Transcript 4 Solutions to School Violence

THE NATURAL
SYSTEMS
INSTITUTE
Dr. Ed Young
Solutions to the School Violence Problem
The Columbine Tragedy
As a Metaphor for the American Tragedy:
Addressing the Clash of Cultural Traditions and
Finding Ways to Combat the Negative Effects
They Are Beginning to Have on Our Youth.
A STRUCTURAL-SYSTEMS APPROACH
By Ed Young, Ph.D.
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LEVELS OF ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM AND
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS RELATED TO EACH LEVEL
I. Understanding the Dynamics of the Individuals
II. Understanding the Incident in Terms of Its Immediate Context
III. Understanding the System - Individual Gestalt in Its Historical Context
IV. Providing Programs Addressing the Violence Issue on All Three Levels
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I. Understanding the Dynamics of the Individuals
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Two Extremes in Early Childhood Experiences And
Their Role in Shaping Divergent Violent Life Styles
• TYPE I. Minimal supervision, below subsistence, neglect
and abuse, chaotic mass of human contact, opportunities
for trouble making, few avenues for constructive
achievement, absence of recognition and reward, few
status indicators, disenfranchised.
• TYPE II. Moderate supervision, above subsistence,
material indulgence independent of behavior
[entitlement], emotional abandonment, relative isolation,
multiple avenues for constructive achievement, high
demand for attainment, minimal recognition and reward.
Derived, privileged status and assumed social
prerogatives.
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TYPE I. The Effect of Social - Emotional Abandonment on a Child As They
Grow Into Their Adolescent Years in High Density Inner City Neighborhoods
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Minimal supervision > high possibility of learning harmful, destructive behavior goes
without consequences and developing a sense of territorially within their roaming
perimeters.
Opportunities for trouble making > learning negative behavioral repertoires.
Neglect and abuse > feeling of being un-cared for and being the target of harm and
hate is condoned.
Below subsistence > feeling they deserve to have to go without basic necessities.
Superficial human contacts > no one matters to any one.
Minimal bonding with parenting adults > no possibility of developing empathy and
identification with anyone.
Few avenues for constructive achievement > lack of opportunity to learn positive
behavioral repertoires.
Absence of recognition and reward > learning to devalue efforts toward constructive
goals and to feel they are not perceive others and society and develop a stance that
others and society are simply non-existent.
Few status indicators > learning that they do not have a place, do not belong in or to
society at large.
Disenfranchised > learning their voice will not be heard and they have no stake in or
responsibility to society.
• The Dys-functionality and lack of socialization is immediately
obvious through the youths’ impulsivity and lack of
discipline.
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TYPE II. The Effect of Parental Inconsistent Involvement on a Child As They
Grow Into Their Adolescent Years in Low Density Suburban Neighborhoods
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Moderate supervision > learning that opportunistic behavior, learning when and how to
not get caught.
Above subsistence > learning the environment is benevolent.
Material indulgence independent of behavior > learning a sense of entitlement,
responsible behavior does not matter.
High demand for attainment > learning one counts, not as a person, but only in terms
of being a means to increasing parents’ own pride and standing among other adults,
learning love is conditional.
Emotional abandonment > learning their feelings are unimportant, they are not cared
for, and learning to not care for others.
Derived, privileged status > learning to assume social prerogatives over and immunity
from limits and controls administered by authorities within the establishment.
Relative isolation > not learning a sense of ownership of the territory and institutions
of the community and developing unlimited territoriality in the mind..
Multiple avenues for constructive achievement > developing a sense of possibility for
one’s future while lack of actual achievement results in a sense of personal deficiency.
Minimal and inconsistent recognition and reward > developing a sense of unfairness
and injustice, developing resentment, fantasies of grand attainments, suspecting
others of jealousy, and developing a sense of futility and resentment.
• The Dys-functionality and lack of socialization is not obvious. These
youths present an appearance of conformity and normal progress since
their public persona conforms while their inner world is alienated and
angry toward themselves and the world.
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From Childhood Through Late Teens There Is a Progression in Giving Over
the Power of Decision Making with Respect to a Wide Range of Life Choices
•
•
The Parents typically determine life choices for their child and gradually turn decision making
over to their child.
The School personnel determine life choices for the child while they are in school. They, too,
gradually turn decision making over to the child.
Degrees
of Choice
With
of Freedom
Vary
Families
Patterns in relinquishing
control influence degrees
of developmental maturity
with respect to the process
of decision making
The interaction of acquisition
of freedom of choice with the
development of maturity of
judgment influences the type
and degree of rebellion,
depression and rage,
suggestibility, and law
violation.
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Difficulties in Teen Years Are Often Related to the Pattern of
Turning Decision Making Over to the Teen
• Families vary in their patterns of turning decision making over to their children with age.
Solution to this problem is to provide formal programs wherein students can assist one another to
learn to identify problem situations, acquire skills in resolving such problems, confront actual
situations, develop a knowledge of consequences and an understanding of how to use good
judgment in life choices.
Infant > EarlyChildhood> MiddleChildhood> PreTeen> EarlyTeen> MiddleTeen> LateTeen> YoungAdult
Free
5
5 Some begin by giving wide
range of freedom, then become
strict in
5 teen years only 2
relinquishing control when the
child reaches late adolescence
and then only with intense
conflict of wills.
6 Some attempt to maintain strict control forever.
Strict
2 Some are very strict till child leaves home, then relinquish control.
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Determinants of Parental Choice With Respect to Patterns of
Timing and Degree of Granting Children of Freedom of Choice.
•Parental patterns of freedom of choice with respect to the
timing and degree of granting their children freedom is largely
determined by:
–Modeling of their own parents,
–Reaction against their own parents,
–Paradoxical attempts at reaction against yet with underlying
modeling.
–Paradoxical attempts at modeling yet with underlying reaction
against.
•Timing is influenced by unusual difficulties at selected periods
of growing up.
•Their children, on the other hand, are influenced by the patterns
of families in which there is a maximum degree of freedom.
•Inconsistency between these freedom granting patterns and
school policies and patterns often generate conflict with either
or both students and parents.
•This problem can be overcome with School programs that
teach knowledge of consequences and maturity of judgment.
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Family Conditions in Which Youths Grow Up
Characteristics Felonies Substance Physical- Un-educated
ImTypes of Families
Abuse
Emotional
poverished
Abuse
Intact
Single
Remarried
Other:
Grand Parents,
Foster, etc.
•
Implications for the conditions under which youths grow up.
– The majority of youths today grow up in homes characterized by one or more of the types of families
listed in the left column which have one or more of the characteristics listed in the top row the above
table.
– Growing up in one of these combinations is a sure breeding ground for mental, emotional, social,
educational, and behavioral problems.
– Growing up in intact families with none of these characteristics does not guarantee that the parents are
blessed with good parenting skills and their children are free from such problems.
– Given the current evolved structure of our society, communities, and economic and public institutions,
almost guarantees an inauspicious upbringing.
•
The conclusion is that to continue to preach reliance on the American family to be the provider
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of values education and instruction in citizenship is simply futile and counterproductive.
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The Parent - Teacher - Youth Triad: A Generational Cycle
Teacher
Parent
Teacher-Parent
interaction
Teacher
Student
Parent has unconscious memory of their experience with teachers
and school.
They project those forgotten memories of teachers and feelings
toward them onto their child’s teachers.
They live out these old feelings, e.g. resentment over imagined or
real unfair treatment, with their child’s teacher and as an adult can
even the score.
Unwittingly, they impose their unconscious feelings toward teachers
and school on the child.
They also inject their unfinished business with their education and
school into their relation with their child with respect to the child’s
educational career.
As a result, we can not expect many, perhaps most, parents to be
good models or coaches for their child’s education. In fact, in some
cases they may foist onto the child a need to be an adversary of the
school and teachers. Then they may even take the child’s side
against school corrective or disciplinary action.
Their
Child as
Student
Parent
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Futility of Preaching Parental Responsibility
for Values Education and Accountability for Youths’ Behavior
• Putting the conditions under which the child grows up in its family
and contemporary society along side the negative generational
cycle, it does not seem reasonable to expect that parents today
can, in a wholesale fashion, be relied upon to assume
responsibility for values education and for accountability for their
child’s behavior.
• If this is the case, then we must look for other programs to fulfill
this function.
• Adequate programs should assess the kinds of difficult challenges
our youth are facing and tailor specific programs to address as
many of these challenges as possible.
• This means a re-thinking of our traditional ways of raising our
youth.
• Effective programs will not be piece-meal, but rather will be
developed as a system in which all participate in the manner in
which they can be the most effective.
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II. Understanding ‘the Incident’
in Terms of Its Immediate Context
of Teen Violence
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Parental, System, and Peer Enforced
Self-Betrayal: Their Effects on a Teen.
• Parents, institutional personnel, and peers demand
conformity to their wishes at the risk of rejection and
harm for lack of conformity.
• The teens feel they are not free to be themselves. Their
choices are determined by others.
• The consequences for non-compliance are vulnerability,
deprivation, ostracism, rejection, and harm.
• The only viable alternative is capitulation and a betrayal
of their own self.
• Accepting this alternative leaves the teen feeling
despair, alienation, guilt, and an alternating rage toward
their own self and those they have become subjugated
to, as well as, life and society in general.
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Enforcement of
Teen’s Self Betrayal
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Mother’s threat
of disapproval,
withdrawal of
support,
neglect, or
rejection
Negative
Implicit Other
TEENAGER
Modified
Intention
When the social
environment
questions the
intention behind
acts performed
under this state of
self betrayal, the
child learns
deception and
rationalization as a
way of life rather
than a candid
exploration of lack
of knowledge or
mistaken judgment
for the sake of
personal self
correction.
ACT
Peer and Social
Environment
Father’s threat
of disapproval,
withdrawal of
support,
neglect, or
rejection
Negative
Implicit Other
Effects of Implicit Other
Original Intention
Diverted & Suppressed
Original Intention
The importance of the needs of
the parent’s shadow, community reputation,
and public persona all override the teen’s
personal criteria for fulfillment, need to be
true to themselves, and having their own life
so that, as a result, they do not want to live
or others to live.
They are saying, “I will not care, I
will be reckless, take drugs, get stoned, and
fail in school to make a statement to you
that you have made my life not worth living.
I want to die or kill and I want to humiliate
you. This is the only way I know to get my
message across.”
Parents impose and
enforce their own intentions for
what the child should have, be,
do, feel, and/or believe. In the
process, they usurp and
incapacitate the child’s will and
cause the child to betray their
will.
The Child must submit,
deceive, or rebel. Loss of
integrity, authenticity, sense of
ownership, tendency to confront
consequences, and finally loss of
motivation follow from either
submission or deception. Risk of
emotional expulsion, reprisal,
and withdrawal of support follow
from rebellion.
In this no-win situation,
the child experiences despair and
loss of self respect due to a
sense of betrayal of self. In this
battle of wills, the parental
purpose is to make sure the child
has a good, successful life
without the child giving them
trouble. But, the cost is the soul
of the child and the beginning of
a life long sense of futility and
resignation.
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A. Social Cannibalism Among Teens
• Older, Bigger, and Upper-Class Students Pick on
Younger, Smaller, and Under-Class Students.
Scene One: Senior Harassing
the Under-Class ‘Fish’ Student
Scene Two: Four Years Later.
Joe advances to his senior
year and grows up to do unto
the Fish as was done to him.
Sam Senior
Joe
Fish
Joe Senior
Frank
Fish
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B. PHYSICAL AND RACIAL SOCIAL CANABALISM
Labeling, Social Stigmatizing, Ostracism:
Factors in Dehumanization and the Annihilation of Care.
We are all ordinary Joes and all alike and you guys are
different. You are goofy looking. We don’t like you. You can’t Me too! I wish I could either
be in our group. Stay away from us or we’ll beat you up.
die or kill them.
Joe1
Joe2
Joe3
I wish I could
either die or kill
them.
Joe4
Joe5
Karl
Joe6
Frank
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D. GENDER BASED SOCAIL CANABALISM:
TEENS TARGETING VULNERABLE GENDER CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH OTHER
Gender, Body Characteristics, and the Formation of Identity
Conformity and Departure from Stereotypes Has Powerful Effects on the Formation of Identity
Frail, Delicate
Female
Large, Muscular Male
Identity
Stereotyping
Gender
Body Characteristics
Identity
Male
Large Muscular
Tough Guy
Male
Frail Delicate
Feminine
 Female
Frail Delicate
Lady
 Female
Large Muscular
Butch
Frail, Delicate Male
 Approved, praised, admired, High Self Esteem
X Disapproved, shamed, ridiculed, Low Self Esteem
 Approved, praised, admired, High Self Esteem
X Disapproved, shamed, ridiculed, Low Self Esteem
A departure from the norm for gender body type and
behavioral characteristics results in Identity
confusion and leads to Low Self Esteem and
problems in group affiliation and sense of belonging
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Husky,
Strong
Female
Defying stereotyped body:behavior pattern leads to confusion in how to relate to the person.20
•
•
•
•
Pseudo - Conformity Hides a Process of a Widening a
Public - Private Split in the Personality.
The greater the pressure to conform at the expense of one’s true self and true life
conditions
the more the sense of authenticity is sacrificed
and the greater the anxiety over possibly being discovered and ridiculed.
Life becomes miserable, frightening, and full of resentment, hate, and despair.
I’m the ideal for my
group. If you want to
be accepted, you have
to be just like me! You
have to look like me, to
have the same kinds of
things I have, do what I
do, act the way I do, go
where I go!
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I’m the ideal for my
group. If you want to
be accepted, you have
to be just like me! You
have to look like me, to
have the same kinds of
things I have, do what I
do, act the way I do, go
where I go!
Oh my gosh! I don’t meet any of those criteria. I’ll
have to pretend and lie. I’ll have to make my parents
do whatever it takes to help and let me try to conform
or I’m nobody, my life will be ruined, over, miserable.
I can’t let anybody know the truth about me, not
peers, parents, nobody, or I’ll be humiliated and life is21
over for me, I’m dead.
•
•
C. Personality Based Social Cannibalism
Thirteen to Fifteen Year Old Males Pick on and Exclude Each Other and Pick on Girls.
Thirteen to Fifteen Year Old Females Pick on and Exclude Each Other and Pick on Boys.
– Favorite things to say: “You are stupid, dress funny, act funny, don’t have the ‘in’ thing.”
You’re
stupid!
Frank
Joe
Boys
ridiculin
g boys.
Girls
ridiculin
g girls.
Frank
Joe
Boys
ridiculin
g girls.
You’re
stupid!
Francis
You’re
stupid!
You’re
stupid!
Jane
Francis Jane
Francis
Jane
Girls
ridiculing
boys.
Frank
Joe
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•
•
•
The Suppression of Authenticity as the Origin of
Depression and Eruption of Depersonalized Rage.
When everyone conveys to a teen that they are unacceptable, they become alienated
from everyone and from themselves.
Their own self is de-personalized as are people in general.
Rage is directed at depersonalized subjects whom the teen has transformed into
their ‘persecutors’ or the enemy.
PARENTS: “You must PEERS: “You must
conform and be like
conform and be like
everybody else or else.” everybody else or
else.”
SCHOOL: “You must
conform and be like REPRESENTATIVES OF
everybody else or
INSTITUTIONS: “You must
else.”
conform and be like
everybody else or else.”
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Teenage Peer Rejection:
Dynamics, Causes, and Effects.
•
•
•
Getting rejected by adults in a few groups or peers can lead to being stigmatized by all.
PEERS become afraid of accepting them or being seen with them.
This leads to a total self rejection, sense of alienation from others, depression, and rage.
Clubs
Cliques
No, we don’t
want you!
Gangs
No, we don’t
want you!
Youth
Private
Parties
No, we don’t
want you!
Youth
Groups in
Churches
No, we don’t
want you!
No, we don’t
want you!
School
Extracurricular
Activities
No, we don’t
want you!
Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go? Can I go?
Can I join? Can I join? Can I join? Can I join? Can I join? Can I join?
Boy Friends
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No, I
don’t
like
you.
Can we
be
friends?
Can we
be
friends?
No, I
don’t
like
you.
Girl Friends
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Running Life’s Obstacle Course
From First Grade Through Graduation.
• From Elementary through High School the number of
programs, activities, and formal roles increases.
High School
Middle School
Elementary
• At the same time the number of possibilities for exclusion
increases.
– For many, exclusion is interpreted as rejection and leads to loss
of esteem.
– Too often, youths do not learn to deal with exclusion in a healthy
way and turns into despair and rage. For some, violence.
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THE PUBLIC - PRIVATE SPLIT IN THE PERSONALITY VERSUS AUTHENTICITY
Reducing Authenticity and Increasing Deception and Superficial Conformity Leads to Depression and Rage
AUTHENTICITY
IS BREAKNG DOWN AS THE
PRIVATE PERSON BECOMES
MORE HIDDEN AND THE PUBLIC
PERSONA CONFORMS TO MORE
AND MORE SITUATIONS IN MORE
AND MORE SETTINGS
PRIVATE
PERSON
SITUATIONAL
IDENTITY AT
HOME
SITUATIONAL
IDENTITY
SOCIALIZING
SITUATIONAL
IDENTITY
AT SCHOOL
The more the
private person is
squeezed out of
existence, the more
volcanic pressure
builds up.
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Private-public Split in Personality Versus Authenticity
Styles of Parenting Are Often Reflected in Patterns of Differences
Between the Child’s Public Persona and Private Person
• We shall examine these pattern differences for five
styles of parenting. For purposes of simplification,
we shall restrict consideration to one parent. The
five styles to be considered are:
–
–
–
–
–
Conditional love
Neglecting
Rejecting
Solicitous
Overprotective
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Differences Between Public Persona and Private Person:
Children of a Parent With Conditional Love
The first questions that should be addressed relate to the conditions
that induce the split in the personality. If children in their early years
are subjected to parenting styles that are Conditional, Neglecting, or
Rejecting, they begin to develop a persona, a way of appearing to the
parents, that is different from the way they truly are. With conditional
parents children learn to try to gauge the parents expectations and
perform up to those expectations, disregarding their own true desires,
feelings, preferences, beliefs, and would-be goals. The motivations of
these children center around gaining approval and avoiding
disapproval. Their persona is often overly positive and compliant and
ambitious. They are out of touch with their private person. They often
feel bored, anxious, and unappreciated but either deny these feelings or
keep them to themselves. The persona of the person who experienced
conditional love is solicitous, tolerant, and always willing to do their
share and the other’s too.
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Differences Between Public Persona and Private Person:
Children of a Parent With Neglecting Tendencies
Children with neglecting parents begin to take two paths, trying to get
attention, even if it has to be negative attention, and feeling that their
true desires, feelings, preferences, beliefs, and would-be goals are not
worth bothering with. When they want to be, do, or have something,
they simply hopelessly disregard themselves. Their persona, oddly, is
either uncooperative and annoying or is uninvolved and detached.
Their private person, on the other hand, may be engaged in dramatic,
romantic, and heroic fantasies. The persona of the neglected person is
distant, reluctant, unresponsive, and self effacing.
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Differences Between Public Persona and Private Person:
Children of a Parent With Rejecting Tendencies
The child with rejecting parents has a persona that is angry, resentful,
cynical, critical, unhappy, pessimistic, solemn, and rebellious. Often
their private person is clownish and has a fawning desire to be loved.
Their outer person finds it difficult to become attached and belong but
the private person, once some very understanding or needy person
creates the conditions for them to become attached, the attachment is
fierce and possessive yet reacts with violence to any signs in the
relationship that make them insecure. The rejected persona is stormy,
testing, longing for love and allowing their suspicion to undermine the
possibility of being loved, giving yet with a readiness to attack when
reciprocity is not forthcoming.
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Differences Between Public Persona and Private Person:
Children of a Parent With Solicitous Tendencies
In contrast, the person who had solicitous parents has a persona that is
charming, expecting to be accepted and indulged, they are enchantingly
manipulative in order to get their way, they feel they should be given to
with out being expected to return the favor, and very pouty and
demanding when the world does not cater to them. Their inner private
is not so different in that it truly feels it is the center of the universe, it
feels others should be devoted to them and gladly give of whatever is
hard earned and cherished because of their superior worth. The
solicited person easily takes advantage of those who experienced
conditional love or were neglected. Relations with the rejected type
may begin with their being just as devoted but they can quickly turn and
be extremely vicious if they feel like they are being taken advantage of
or slighted. Pairing up with another solicited type can begin with their
sharing a common view of people and the world and how the world
should treat them, but they soon find themselves becoming bitter rivals
for the whole pie.
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Differences Between Public Persona and Private Person:
Children of a Parent With Overprotective Tendencies
The person with the overprotected childhood has a persona that is
apprehensive and dependent, a frail but valuable flower in a world that
tramples, often in distress and expecting to be rescued, and admiring
and grateful to the rescuer. However, the private person, while partly
consistent with the persona, is imagining a capacity for great deeds, is
longing to be included by the those in the middle of the select and
admired. The other side to the private person is the tendency; to
attribute to others a motive to actually hold them back and prevent
them from gaining competence, independence and recognition for
achieved status. The overprotected person feels a polarity of needing
and appreciating those upon whom they are dependent for protection
and a resentment of them as though their protectors were their prison
guards. They attribute their fear of self reliance to the other’s desire to
keep them frail , dependent, and isolated.
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PARADOX OF GOOD PARENTING
On the road of life, my child,
in the end,
it is not how well you listen to me,
but how well I listen to you,
that paves the way
to a happy, wholesome, fulfilling,
and responsible life.
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III. Understanding
the System - Individual Gestalt in Its Historical
Context
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The Clash of Conflicting Trends in American Culture
• Profit Vs Exploitation
• Success Vs Integrity
• Rivalry Vs Collaboration
• Separatism Vs Universalism
• Castes Vs Populism
• Outcome Vs Process
• Law Vs Love
• Authority Vs Democracy
• Coercion Vs Care
• Control Vs Guidance
• Rule Vs Judgment
• Punishment Vs Correction
• Superstition Vs Science
• Conformity Vs Individuality
• Individualism Vs Community
• Discrimination Vs Acceptance
• Ostracism Vs Understanding
• Regimentation Vs Maturation
• Care Taking Vs Empowering
Implicit in America’s Institutions and Organizations are a large
number of inconsistent trends which are very confusing to youth.
In social dilemmas, either extreme on a dimension can be
unconsciously chosen to rationalize and defend one’s behavior.
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A MAJOR HALLMARK OF AMERICAN CULTURE
America Has a Social Tradition of Individualism and
Limiting the Involvement of the Government
in Private Affairs.
Our Culture Has an Unacknowledged Espousal of
Darwinian Survival of the Fittest and the
Belief That Unbridled Competition in All Forms
Eventually Leads to Either the Development of Character or
Weeding Out of the Unfit.
•SURVIVAL OF THE GROUP VS SOCIAL DARWINISM
–The irony of American history is that our Social Darwinism
–with respect to the individual
–is beginning to back fire
–with respect to the survival of the group.
–With the increased accessibility of guns,
–the single, socially rejected individual, or non-survivor
–can now retaliate and destroy the group.
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The Nature of Public Education High School Institution
•
The nature of the public high school structure is such that there is limited access and
built in failure for a large percentage of students.
– Whether on a grade system or a curve such as with national tests, very few students will be
rated in the top categories.
– With athletics, only a very few will be selected.
– With extracurricular activities, such plays, elections, administration helpers, musical
performances, etc., only a few meet the requirements and are accepted.
– Very few have the ‘best’ clothes, cars, etc..
•
•
•
•
There is no ‘place’ for a large number of students, and in fact most students will
experience a considerable number of rejections and exclusions. For many school
presents continual situations that evoke anxiety, misery, and resentment.
The result of this emotional cauldron is alienation and depression or retaliation
through resignation, oppositional, passive-aggressive, aggressive, and occasionally
explosive behavior.
For this “rule-breaking” behavior, these students, victims of a counter-productive
structure, are meted out a wide range carefully formulated disciplinary procedures.
The application of these disciplinary procedures to victims of the system produces
even deeper alienation, but, also a widening chasm between the favored students and
the rejects which justifies the ridiculing and excluding behavior of the favored toward
the rejects.
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High School: A Culture of Invidious Comparisons
• Extrinsic motivation and emphasis on outcomes and external
signs breed an environment of invidious comparisons:
AUTHENTICITY
IS BREAKNG DOWN AS THE
PRIVATE PERSON BECOMES
MORE HIDDEN AND THE PUBLIC
PERSONA CONFORMS TO MORE
AND MORE SITUATIONS IN MORE
AND MORE SETTINGS
–
–
–
–
–
–
Making the grade.
Making the team.
Having the clothes.
Being the top or having the most.
Getting the sex object.
Being ‘in’ the group, club, etc.
–
–
–
–
Learning to put others down for not being, having, or doing.
Learning to put others down for being, having, or doing.
Leads to chronic anxiety, insecurity, rivalry, and manipulation.
Leads to learning to judge oneself and others
PRIVATE
PERSON
• What is learned in a culture of invidious comparisons?
The more the
private person is
squeezed out of
existence, the more
volcanic pressure
builds up.
• With an insufficiently healthy childhood and absence of a current
support system, the ego breaks down.
– Yielding to group pressure
– Adopting superficial conformity
– Developing a sense of self betrayal and disguised hate for the group.
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38
•
SCHOOL DISCIPLINARY SOLUTIONS TO
TEEN LEARNING-SOCIAL-BEHAVIORAL SYMPTOMS
For:
– Disobeying order to not talk in class.
– Sassing or using vile or threatening
language toward teacher.
– Sleeping in class.
– Cheating.
– Graffiti on walls.
– Stealing.
– Harassment.
– Chronic disturbance in class.
– Chronic out of class.
– Verbal fights.
– Physical fights.
– Destruction of property.
– Damage to cars/vehicles at school.
– Bringing drugs to school
– Distributing/selling drugs.
– Using drugs in school.
– Bringing weapon to school.
– Threats with weapon.
•
SEND TO:
– school counselor for
interrogation and advice
– principle’s office for
admonishment
– letter [note] to parents;
conference with parent
– to psycho-educational
assessment
– remedial educational
– special educational classes
– administrative review
– after school detention
– referring to outside
psychologist or psychiatrist
– suspension
– barring participation
– temporary expulsion
– transfer to alternative school
– denying promotion
– arrest by police
In mostedyoung,
instances,
copyright 5/1999 these ‘solutions’ generate painful anticipatory anxiety and lasting resentment.
39
Structure of School Discipline and Prevalence of
Types of Mental-Social-Behavioral Problems
•
VICIOUS SPIRAL OF CAUSES.
– Beginning with unfavorable life history and
current conditions.
– Leads to exclusion and failure in school.
– Leads to ridicule from advantaged
students.
– Leads to alienation.
– Leads to disadvantaged inter-group
suspicion and hostility.
– Leads to ostracism of disadvantaged.
– Leads to disadvantaged acting out in class,
toward school with passive-aggressive and
aggressive behavior.
– Leads to disciplinary action from school to
parents.
– Leads to vertically administered
disciplinary action [Vertical System:
teacher and up to counselors and
administrators].
– Leads to horizontal segregation.
– Leads to vicious spiral of negative
sanctions against the disadvantaged.
– Leads to referral to justice system
adjudication.
•
VICIOUS SPIRAL OF EFFECTS
– Beginning with substandard preparation.
– Leads to insecurity and awkwardness in
novel environment.
– Leads to lack of confidence and anxiety with
academic tasks.
– Leads to substandard academic
performance.
– Leads to failure and admonishment.
– Leads to loss of self esteem.
– Leads to perception by other students and
teachers as inferior and willful lack of
motivation and legitimizes ridicule by
advantaged students.
– Leads to strife and rejection at home.
– Leads to increasing polarization of
disadvantaged from advantaged.
– Leads to stigmatizing and ostracism.
– Leads to increasing alienation from self and
school and advantaged students.
– Leads to hostile acting out.
– Leads to impersonal, non-empathetic,
punitive treatment by the justice system.
– Leads to impersonal, uncaring attitudes
toward self, others and system.
– Leads to impersonal, explosive, increasingly
destructive acting out toward others,
system, or self.
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THE STRUCTURE OF COMMUNITIES
The Community of Dis-Organization and Fear:
Judging the Stranger Next Door!
Click title above to view slide presentation on this topic.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Suburban neighborhoods are sparsely populated.
Inner city and Ghetto neighborhoods are densely populated.
Suburban people have little contact with one another. Socializing takes place in formal
organizations or not at all.
Inner city people are in frequent contact, but have few formal organizations where socializing
can take place.
In suburban neighborhoods the neighbor is a stranger and people usually tend to project their
own characteristics onto the neighbor unless some incident causes them to suspect their
neighbor of malevolence. Suspicions of malevolence cause people to project their repressed
characteristics and suppressed motives onto the stranger next door. This is a form of
prejudice similar to that against the stranger from the inner city.
In inner city neighborhoods, there are frequent occasions of interpersonal conflict. They
often develop antipathy toward many neighbors and have no formal organizations to provide
structure and security. They can have prejudice toward the suburban stranger but enact
aggression toward a neighbor.
In a typical large American High School, students carry the effects of growing up in their type
of neighborhood with them to school. Youths from the inner city and suburbia together exhibit
their own brands of prejudice and antipathy. These symptoms are harnessed but not resolved
and often are exacerbated by the formality of the school structure. Departing school and
41
entering
the unstructured world outside, controls are lifted and hostilities erupt.
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CHANCES FOR SUCCESS IN LIFE
As a Result of the Conditions of Life Into Which a Person Is Born:
In a typical classroom, the structure of the class, curriculum,
and teaching methods convey the idea that all students
should be expected to perform equally well if they would just
try hard enough. For those who are not equal, the message
they get is that they are not only a failure, but somehow they
have a weak or bad will because they refuse to try hard
enough.
Starting with a very
long head start
100 %
Chances
for
success
in life
Starting very
far behind
Bell curve for distribution of
desirability of life conditions
into which a person is born.
0%
Below average birth conditions: economic, social,
educational, family maturity, neighborhood culture.
Above average birth conditions: economic, social,
educational, family maturity, neighborhood culture.
Hypothetical starting line at birth
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ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES FUNNEL LIFE’S PATHS IN VERY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS
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The Assumption of Equality of Mental Capacity and
the Myth of Individual Responsibility
• Most people tend to assume that others have the same
capacity that they do and the differences in attainment are
a result of differences in will power.
• Most people assume that everyone is equally capable of
being rational and bad choices are the result of an evil or
weak will.
• Most people assume that people should be able to
change simply by telling them to change and if that
doesn’t work, then using a threat or bribe should make
them change, and if that doesn’t work, then they just
‘want’ to be bad.
44
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Justice and the Myth of Individual Responsibility and Rational Man
Is HUMAN WILL Enacted Rationally in a Vacuum Without a History or Without Environmental Pressures?
•
The great dilemma for the judiciary is how do we treat all defendants?
–
–
A. Do all defendants and all people make life’s choices equally from an ideal point of pure Platonic rationality?
B. Or, are they shaped by different social histories and environments that determine their life’s choices?
• Pro- A. position:
–
–
Position A. makes judgment and punishment seem reasonable and provides a rationale for accountability and control.
Position B. provides exculpatory reasons, or excuses, turning judgment and punishment into ‘blaming the victim’.
–
Taking position A. makes the justice system seem scientifically anachronistic and unreasonable and creates a sense of
alienation from a callous, inhumane system.
Taking position B. provides a rationale for corrective action with the defendant and preventive action with the defendant’s
environmental conditions.
• Pro -B. position:
–
Two implicit philosophies of the nature of man lead to vastly different ways of relating to each other and themselves and lead to two vastly different
ways of structuring missions, purposes, policies, and procedures of our cornerstone institutions such as the educational and justice systems.
B. NATURAL MAN
A. RATIONAL MAN
Vacuum
LIFE HISTORY INFLUENCES
A. People make the rational man assumption about themselves and
others. The essence of this assumption is that human acts are
ahistorical and are formed in a virtual vacuum, devoid of outside
social-environmental influences and that all sources of action are
immediate conscious intentions. All calculations for decisions are
based on immediate perceptions and evaluations. Evil acts, therefore,
must have their source in ahistorical, conscious intentions devoid of
external influence.
edyoung, copyright 5/1999
ENVIRONMENTAL I
N
F
L
U
E
N
C
E
S
B. Natural man does not act in a vacuum. The acts of natural man have
their source in a life history and in a complex configuration of
environmental forces or structural. Conscious decisions have their
source in internal and external factors that are not present to
conscious awareness and in many instances their source is not
accessible to conscious awareness. This lack of conscious awareness
of sources includes both the life history factors and environmental
factors. The nature of these two factors are actually very difficult to 45
conceptualize in spite of their tremendous significance.
THE STRUCTURE OF JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND ITS EFFECTS
The Mentality of the Judiciary and Its Contribution to Teen Violence
Juvenile Offender: Oh my
god! I’ll sure be ostracized
now. No one will associate
with me but that gang now.
I’m a criminal.
Hey, lets buy some drugs,
get high and go cruising.
Hey you. You’re under arrest and going to
juvenile detention. Here! Put on these
cuffs. I have to protect society from you
because you are a bad kid.
Sounds like fun, let’s do it.
Crash!
You’re OK. Go on
your merry way
and I’ll protect
you.
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DETENTION, SELF RE-DEFINITION, AND COVERT DEFIANCE
DETENTION
Juvenile Offender: These people put me in
a cage, watch every move I make. Guard
me everywhere I go. Treat me like I’m some
kind of serial killer. With my background,
everybody at school and back home will
see me as a criminal, trash, not to be
associated with, a loser. My life is over. My
fate is sealed for life.
Juvenile Offender
Juvenile Offender:
Yea, like hell you
are. You’re trying
to find something
wrong with me so
you can put me
away and change
me. I’ll pretend to
cooperate, but I’ll
be damned if I will
let them get
anything on me.
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Juvenile Offender: Yes,
sir. I’ll do my best, sir.
Psychologist: We’re going to
give you some tests to see
how we can help you.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
47
The Role of the Juvenile Justice System in Increasing the Juvenile’s
Alienation from Self and Society
and Widening the Juvenile’s Public-Private Personality Split
Defense Attorney: Your honor, he was abused
as a child and left unsupervised. He was
under the influence of negative peers. This is
his first offense. I recommend probation,
being remanded to his parents, with a
recommendation for family counseling.
Probation Officer: Your Honor,
our investigation found that the
parents were unemployed. The
father physically abused the the
mother and children and was an
alcoholic. They said he was a
good boy but ran with a bad
peer group. He has been failing
in school and is not a member of
any official school groups. The
psychological report said he had
family problems, feels alienated,
has low self esteem, has a lot of
anger and is depressed.
Prosecutor: Your Honor,
he did it with malicious
intent and should be
punished and placed in a
correctional facility.
Judge: I’ve heard enough,
now I’ll make my decision.
Juvenile
Offender
Juvenile Offender: My god. All of these big, important people going through all of this formal stuff
and just because of me. I must be really bad. This is a big powerful system and they are all against
48
me. Everybody, society, the authorities all have me pegged as a public enemy.
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THE GREAT CONDEMNATION!
You! The kid with the tragic life history! You are responsible for you own
decisions and behavior. I find you guilty and sentence you to punishment.
We’re gonna teach you a lesson. You are a menace to society and we’re
gonna make sure you can not harm the rest of us. We’re gonna break your
will so you will be terrified of ever doing anything bad again!
Juvenile
Offender
Juvenile Offender: Everybody hates me. I hate myself. I don’t care anymore. I’m nothing. My
life is over. Now I hate society, my parents, school, all the goody-goody peers who lord it over
me and ridicule me, especially police and the justice system, and even myself.. What difference
does it make if I kill myself or everybody else. If everybody thinks I am such a bad criminal,
49
maybe I should really become one and really show them something!
edyoung, copyright 5/1999
“THE FINAL GAVEL”
The Effects of a Judge’s Autocratic and Condemnatory Attitudes
on Ostracized, Rejected Teens Who Have Issues of Extreme
Control and Suppressed Rage - Depression:
Is the Role of Society’s ‘Ultimate Authority’ that of Stigmatizing and Ostracizing?
• When the ultimate authority condemns youths
• they become completely alienated and want to kill society, people, the
next person that mistreats them, or,
• they want to kill themselves because there is no place in the world
that accepts them.
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STRUCTURE SCHOOL DISCIPLINE: EMOTIONAL EFFECTS
Model of the Transformations From ANXIETY TO FEAR TO RAGE
As pressure in school is increased, the disadvantaged increasingly feels there is no
recourse, no way out, cornered and consequently goes through the transformations below.
G
I have this awful feeling that
something is about to happen
that is going to make me look
really bad!
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You are deliberately trying
to keep me from getting
out of the fire!
I’m going to kill you!
My room is on fire!
I’m going to be
killed!
51
THE DYNAMIC
INTER-CHANGEABILITY OF RAGE AND
DEPRESSION
SUPPRESSED RAGE TURNED AGAINST SELF OR
ROUTED INTO PARANOID AND REVENGE
FANTASIES
52
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The extremely rejected, alienated, ostracized, ridiculed and punished student takes an attitude of extreme impersonal
hostility toward self, others, and system. Depression can be acted out with suicide or drug abuse, while rage can be acted
out with violent attacks on peers, the school, or property. Rapid transformations from one extreme to the other are likely.
DEPRESSION AND RAGE MASK A DEEP, PAINFUL HURT.
The rage wants to get back at the source of the hurt.
The depression wants to eliminate the self.
DEPRESSION
RAGE
RAGE AND
DEPRESSION ARE
HELD IN A
VOLATILE,
IMPOTENT,
PRESSURE-FILLED
BALANCE ABOUT
TO EXPLODE,
A FEELING OF
BEING ABOUT
TO EITHER
BURST OR DIE.
AS VALENCES
IN THE
ENVIRONMENT
CHANGE, ONE OR
THE OTHER - RAGE
OR DEPRESSION GETS THE UPPER
HAND.
Feeling that the source can not
be attacked because the source
is someone whose approval,
love, regard, and support is
desperately needed, the rage is
suppressed. The suppressed
rage does not go away, but
rather leaves the person with the
hurt and in addition with
frustration and humiliation over
being powerless to express the
rage. As a result, the person
turns against their own self and
begins to feel the hurt was
justified. At its lowest point,
feeling hurt, unloved, powerless,
humiliated and disgusted with
the self, depression becomes a
wish that one were not alive.
Depression is covering rage
which is covering hurt. At the
point of deepest depression is
an immobilized, smoldering rage
oscillating between first being
turned against the other and
then the self.
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PSEUDO-EXPLANATIONS OF EMOTIONAL-BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS:
Psychiatric Labels and Brain Chemical Imbalance.
When students exhibit extremely negative behaviors and poor performance and
disciplinary actions are not working, one alternative is to refer to psychiatry.
•
•
•
•
Xxxxxx
•
They say they want to commit suicide or kill someone.
What is the Role of Society’s My tests show it is their brain chemistry and they must
Helping Systems, Agencies, be put on medication. Click Underlined for Slide Shows
and Professionals in helping
to prevent Stigmatizing and
Ostracizing and helping the
youths whose lives are
crushed by it?
How do we avoid mistaking
Karl
symptoms to be causes?
Structural explanations are
not immediately obvious.
Symptoms are easily treated
but prevent the person from
learning to cope and result in
the perpetuation of structural
causes.
Structural causes are only
Frank
overcome with serious
thought, consistent effort,
and strength of character.
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Environmental Structures and Systems in Interaction with Person Structures and Systems
Brain Chemistry is a Reflection of the Environment
Environment A
Environment B
Encompassing Environments
Institution or Organization
Setting within Institution
Situation
Dyadic
Interaction
Role/Relationship
Physical/Verbal Behavior
Cognition
Emotion/Feelings
Perception
Background: Prior Schemata and Schemes
The structure of environment A encourages people
to use their own judgment, make their own
decisions, plan and execute future plans, cooperate
with others, bond with others, be responsible for
themselves, share a desire for mutual facilitation,
share tasks and promote the good of the community.
Right Front Right Back
Left Front
Focus
The structure of environment B takes care of people,
assesses their needs for them, makes decisions for
them, plans and executes activities for them, makes
cooperative efforts with others unnecessary , assumes
responsibility for the welfare of the community,
assumes responsibility for all aspects of their lives,
health, and well being. Unwittingly, makes it
impossible to form bonds with others.
Right Front Right Back
Focus
Left Back
Brain of Person A in Environment A
Symptoms: Concern with others and tasks,
cooperative, socially responsible, time flying,
unconcerned with body and health, active, healthy,
edyoung,
copyright 5/1999
happy, and
successful.
Left Front
Left Back
Brain of Person A in Environment B
Symptoms: Focused on self, dependent, depressed,
time drags, aches and pains, fears, anger,
55
suppressed rage, or acting out rage, health
degenerates, low self esteem, poor performance.
For a Special Slide Presentation on
Neurochemistry,
Click Anywhere on the Hyperlink Below
http://dryoung.1goodsite.com/NSI_Staff_Training/Secti
onVII/SectionVII-htmlessonoutline/htmlessons 1 -/SVII
L 1 - Slide Shows/Neurotransmitter Interactions and
transitions.ppt
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I. RUNNING THE ONEROUS, BATTERING, DEMORALIZING GAMUTS OF LIFE

The PATH
 Factors Inducing Alienation, Rage, and Despair
Untutored, Unwittingly Destructive Parenting.
The Rugged, Unkind Road to Emancipation and Un-relinquishing Degrees of Freedom
Inauspicious Family Conditions
Embroiled Parent-teacher Relations
 Forces Instigating Self Betrayal
Parents
Peers
The Opposite Sex
 Targets for Invidious Comparisons
Age
Physique
Appearance in Physical Features and Cloths
Ethnicity
Gender Deviations
Socio-economic Status
Academic and Extracurricular Standing
Romantic Relationships
 Societal Factors Inducing Angst, Anxiety, Confusion, Cynicism, Rage and Despair
Transitions by Age/grade and Their Emotional Crises
Societal Value Conflicts
Culture of Invidious Comparisons and Social Darwinism
 Institutional Factors and Characteristics Inducing Alienation, Depersonalization, and Revenge
Opportunistic, Inconsistent Selection of Polarized, Conflicting Cultural Values
Urban and Suburban Communities Each With Their Own Brand of Depersonalization
Formal Traditional, Unwitting, Stereotyping and Labeling by Organizations, Institutions, and Informally by Institutional
Representatives
Inequities of Treatment by Institutions for Ancestral and Residential Origins
Unwitting Negativistic School Discipline Policies, School Structure and School Procedures
Traditional Negativistic, Non-reparative Posture of the Justice System
Health Professions’ Denigrating Diagnosis, Labeling, and Disempowering Prescription for the Emotional-behavioral Effects or
Symptoms
Resulting From Societal, Structural Dysfunctionality
edyoung, copyright
5/1999
57
I. RUNNING THE ONEROUS, BATTERING, DEMORALIZING GAMUTS OF LIFE

The PATH
 Factors Inducing Alienation, Rage, and Despair
Untutored, Unwittingly Destructive Parenting.
The Rugged, Unkind Road to Emancipation and Un-relinquishing Degrees of Freedom
Inauspicious Family Conditions
Embroiled Parent-teacher Relations
 Forces Instigating Self Betrayal
Parents
Peers
The Opposite Sex
 Targets for Invidious Comparisons
Age
Physique
Appearance in Physical Features and Cloths
Ethnicity
Gender Deviations
Socio-economic Status
Academic and Extracurricular Standing
Romantic Relationships
 Societal Factors Inducing Angst, Anxiety, Confusion, Cynicism, Rage and Despair
Transitions by Age/grade and Their Emotional Crises
Societal Value Conflicts
Culture of Invidious Comparisons and Social Darwinism
 Institutional Factors and Characteristics Inducing Alienation, Depersonalization, and Revenge
Opportunistic, Inconsistent Selection of Polarized, Conflicting Cultural Values
Urban and Suburban Communities Each With Their Own Brand of Depersonalization
Formal Traditional, Unwitting, Stereotyping and Labeling by Organizations, Institutions, and Informally by Institutional
Representatives
Inequities of Treatment by Institutions for Ancestral and Residential Origins
Unwitting Negativistic School Discipline Policies, School Structure and School Procedures
Traditional Negativistic, Non-reparative Posture of the Justice System
Health Professions’ Denigrating Diagnosis, Labeling, and Disempowering Prescription for the Emotional-behavioral Effects or
Symptoms
Resulting From Societal, Structural Dysfunctionality
edyoung, copyright
5/1999
58
II. EFFECTS OF RUNNING THE GAMUT
Teen Inscapes Seek Matching Characteristics in the Outside World
Youth in mental turmoil seek avenues in the external environment that match their inner turmoil.
The angry swirling explosive inner turmoil seeks complementary music, music that is loud,
hostile, rebellious, forbidden, jangled.
Youth can find a wide variety of sanctioned and unsanctioned societal avenues that can
complement their inner turmoil.
The path chosen may be more a matter of the external structure which readily available for each
individual youth.
I
N
S
C
A
P
E
MATCHES
A
V
E
N
U
E
59
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III. RUNNING THE ONEROUS, BATTERING, DEMORALIZING GAMUTS OF LIFE
The RESULTS
 Identity and Life Style Adopted by Social Rejects
Extreme Polarization of Public and Private Selves
Sense of Self Betrayal, In-authenticity, and Loss of
Value as a Person
Pursuit of Societal Avenues for Malevolent and Violent
Self Expression
Extreme and Unconventional Road to the Kind of
Violence Expressed at Columbine and Conyers
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Pathways to Deadly Violence
Deadly violence most probably is a matter of happenstance.
The conditions spawning deadly violence are diffuse and
enmeshed in our whole society.
The threshold from rage and despair to homicide and suicide
may be crossed very gradually or suddenly.
Prior to crossing that threshold, youths can not conceive of
themselves nor anyone they know committing such an act.
Once that threshold is passed, the public-private split in the
personality prevents them from sharing this change and these
thoughts with anyone unless they happen to find some peer
whose life situation and inner life approximates their own
sufficiently that they can, to a sufficient degree, relate to the
transformation. This person becomes the alter ego, soul mate,
and co-conspirator.
Otherwise, the veneer of the public personality makes it virtually
impossible for an outsider to fathom their inner transformation.
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Societal Avenues for Malevolent and Violent Self Expression When
Avenues for Positive Self Expression Are Closed.
Official and Unofficial Competitive Sports
World’s of Music
World’s of Art, Graffiti, Doodles
World’s of Fashion, Tattoos, Piercing
World’s of TV, MTV, Movies
Truancy and Running Away
World’s of Computer Web Sites on Hate, Pornography, Violent Computer Games
Interpersonal Cruelty, Practical Jokes, Pranks
Dare Devil Stunts with Cars, Motorcycles, Skateboards
World’s of Parties, Clubs, Concerts
Consensual and Predatory Sex
Revenge over Frustrated Romance
World’s of Guns, Explosives, Make-shift Weapons
Property Destruction, Random and Planned
Pushing Drugs
Substance Abuse
World’s of Planned Crimes: Robbery, Car Theft
World’s of Gangs, Gang Warfare, Hate Crimes
Explosive Reaction Killing
Planned Massacre
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•
•
•
•
Fantasies of Suicide and Mass Annihilation.
In the midst of running the awful gamut life has set out for them, certain youths, we shall call
anti-heroes, develop a sense of despair and resignation. They are unable to see a decent
future for themselves. Their future looks like a bleak, terrifying, never ending road ahead of
them. They are completely unable to see that the dismal present could some day pass away
and be replace by something more livable, even enjoyable. Their perspective is hemmed in by
menacing gatekeepers everywhere they look. There is no place for them. They feel trapped in
a living hell. There is no one who cares who will rescue them. They feel they are ostracized,
unsalvageable, isolated, and completely emotionally abandoned. They feel they were born to
be rejected and to suffer a miserable life. They dwell on a vast accumulation of injustices,
humiliations, failures and rejections and conclude that ‘Fate’ itself conspired to stigmatize
them and doom their whole life. This was their ‘Fate’. Since there is no way out, no recourse,
the only alternative is to not exist, to die, and that requires some form of suicide.
Then, suddenly, all of these same factors generate and opposite feeling and desire. Now they
want to retaliate. The menacing gatekeepers now appear to be persecutors who deserve
retaliation. From being trapped and cornered by ‘them’, with nothing to lose, their despair
turns into rage and is directed to all of those individuals who have taunted, tormented, and
persecuted them, then to specific individuals who were principal offenders, then to institutions
or society, then to parents, then to the world and life and Fate. Ruminating furiously, they
begin to imagine massive destruction of society or life or play out in their minds a horrendous
slaughter of an individual or group.
Behind these malevolent fantasies there is a motive ‘to send a message’ to them, to the world
to let them know that the magnitude of the destructive act signifies the magnitude of the
injustice done our anti-hero.
Similarly, with their fantasies of suicide, there is an underlying motive of paradoxical
retaliation. In killing themselves they ‘send a message’ to their persecutors and those who
have abandoned, betrayed, or tortured them. They are saying, “When I blow my brains out,
then you will realize what you did to me and be forever sorry”.
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Finding an Alter-ego, Soulmate, Co-conspirator.
•
•
•
•
When our anti-hero is all alone, lonely, feeling isolated, deserted and full of swirling emotional
thoughts alternating between suicide and mass annihilation, he is also desperately in need of
someone to tell it all too. He needs someone who can commiserate with him, but not
dominate the conversation and wallow in his own misery. He needs someone who can agree
with him about his beliefs about life, fate, and the vengeance due his persecutors. He needs
someone who also can not act out the rage but who can get vicarious satisfaction by listening
to flights of fancy masquerading as plans. He needs someone who feels powerful when the
anti-hero is blowing away his enemies and feels vindicated when the whole city guiltily
mourns their suicides because life and everyone was so ruthless, heartless, unjust, and
unappreciative of what they could have had to offer. This person is the soul-mate, alter-ego,
and co-conspirator.
The two of them can take unlimited flights of imagination into scenario of wiping out their
enemies and mass annihilation. They readily find music, TV and MTV shows and videos,
computer games, and seek out web sites that explain a multitude of ways to blow up the
enemy.
They can spend endless hours denigrating and laughing at insiders who think they are so
great and are really so stupid. And, they can spend endless hours developing and running
through lethal plans to destroy parents, teachers, peers, police, stupid people who prided
themselves in thinking they could cure these pathetic young men, the whole city, buildings
with symbolic importance, uppity girls who turned them down and on and on.
But, one day an offense occurs against them that makes them feel they must put up or shut
up. The alter-ego looks to the anti-hero to be the courageous vindicator and they are locked
into their own dare-devil compact to make it really happen. Now serious planning begins.
This could go on indefinitely were it not for the likely possibility that some new unforgivable
transgression against them will occur. Then, with paralyzing fear, they wheel resolutely into
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action
and the dye is cast.
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Finding a Meaning for Existence
Through Planning the Destruction of Existence.
• All of life was dismal for them. Playing games, carrying out pranks,
taking flights of fancy elevated them out of that dismal world and those
moments they could gleefully relish their imaginary victories and the
devastation of their enemies. But when mother or dad called or they
had to go back to school or be taunted in hallways or walking back
home, the dismal world flooded and the poisonous barbs painfully
pricked their consciousness and once again set them in front of
terrifying peers or teachers.
• But, as the began to plan in earnest it seemed to no longer be just about
vindication and elimination of the sources of threat and humiliation, but
became a higher cause, a mission, a sacrifice of themselves for the
greater good of all mankind.
• They were sending a message to the world that could not be missed.
They were champions setting things right for all the unappreciated
underdogs who were so much more worthy of honor than all the snobs
and bullies. They were Ghengis Kahn and Joan of Arc all in one. These
thoughts truly carried them out of their dungeon of despair. For once
life was really and truly meaningful.
• For once they would truly be heard. For once they would not have to
dread the future after their deed was done. For once they would be real
champions in real life. They were finally finding meaning for their
existence by seriously planning the annihilation of existence.
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IV. PROVIDING POSITIVE PROGRAMS THAT
ADDRESS THE VIOLENCE ISSUE ON ALL
THREE LEVELS
USING A NATURAL SYSTEMS APPROACH
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PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
Downsizing High Schools and Classes
All Inclusive Formal Role System Including Higher Grade
Levels Mentoring Lower Grade Levels
Support Teams as Surrogate Parents
Mutual Respect Groups
Aggression Management, Mediation, and Violence
Prevention Groups
Student Government, School Based Due Process, and
Teen Courts
School Based Community Courts
Computer-Based, Individualized and Self Paced, Lattice,
Application and Purpose Oriented Teaching and Learning
Strategies
A High School Community Solutions Public Forum on the
Internet
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Formal Role Systems in High Schools
Excluding and Humiliating Vs Including and Mentoring
Get out of my sight. You
are not good enough to be
around me!
Joe1
Senior
Class
President
Frank
Fish
Rejection, low
self esteem,
despair, rage.
Hey! Come here, Frank. I’m your mentor. I am
going to help you learn the ropes and make it as a
freshman. You are not alone. You are my buddy!
Joe1
Senior
Class
President
Frank
Fish
Acceptance, safety,
self respect, belonging,
happy.
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With a Positive, Formal Role System, the Supported
Freshman Becomes the Supporting Senior.
BAM!
BAM!
Sam Senior
Joe Fish
Sam Senior
Joe Fish
Joe Senior
Frank
Fish
Joe Senior
From Harassing
To Supporting
Frank
Fish
Click Formal Role System
to see how a formal role
shapes behaviors Navigate
to Slide 22
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Suggestions for Formal Role Systems
LEVELS:
CATEGORIES:
I_______________ II______________
III___________ IV___________
Jobs
Novice
Apprentice
Journeyman
Master
Social Roles
Mentor
Peer Counselor
Mediator
Orientor
Formal Groups
Mutual Respect
Student
Government
Teen Court
Due Process
Within each grade, students can attain levels within a Formal Role Category. Once having attained level
the student has responsibilities for the role functions, for training someone in the level below them, and to
be trained by someone in the level above them.
Jobs are related to work that needs to be done on the school grounds and the outside and inside of the
building.
Social roles are related to teaching their role functions to and guiding one person in a grade below them,
performing their role throughout the school, and being trained by someone from the grade above for their
role.
•Formal Groups within each grade are designed to enhance interpersonal relations and skills and build a
sense of community within which every student may develop a sense of belonging and identification; to
solve conflicts within the student body, and assist one another in learning how to solve conflict situations
and develop a knowledge of consequences and skill in using good judgment..
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Forming Heterogeneous Groups for Developing Empathy
and Preventing Prejudice, Ridicule, and Ostracism
• One example of how to structure Mutual A MUTUAL RESPECT GROUP
•
•
Respect Groups.
Form small groups of students to meet
for about 30 minutes a day for one month.
For the next month, redistribute students
into new small groups and repeat the
scheduling pattern. The goal would be to
attempt to give each student exposure to
other students from as many
backgrounds different their own as
possible.
The ideal group would be six students
from the same grade. Three boys and
three girls. One student from each of six
different ethnic groups. Group
composition would also include students
from as many different life styles as
possible [geeks, Barbies, jocks, Hillaries,
conformists, non-conformists, trend
setters, followers, etc.]
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[Click to go to topics on teen social skills.]
What’s it like to be you? How do
you feel about me? How do we
get along with each other and be
understanding and helpful?
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Types of Direct and Displaced Aggression
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Predatory Aggression - Brutality
Establishing or Defense of Territory or Rank
Revenge and Grudge War
Barrier Aggression
Social Cannibalism - Bashing the Pariah
Initiate’s Sadism
Explosion of Repressed Anger
Depression Conversion to Rage
Hypersensitive Retaliation
Fear Conversion or Cornered Aggression
Victim Threshold Surpassed
Smoldering, Anxious Withdrawal
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Mediation Training for Conflict Management
• Mediation training can be structured so that it involves a
progression from beginner to expert. Each grade level from the
ninth through the twelfth grades can be introduced to a higher level
of expertise in mediation, thereby insuring that students are
refreshed and elevated in their knowledge and expertise each year.
• All students in each grade level each year can be required to take
that year’s training level and be certified to be mediators between
peers in conflict at school, but also to use it unofficially in their
neighborhoods and at home.
• Certification can be legitimized so that youths who are trained can
use it whenever they see conflict arising and will not be looked
upon as intruders by those in conflict.
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MEDIATION
THE PRO-SOCIAL ROLE
CAN SETTLE DOWN THE CONFLICTS IN THE SCHOOL
I’m officially a mediator. I can help them settle this.
Hey, guys, I can see you both are really angry with each other. Let me listen to
both sides.
Maybe we can find a way to settle this. Would you like for me to try to serve as
your mediator?
How about just giving it a try?
I hate you!
I’m going to rip your heart
out for what you did!
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Managing Aggression with Student/Staff Aggression Management Teams
Train selected staff and students as team members for personal-educational
counseling, social skill training, mediation, and rage-catharsis therapy.
CLASS
ROOM OR
SCHOOL
PREMISES
Teacher &
Student
Mediation and
Re-Entry
Counseling as
Condition for
Returning to
Classroom
Explosive
Incident
Enter
Aggression
Management
Team
Assess Type of
Aggression or
Rage
Assign to:
Place in
Holding
Room
with
Tutor/Peer
Counselors
Prior to
Return to
Classroom
Personal
Educational
Counseling
Social Skill Training
Displacement Redirection
Repertoire Replacement
Psycho-drama; Role Play
Parent Participation
Personal Educational
Counseling
Mediation and
Mediation
Training
Social Skill Training
Personal Educational
Counseling
Ragecatharsis
therapy
Abreaction*
Mediation and
Mediation Training
Social Skill Training
• Explosion of
Repressed Anger
• Depression
Conversion to Rage
• Revenge and Grudge
War
• Barrier Aggression
• Predatory
Aggression Brutality
• Establishing or
Defense of Territory
or Rank
• Initiate’s Sadism
• Social Cannibalism Bashing the Pariah
• Hypersensitive
Retaliation
• Fear Conversion or
Cornered
Aggression
• Victim Threshold
Surpassed
• Smoldering, Anxious
Withdrawal
Personal Educational Counseling
*View Movie: End of Innocence. A movie that explores rage therapy
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The Value of Developing Student Government Programs to Help
Youth Development Maturity of Judgment for Decision Making.
Student Government meeting in a Homeroom
• When small groups of students
to discuss issues of mutual concern.
meet regularly to discuss, with
classmates,
– problems in school,
– with school policies and programs,
– or to initiate discussion about
possible activities
– and also to make decisions, plans,
allocate and coordinate tasks, and
evaluate progress on and
outcomes of activities,
– they face difficult aspects of
interpersonal interaction and difficult
value judgments.
• This is an excellent setting in
which to guide them through the
process of learning and
incorporating those values and
social skills.
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OK, so now we know what the
problem is. Does anyone have any
ideas about how to go about finding
a solution to the problem?
[click to go to social skills topics.]
See, particularly, TOPIC 13 on
School for Social Skills.
These are the same students that are meeting
regularly in the Mutual Respect Group.
Through these meetings they become
inclusive, bond, create a community, have a
stake in mutual support and facilitation, share
a common destiny, develop self esteem, a
sense of empowerment, a sense of
identification with the school, as well as
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develop social skills and value judgment.
Teen Courts and High School Based Community Courts
Emphasis in school-based teen and community courts is on solving problems, correction,
mutual assistance, efforts toward inclusion and re-integration.
• Due process in Student Government
– Record cases, dispositions, and outcomes.
– Record statistics.
• Passed on to Teen Courts in High School
– Record cases, dispositions, and outcomes.
– Record statistics.
• Passed on to Juvenile Justice Community Courts held in
High Schools.
– Record cases, dispositions, and outcomes.
– Record statistics.
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High School Community Solutions - Public Forum Web Site
• Present behavior problems and conflict situations and their
remedies.
– Students describe a problem situation. Analyze its causes. Call for
suggestions on how to solve the problem.
– Present suggestions for approaches that could solve the problem.
– Present approaches that were used to try to remedy the problem.
– Present resolved problem and approach that succeeded.
– Archive cases.
• Select High School Web site cases to be included in HISD
Community Solutions Public Forum Web site.
• Present cases that came before Teen Court [names withheld],
disposition of case. Outcome of disposition periodically over the
school year.
• Present Statistics from High School Community Courts.
Click: http://dryoung.1goodsite.com/edspublicforum/Natural
Systems Juvenile Justice Public Forum.htm to see example of web public forum
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INDIVIDUALIZED, SELF PACED, COMPUTERIZED, LATTICE,
INTENTION and APPLICATION ORIENTED EDUCATION
Meaningfulness
and Relevance of
Knowledge
SKILLS RELATED TO
KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS
OPERATIONAL SKILLS
–
Language
–
•
Counting
Calculating
Designing
DECLARATIVE SKILLS
–
–
Collecting
Expressing
PROCEDURAL SKILLS
–
–
–
–
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 1
Mathematics
•
•
•
•
Reading
Writing
OPERATION 9
OPERATION 8
OPERATION 7
OPERATION 6
OPERATION 5
OPERATION 4
OPERATION 3
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 1
Perspective Taking
Visualizing
Symbolizing
Taking Disciplined Action
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 1
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 1
Integrated
Knowledge
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 1
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 1
OPERATION 2
OPERATION 1
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Domains of knowledge
•
•
Integration across
disciplines
•
Vision of one’s future
Storage of knowledge for
potential future use.
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ALTERNATIVES FOR DEALING WITH DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR
That Prevent the Teen From Becoming Completely Alienated, Living
With Intense Suppressed Rage Toward ‘Society’ and Self, and from
Becoming a Potential Columbine Killer.
Alternatives that teach aggression and violence prevention and
management.
Alternatives that salvage self respect.
Alternatives that re-integrate into the school and develop a sense
of belonging.
Alternatives that develop respect for others.
Alternatives that develop awareness of consequences.
Alternatives that develop responsible judgment.
Alternatives that develop positive behavior and social skills.
Alternatives that preserve and develop a sense of self
determination, of having a choice with respect to their lives.
Alternatives that provide a positive community structure to
compensate for lack of structure at home and in the home
neighborhood.
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The End and the Beginning
• Hopefully, the reader will carry with them an understanding that
the approach to solving the problem of youth violence must be to
focus on how we restructure the world of youth to mend and
elicit the positive rather than focusing on trying to detect who
among the sea of young people is that elusive, singular,
Columbine Killer.
• Prevention is not the same as treatment. Prevention can direct
its efforts toward broader issues and programs that create
structures, systems, and environments in which the seeds of
depersonalization, despair, and rage can not grow.
• Intelligent prevention should make traditional school and justice
disciplinary programs virtually obsolete.
• Intelligent prevention programs can, on the other hand, create
environments which facilitate healthy maturation of all of our
youth.
Click here to return to the School violence Home Page.
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