Unruly Students Need Hammering

Unruly Students Need Hammering

Nearing the end of a school day, a young student heads down to the auditorium of her middle school for a pep rally that had been coordinated to motivate young minds for the upcoming school wide examinations. As she strolled down the halls of the crowded building, she witnessed a number of dilemmas that prevented her from reaching the auditorium sooner. Two students ran vigorously down the hallway, pushing other students who were their way and swearing at teachers who yelled for them to stop. Several fights had broken out between some students that had accidentally bumped into one another. The young student overheard a conversation between a teacher and another student about getting together for a girls' night out. And as she walked through the double doors of the auditorium, she glimpsed at the stage to see a fellow classmate sing a song for his girlfriend standing beside him and crying for joy. The teachers and other staff members admired the voice of the young student and the lyrics that he sang; yet, no one seemed to consider the simple fact that the two onstage were only thirteen years of age, but enjoyed the type of relationship that older individuals would normally share. The everyday witnessing of rowdy students, fraternization, and overall school violence became a regular sight like any other in the sense that such problems were simply ignored or approached inadequately.

The story demonstrates several of the many outcomes of modern-day school systems that do not a balanced curriculum and discipline structure to provide an adequate learning and teaching environment for both students and school administration. Illicit sex, drugs, alcoholism, and violence are all issues that schools continually imply are wrong but have no solid applications against; thus, welcoming many students into becoming careless, violent, and unfit for their own futures. Statistics show that violence has become more of a problem today than ever due to a nationwide increase in troubled households and disorderly children (Hymowitz, 2000). The Board of Education began approaching this problem with the use of surveillance cameras and security guards (Lyon, 2003). Yet, the problem continues to grow on account of corrupt staff, lack of parent participation in school gatherings, and an overall weak disciplinary law passed by a majority of the United States that schools are no longer allowed to use corporal punishment.

It is time that America stops following the decrepit educational principles that allow young Americans to turn to deviance. The youth should be given a learning environment that focuses not only on the arts of a traditional education, but the common sense and discipline necessary to fulfill their ambitions of being well-rounded citizens ready to take on a real world that smacks them dead in the face every time

they walk out of the front doors of their schools. Increased discipline shall improve the quality of safety and enrich America's schools with an essential learning climate needed to prepare each and every student for the critical reality known as life.

In an effort to decrease the amount of violence that schools experience, administrators have turned to surveillance and security guards (Hymowitz, 2000). The educational approach to surveillance is to make everyone who attends school follow the traditional procedures of everyday teaching and learning without the dangers of prohibited behavior (Siegel & Senna, 2006). The use of cameras causing a decrease in illegal activity in urban schools is proof that surveillance techniques are not completely without merit (Siegel and Senna, 2006). However, such a technique carries several drawbacks. One major problem is the cost to install and keep security equipment; while another is the substantial amount of financing required to upgrade and maintain it. The question of cost-effectiveness also comes into mind on the account that different schools experience different problems.

Surveillance may decrease some level of violence in schools, but it is simply not enough. To significantly increase the level of safety in schools and maintain that level, surveillance must be partnered with another tactic to form an even stronger bond against violence; and the key factor is discipline. For instance, one issue of school surveillance is misuse of the surveillance for profiling individuals (Lyon, 2003). This condition reflects the notion that usage rules are unclear and not enforced regularly. Weak administration heavily affects good surveillance as those responsible for the equipment are not being monitored themselves. Hence, there is a disregard for corrupt authority which can and will influence an even deeper level of misconduct not only in students but administrators, as well.

To avoid the possible misuse of surveillance, guidelines have to be set for the teachers and administrative staff that simply ignore or are not familiar with the procedures for using surveillance (Lyon, 2003). Both the rules and consequences of breaking them should be clearly specified and passed on to staff and security. Once these rules have been applied, they should be restated through meetings or by any means necessary to remain solid among school administration and uphold the promises of effective surveillance in that staff members will keep in mind that they too have to monitor their own actions in addition to the actions of students. Furthermore, having effective surveillance relieves some of the effort put into financing expensive security on the account that schools would know that funding is not being wasted, but rather thoroughly being used to approach misconduct in which the product is a decrease in violence factored by the trustworthy individuals who do their jobs of productive monitoring.

Another dilemma that increases the lenience of school codes and welcomes violence and degrading behavior is the lack of parent participation in school meetings and assemblies. Parents need to become involved with the schools simply because their thoughts count more than anything in a way that they have a stronger ability to develop a close relationship with their children than the school alone. If parents were to participate in school events and programs that benefit the welfare of schools, they can communicate to their children the value of an education and the guidance needed to uphold educational standards (Cziczo, 2004). The idea of more discipline, for example, cannot be achieved without the approval of parents. It is highly important that parents collaborate with the school system in order to discuss reasons why discipline should be increased and form an ideal school environment for all who attend because parents are key players in making decisions that would benefit their children's education (Cziczo, 2004).

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