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VISION | MISSION | INTROSPECTION | LEARNING | GROWTH | JUSTICE | EQUALITY |
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VISION | MISSION | INTROSPECTION | LEARNING | GROWTH | JUSTICE | EQUALITY |
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Imagine if you will a hole in the ground. Take a load of old tires and drop them in, throwing some dirt over it. On top of this, throw on a few dozen bags of garbage and another layer of dirt. Keep adding layers of trash and dirt until the hole is level with the ground. Now cover this once- hole with more dirt, pave it over with a hard shell of asphalt and put a road right through the middle of it. Add to this the friction of the daily grind of countless cars moving down this road.
Now, what do you think happens? Most of the time nothing, it’s just a road after all. But once in a while, the "right" combinations of factors merge together and something entirely different happens, spontaneously. Remember, we have two elements at play here, friction and pressure. When things are under pressure, with no way to normally release it, more and more pressure builds up. Now let us add friction against the hard, external shell. Friction, as we well know, generates heat. The right combination of pressure and heat produces an explosion. On the East Coast, a few years ago, one of these landfills- cum- roads caught fire and, to my understanding, it is still burning.
We can transfer this analogy to a number of settings, sadly these days, too many, and see this explosion occurring. Inside our homes, on our roads, in senior citizen complexes, lately even during funeral processions and on airplanes. It seems we have become a nation of time bombs, each primed to explode in a burst of rage.
If, as Martin Luther King Jr. Said, "Violence is the language of the unheard", then it could be said, perhaps, that rage is the message being communicated. For indeed, that is what these events are, rage based. They are the product of built up feelings of pain, sadness, and especially, anger which had previously been stuffed down and allowed to fester, instead of having been given appropriate avenues with which to release them constructively.
In the eighties, when rage based crimes began to garner attention, and acquire nicknames such as "road rage" and "going postal", it was thought that this was the arena solely of adult society. As Lissa Yogan, assistant professor of sociology at Valparaiso University, has written, schools reflect the society they exist in (2000). We are beginning to realize, too late it seems, that these eruptions are also occurring inside our schools.
That violence has been present in schools should be no surprise. The same popular culture that has been vilified as causing the problem has offered clues to its very existence. In the 1950s, films such as The Blackboard Jungle portrayed the inner-city classroom as an often brutal, violent place. The reality of the classroom and Hollywood’s version differed somewhat. In the film, the teacher is able to wrest control back from the students. Few educators today, I believe, would view the film as anything other than naive and nostalgic.
Even the suburban school environment, with its rigorous caste system, has been pictured as a less than peaceful place. In the 1970’s there was the film Carrie, which starred Sissy Spacek, who was able to wreak supernatural revenge on her abusive classmates. A decade later, the films of director John Huston, such as Pretty in Pink, as well as the Revenge of the Nerds comedy series continued to warn of the situation.
Popular music has offered clues as well. Janis Ian sang of adolescent pain in At Seventeen, and in the mid-1980s, singer/comedienne Julie Brown was even more blatant with the song, The Homecoming Queen’s got a Gun. In it she sang,
... Debbie’s smiling and waving her gun
Picking off cheerleaders one by one
Oh Buffie’s pompom just blew to bits
Oh no, Mitzie’s head just did the splits
God, my best friend’s on a shooting spree
Stop it, Debbie, you’re embarrassing me
How could you do what you just did
Are you having a really bad period?
Everybody Run, the homecoming queen’s got a gun
Everybody Run, the homecoming queen has got a gun
Stop Debbie, you’re making a mess
Powder burns all over your dress
An hour later the cops arrived
By then the entire glee club had died, no big loss
You wouldn’t believe what they brought to stop her
Tear gas, machine guns, even a chopper
"Throw down your gun and tiara and come out of the float"
Debbie didn’t listen to what the cop said
She aimed and fired and now the math teacher’s dead
Oh it’s really sad but kind of a relief
I mean, we had this big test coming up next week
Everybody Run, the homecoming queen’s got a gun
Everybody Run, the homecoming queen has got a gun...
The irony of Brown’s song is that, at the time it was written, violence in schools was still believed to be the product of inner-city (i.e., black) youth gangs. No one dreamed that predominately white, rural and suburban, schools would ever be the scene of any major violence, at least not on the level of homicide. The second irony is that, although as yet no white schoolgirl has killed a fellow student (there were at least two uncovered "plots", that I recall, reported in the media), this is expected to change. At a recent weekend conference on this topic, several participants repeatedly warned that we’d be hearing about it in the next few years.
The Littleton shooting brought the tragedy into our homes, largely because of the live television coverage. Yet, even as far back as the shootings in Fayetteville and West Paducah, people, especially those in the media, began to demonize individual aspects of our society as being the primary "cause". It seems that, for every issue brought up, the media has drummed up at least one so-called "expert", with a book to promote, for each side of it. School violence, it seems, has created it’s own growth industry.
The list of causes is huge, and often contradictory- violence in the media, computer games, guns in the homes, lack of guns in the classrooms (i.e., armed teachers), gangs, drugs, Marilyn Manson’s music, Adolph Hitler, lack of prayer in schools, too many children on Ritalin or other psychotropic drugs, not enough children on ritalin or other psychotropic drugs, ad nauseum.
I believe that even this short list proves that violence in our schools is a problem far too complex for any single solution. In fact, it appears that many of the solutions offered, such as increased security measures in the school, are at best, a "quick fix" Band-Aid covering a deep cancer, or at worst, a further contribution to the problem. Far from slapping on a simple bandage, truly ending school violence, or violence in general, requires us to remove the layers of rhetoric that blinds us from the discovering the deep seated roots of the problem, and discerning whatever holistic measures are required.
As complex as the problem is, the solution must be equally as sophisticated, and therefore may require shifts in our very society. These shifts could not happen overnight, and therefore may require several generations before we see truly safe schools. In order to begin to divine the nature of the solution, I believe we must re-examine our definition of the problem. Stuart Henry (2000) has cited the need for a more expansive view of school violence. His new definition states that school violence is
The exercise of power over others in school-related settings, by some individual, agency, or social process, that denies those subject to it their humanity to make a difference, either by reducing them from what they are or by limiting them from becoming what they might be.
He further delineates five levels of school violence based on where the "antagonist" fits within the social structure. At level-1, the student is the perpetrator, against fellow students, teachers, or school itself. Level-2 we have power exerted from teacher onto student; administrator on students, teachers, or parent; parent on teacher, student, or administrator. Level-3 includes violence at the level of schoolboard on school or parent; school district on school or parent; community on school or parent, local political decisions on school and parent. At level-4 we have state and national educational policy on school; state and national juvenile justice policy on student; media and popular culture on student and administrator; corporate exploitation on student and national and state policies on guns and drugs.
Level-5 violence is harder to grasp for they constitute some of the very cultural "myths" or practices that currently underlie our society. This could include the drive to acquire individual material wealth and consumerism over the quest for personal or societal improvement. I believe that Henry has provided us with, not only an excellent definition of violence in schools, but in the larger society itself.
What happens then, to a society, or an individual, that receives multiple "expressions of power", no matter how small the act, launched at them from many different levels? If we return to the analogy of the garbage dump, we can say that each act of violence is a bag of garbage tossed into a hole. The hole in the ground could be said to represent what psychotherapist Carl Jung dubbed, in his 1917 essay "On the Psychology of the Unconscious", the shadow. He defines it as comprising "the ‘negative’ side of the personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, together with the insufficiently developed functions and the content of the personal unconscious" (qt. in Zweig and Abrams, eds. 3).
In other words, the shadow is what lies beneath the "mask" that we present to the world. It is what I call our "inner-identity", the secret picture that we hold of ourselves. This image is made up of several things, including for the sake of this discussion, any thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors that we have ever held, that we or society, has deemed unacceptable, as well as, a catalogue of perceived "wounds" received since infancy.
The mask, or as Jung described, the persona is the road surface previously mentioned. It is the face we present to other people, it is also the "armor" that all the pressures of the word rubs against.
When an "exercise of power" occurs, it brushes against the victim’s persona, and an emotion is generated. In our society, we have been conditioned to view only certain emotions, or certain behaviors as acceptable- a teenage boy, for example, is slighted by a teacher. His feelings are hurt, and perhaps inside he feels like crying, something he or his peers believe is "unmanly". Or he feels that the comment was unjustified and would like to respond that it was unfair, yet knows that to resist a teacher is a "lost cause". Instead of reacting the way he would like to, the young man remains stoic and "swallows" the violence. He has just tossed another bag of trash into his shadow. Inside, the conflicting emotions he is feeling combines with other messages from the list of perceived injustices and begins to fester and churn, building up more pressure, and anger. Angers left to build up to an explosive level becomes rage.
Additionally, we have come to believe that some emotions are "good", while others, such as anger are perceived as "bad". Often, when someone feels angry they may believe that they are themselves "bad" for feeling that way. The emotion gets stuffed into the shadow where it rattles around with the ensuing feelings of guilt.
Bill DeFore, PH.D., states that there are no "bad" emotions, they are all valid and important to a healthy mental state. There are, however, inappropriate ways, such as through violent acts, to express them. Additionally, he writes that emotions are like vegetables, best served fresh. "Buried feelings, like buried vegetables, don’t just lie there. They get hot and generate energy, which has to come out one way or another" (1991).
What becomes necessary is to discover how to express, vent, or release all emotions, while still relatively fresh, in such ways that will bring no harm to anyone, including the person expressing the emotions. School therefore, should be a place where emotional "mastery" should be taught along with academic competency.
There are ways in which these skills can be "taught", and people who can teach them. Most of the time, these people have no academic or professional "licenses". They do it, for no pay, because acquiring and using these skills quite literally saved their life.
Groups such as Alcoholic’s Anonymous, women’s "goddess" and men’s "mythopoetic", Dale Carnegie and in retreats such as "Taking it Lightly", "the Bamboo Bridge" for combat veterans, "The Mankind Project" and my own "Man Alive" all stress learning better, healthier ways to feel and express emotions, especially anger. These organizations see the power in the formation of small groups which meet on a regular basis to support each other, through hard times and easy times.
These groups usually meet once a week, they either rotate "leadership" amongst it’s members or employ a skilled facilitator to "move the meeting along" and make sure each person receives what they need for that particular gathering. Most of these groups have the participants sit in a circle and employ some form of a "talking stick". The talking stick is a Native American concept and it is usually some small object that signifies that only the person holding it may speak. This is done to avoid interruption while the person is speaking.
Usually the speaker is guided to speak his own "truth" and helped by the facilitators to talk about their feelings. For example, the person may say, "I felt really angry at work today when my boss told me I couldn’t leave early." Additionally, the participants may, over time, be taught to use a powerful communication tool known as Imago, a system of active listening, mirroring back , and then validation of what was heard. This process was created by relationship therapist Harville Hendrix and first introduced in Getting the Love You Want A guide for Couples. This form of communication is so well thought of that it is now being taught to ministers, doctors, and therapists as a way of improving their listening skills.
There are also groups that deal solely with learning how to express anger in a healthy way. In the Detroit area there is the Windsor Men’s Tuesday Anger Group and the Women’s Wednesday Anger Group, put on by the Windsor Family Forum, a non-profit organization created by Dan Cahill and Bob McGuire. Most of the work done on a weekly basis is verbal, the participants will meet for 2-3 hours, with each man or woman talking about what has happened in the last few days, and how they felt about it. After the participant has had a chance to speak, the facilitator will usually offer some insight, or encourage the person to perhaps look at things differently. Then the fellow group members may have an opportunity to offer support or feedback.
Every six months or so, Dan and Bob offer a daylong "body workshop" in which people who feel the need can have a safe venue to "let go of some steam", to physically reduce their shadow. This may involve striking a pillow with a tennis racket, or tearing up a phone book while fellow participants are shouting encouragement.
I participated in this organization for about a year. I found there to be quite an interesting mix of people, from all different socio-economic levels. Most, like me, came voluntarily, although a few were there as part of legal sentence, such as for assault, or domestic violence.
Most of these organizations stress "giving back" to the community, or some form of service. This includes sharing what they have learned with others and helping those in need. After the shootings in Littleton Colorado, I wrote an article for a local men’s newsletter. The Article was passed on to other groups via the Internet. In it I discussed how these "self-help" groups contain what needs to be taught in our nation’s schools. I received responses from around the country, even Littleton itself. Most of the respondents, both men and women from these organizations, asked what they could do to help.
I suggested that they begin to approach their neighborhood schools and offer to help out a few hours a week. I further suggested that they set up a program, even as simple as a "listening circle", and offer it to the school free of charge. Unfortunately, most reported back to me that they were met with suspicion and rejection from the school leadership. It is sad to note that a school district would rather spend large sums of money on metal detectors and armed security, which only contributes further to the problem, than open their doors to free programs. Programs which could actually lessen the situation.
If I "ruled the world", or at least had the power to influence education, and had a large group of committed adults to draw from, I would incorporate the following three measures to the school environment;
1. I would extend the school "day" until 6 PM, not with classroom activities, but with fun community sponsored events. These would include citywide service programs, after-school sports, special interest clubs, internship/ co-ops with local businesses, and opportunities for older kids to mentor the young. All students would be required to participate, and would receive service points towards eventual graduation.
Students would have the opportunity to experience different activities over time. The main reason for this after-school initiative would be to keep young people occupied and engaged in interesting activities during the time period when most youth crime occurs. Additionally, this would ideally free up parental resources which would have been spent in after-school daycare and latchkey programs.
2. Beginning at about the 4th or 5th grade, students would be organized into small cross-clique, cross-gender, cross-academic standing, mixed gay and straight, and cross-ethnic "support groups", which would ideally change every two years. There would be between eight and ten members in each group. These groups would be responsible for making sure each member passes academically, doesn’t drop out, stays sober, and supports each other through the challenges of life. One period of the day, "homeroom", would be the time that the group would come together as a whole to talk and support each other.
In the beginning of the school year, facilitators from the community would lead "team building" activities, such as ropes courses and group games. These activities would help the groups bond together and learn to rely on each other in various situations. These groups would use the circle/talking stick during their gatherings. Additionally, other group leaders would model and teach skills such as Imago communication, conflict resolution, and "anger work".
On at least a weekly basis, a regular group of adults would sit in the circle with these kids, listening and offering support and advice. The adults should be open to talking about anything the students want, yet would try to emphasize intrinsic values over material acquisition, and other important beliefs. The adults would also be trained in active listening, and communicating their own feelings effectively.
On a regular basis, these small groups would compete against other groups at that grade level. Ideally these competition should be a mix of athletic and non-athletic events. Some of the events should be academic in nature, while others would be more "service" oriented, such as raising money for a charity, or competing to see which group could pick up the most litter. At other times the school as a whole would come together in non-competitive and fun ways, this way the groups would be prevented from becoming too "gang-like" and enter into conflicts with each other.
3. On a regular basis same-gender groups would come together, youth with adults. This way, males and females can comfortably explore and ask questions about issues like sex and dating, without embarrassment. At other times the facilitators should be of the opposite gender, so the kids can have the opportunity to learn from adults how to be good partners, friends, etc.
In 1897, American philosopher and educator John Dewey wrote, in his essay entitled "My Pedagogic Creed", of his belief that "the School is primarily a social institution... education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living... (it) is the fundamental method of social progress and reform... all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race... it is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness..."(Seldes, ed. 1985). Schools therefore, should not simply reflect society, for they have the unique opportunity to, over generations, shape it.
Additionally, as Dewey stated, the individual must participate in the process of education. I believe he speaks here of each of us, child, and especially adult, coming together to create a new, peaceful, consciousness. It seems a daunting task for the individual, to shape society, especially in light the pressures required in day to day economic survival. Yet, here is where the true power lies, in the linking together of individuals in a collective act.
Allow me to illustrate this. Let us say that five hundred dollars will buy enough wheat to sustain a starving African village for a year. Few individuals have the financial means to provide that amount on their own. So therefore, ending hunger may seem an impossible task. Yet collectively, the workers in the average medium-sized office building could purchase the wheat, at the minimal expense of one dollar per person.
So too could we be of service in schools, for a minimum output in time, as little perhaps as two or three hours a week. If everybody "donated" such a small amount of time, the schools would be flooded with so many adults that no student could possibly go unreached, and un-taught. Nor would it take any special skills, save for the ability to listen attentively to the voice of a child and to let them know what it is like to have an adult care. Teacher would still teach, the rest of us would be available simply to mentor and support, and perhaps to implement some of the programs that I have suggested.
I believe that we need to explore what I have suggested-to take the notion of sitting in a circle with young people and give them the chance to hear and be heard. To take what we've gotten, from men's and women’s groups, and from AA, and apply it to connecting with these kids on a deep, heart level.
We also need to bring with us the skills that we've learned in anger and grief groups to these circles, to facilitate safe containers for these emotions. We need to model conflict resolution, and reconciliation.
This paper is doesn’t have all the answers. Far from an exhaustive plan for re-shaping education, it is but a tiny piece of a larger puzzle. My only wish is that the ideas I’ve put forth, if they have merit, be combined with other ideas in order for schools to become what they should be, a safe haven in which to learn.
After the Oklahoma bombing, Reverend Guy Lynch, then Senior Minister of the Church of Today, in Warren, Michigan said, "Empowered people don't need guns and bombs in order to be heard." I sincerely believe, that in order to stem the tide of violence in our schools, and in society as a whole, we need to start listening, and start empowering.
Notes and References
The landfill metaphor comes from the opening remarks in a workshop I facilitated, entitled, From Caterpillar to Butterfly: Gifts of the Shadow. It was originally presented to the Detroit Men’s Wisdom Council in 1997.
Defore, Bill. Anger: Deal With It, Heal With It, Stop It From Killing You. Deerfield Beach: Health Communications, 1991.
Henry, Stuart. "What is School Violence? An Integrated Definition." School Violence: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. ed. William Hinkle and Stuart Henry. 2000. 25-26.
Seldes, George S., ed. Great Thoughts. New York: Ballantine, 1985: 105.
Yogan, Lissa. "School Tracking and Student Violence." School Violence: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. ed. William Hinkle and Stuart Henry. 2000. 120.
Zweig, Connie and Jeremiah Abrams, eds. Introduction. Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature. New York: Tarcher, 1991: 3.
©2001
©2000 by the author. Feel free to copy or distribute any or all portions of this article. Any distribution of said article MUST include Author's name and contact information.
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Michael F. Copado, besides facilitating various men's events Last year, he wrote an article called MANDANCE in response to the tragic events at Littleton, CO. Michael is currently in his second year of Ministerial School. The events at Littleton pushed him to change careers to a field where he could help young people, and others who are crying for attention. Michael also explores school violence as the erupting of what Carl Jung described as the human shadow. Related Articles Sticks and Stones by Gordon Clay
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Shadows Erupting; Rage and Violence in the Educational System
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