What we must do to stem the rising tide of violence in the classroom

By Lindsay Johns for the Daily Mail

Published: 11:48 GMT, 26 July 2012 | Updated: 12:08 GMT, 26 July 2012

Today’s alarming figures issued by the Department for Education about violence in the classrooms of Britain, namely that last year primary schools expelled nearly 300 pupils aged 11 and under for violence, handed out almost 17,000 suspensions and that on average 90 youngsters are sent home every day for attacking teachers or classmates, make for truly disconcerting reading.

Yet am I surprised by this seemingly exponential increase in physical assault and threatening behaviour amongst primary school youngsters? Sadly, no. Without wishing to sound too much like St. Augustine in his pessimism, my mentoring work with young people in Peckham, together with an awareness of the prevailing cultural zeitgeist, have shown me that kids are unruly by nature and can indeed be vicious.

www.inulpoker.com | Agen Poker Terpercaya | Poker dan Domino Online Indonesia Terpercaya | Poker dan Domino Terbaik |

Breaking the rules: Primary schools were forced to suspend nearly 17,000 pupils last year alone (Posed by models)

Only rigorous discipline, the imposition of clear parameters and the engendering of respect for authority from an early age can help enforce and maintain good behaviour in the classroom. And, it goes without saying, good behaviour in the classroom is of paramount importance in establishing a conducive atmosphere in which to learn (surely the whole point of school). Can honestly expect young people to learn anything at all if lessons are being routinely interrupted by violent pupils attacking classmates and teachers? Of course not.

Contrary to Harvard psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, who in his latest book The Better Angels of Our Nature convincingly argues that violence is currently at an all time low in human history, at the coal face of education in the classroom it seems that quite the opposite is true. Youngsters are sadly getting more, not less, violent.

What’s more, according to these official statistics, the worst deterioration in behaviour is being seen in the most affluent parts of the country. In fact, the number of suspensions has actually increased most sharply in the UK’s wealthiest areas. So it is clearly not just youngsters from the much maligned and cliched one parent families on inner-city “sink estates” who have behavioural issues and who manifest them within the confines of the classroom.

Spoilt, cosseted, middle-class children, it seems, are now just as likely to challenge authority at school as inner-city ones. Pushy, middle-class parents undoubtedly have a lot to answer for. Despite (I presume) their best intentions, they have unwittingly instilled, by dint of a lack of parental discipline and the transmission of warped, egocentric values, a truculent arrogance, an impolite recalcitrance and a sneering knowledge of being able to act with impunity. Thus we are now witnessing a massive rise in the number of over-indulged youngsters who possess a calculating and deeply obnoxious awareness of their rights, together with a blatant disregard for school rules. Shamelessly egocentric, they display an “It’s all about me” attitude, which is injurious to any social fabric, let alone that of the school, where the ethos should be one of community. Daddy and mummy might well be able to order from the Boden catalogue, but they have also spectacularly failed to impart to Tarquin, Lionel and Melissa the right social values.

Unruly behaviour: Some children starting school haven't even been taught basic manners at home, something that must be addressed (posed by models)

The rising tide of inexcusable violence and flagrant indiscipline in primary schools which these statistics lay bare must cause us to reflect on the culture we are bringing our young people up in - and equally the messages we are sending them as parents and adults.

In decades gone by, young people were taught to know their place. They were taught to respect adults and thus acted (for the most part) accordingly. Nowadays, in our meretricious, youth obsessed culture, where vacuous, cretinous adults deem youth per se to be the ultimate panacea, we are so keen to slavishly genuflect before the high altar of youth that we don’t actually bother to teach young people anything or instruct them properly. We think that to kowtow to their every juvenile caprice is to educate and empower them, when in fact, the very opposite is true. And so, with a shameful intellectual and moral cowardice, we willingly abdicate our proper parental and pedagogic responsibility and the duty of care we owe young people, in an effort to placate them. In so doing, we are enslaving them in ignorance. Is it any surprise that an increase in violence ensues?

Equally, is what constitutes young people’s quotidian existence wholesome and edifying, or does their environment contribute in large part to the increasing levels of violence which we are now witnessing in the classroom?

We would be both churlish and foolish to deny that our materialistic, electronic, instant gratification culture – in which reading is deemed boring, and the playing of violent computer games is exalted - must be given a proportion of the blame.

These games, where killing, maiming and brutalizing others are integral to the success of the characters, are in my opinion undoubtedly causing youngsters to become more violent. Despite what trendy educationalists might say about the distinctions between art and life, I believe that playing violent video games leads to a normalization of violence in the youngsters’ heads, which in turn, if not properly dealt with, can lead to increased actual violence.

In addition, obviously, to the lack of positive male role models at home and the crushing absence of hands on fathers, I would also speculate that a lot of the violence we are witnessing has to do with the appalling lack of male primary school teachers. Make no mistake: young boys needs masculine discipline and male authority figures in their lives, in addition to feminine instruction. They need to have firm, lucid parameters set for them, and, once these are crossed, they must be censured and corrected, not exculpated or excused.

In my experience, boys ultimately respect superior physical force. That is not for one moment to denigrate the wonderful job female primary school teachers do, but I do believe a gender balance is needed amongst teachers at this level.

In addition, I would posit that there is a positive correlation between those youngsters engaging in violence and a lack of vocabulary. I am a firm believer that language is power. A paucity of vocabulary in young people, and with it, an inability to express their thoughts and feelings, leads to frustration, which often manifests itself in physical violence. The more words one has at one’s disposal to articulate one’s thoughts coherently and intelligently, the less frustrated one is going to be. Ergo, less violence.

Violent: Teachers now face attacks from primary school pupils, who are regularly excluded for violent and threatening behaviour (posed by model)

It is also certainly true that many parents fail to equip their children with both the requisite social skills to deal with school, and also fail to impart clear expectations of how they as young people should behave when they are there. Recently, psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, who featured in BBC TV’s The House of Tiny Tearaways, warned that parents who are afraid to discipline their children are creating an unruly generation. I would concur, and assert that the rise of the ‘friend-parent’ who tries to be the child’s equal, as opposed to an authority figure, is having a devastating effect on our classrooms.

When mentoring in Peckham, I have no time whatsoever for such a 'friend–parent' approach. I am very clear in my motivation. I am there to help the young people, not to be their friend. Friendship can (and often does) develop afterwards, when they have successfully graduated from a good university with a high 2:1. I am there because I want to help them, empower them and give them the proper tools to succeed in life, not because I want to be their mate.The two are very different, yet many parents confuse the two, and do so at their peril.

I sincerely hope that these statistics act as a timely wake up call for parents across the country. I unequivocally assert that young people need more, not less discipline and the imposition of more, not fewer parameters, both at home and in the classroom, less video games and less indulging, if we are to execute our duty of care correctly and if we are to educate young people into becoming fine, upstanding adults fit to take their place as useful members of society. If we as adults and parents don’t do this, we are recklessly and selfishly sabotaging our children’s future and creating nothing but future trouble, for both them and us.

var rcShoutCache = '{}'; window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({flush:true}); DM.later('bundle', function(){ if (window.ArticlePage) { new ArticlePage(); } });

www.inulpoker.com | Agen Poker Terpercaya | Poker dan Domino Online Indonesia Terpercaya | Poker dan Domino Terbaik |