.
Some educators also advocate counseling and tutoring programs, or childcare programs to prevent young students from being left on their own for hours.
Francois Marchand, president of a French institute for research into nonviolent resolution of conflict, recommends that children should be encouraged to understand aggressive instincts through role playing, which American educators call "peer mediation (调解)." The children "have to be caught young," Mr. Marchand said. "By the time they get to high school, it becomes not impossible, but a lot more difficult."
But there is considerable debate about the value of such conflict resolution programs. Some teachers believe they help institutionalize violence and are yet another distraction from the main business of teaching.
Governments do not .seem to know how to deal with the crisis, which affects both rich countries and poor. If there is conflict or violence in society, it will inevitably be reflected in the schools.
Mrs. Savolainen said there is some promise in a multipronged (多方面的) approach in th
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C．NG
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