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The Oxford Observer

Vicious Violence: Countless Causes?

2/27/2014

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I will state this now: I do NOT condone any types of violence at all. Please keep this in mind throughout this post.
This week's tutorial paper posed a question which is at the heart of a heated debate: Who is responsible for school violence?

Toshio Ohsako (1997) took ten separate studies on school violence from countries on every continent. While they all had different types of violence depending on certain factors, Ohsako (1997, p. 12) classified violence into three broad groups:
Physical Violence (hitting, kicking)
Physical Violence
Verbal Violence (name-calling, insulting)
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Psychological Violence (isolation, ignoring)
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Similarly to Ohsako, I determined violence can be caused by five different sources. Depending on the country, state/province, and community, these factors can vary in degree and applicability. Many of these come from Ohsaka (1997, p. 13-4), although some other studies by Oliver and Candappa (2007) and Yaakov Iram (1997) are represented.
Student Relations
Personality clashes, bullying, alienation of a cultural or socio-economic group, isolation of an individual or sub-culture, gender clashes, gang violence
Teachers and School Environment
School culture that condones violence, existing violence, how teachers recognize/handle bullying, poor pupil-teacher relationships, poor academic performance, culture of bullying, irrelevant curricula
Societal Problems
Media's intensifying coverage of school violence, political coups or general unrest, civil wars, gang violence, overcrowded or irregular transportation, alcohol and drugs
Parental/Familial Issues
Broken homes improper parenting, lack of "family values with good moral and religious guidelines," poor parental support, inconsistent or unjust discipline,
I would largely blame society and bad parenting for American school violence. Here's why:
Society because of the widespread media attention given to perpetrators of violence (which I think exacerbates the problem and lays blame in the wrong areas) and the culture of student coddling (pushed mainly by developmental psychologists afraid of damaging self-esteem)
Parents because of poor parenting (sheltering their child, providing a bad example), nonexistent or inconsistent discipline (give in to their child's "demands," cater to their every whim), and lack of supporting teachers (side with their children and assume the teacher is at fault: what I call "angel-child syndrome)
Like I said, there are many different causes of school violence, all unique to certain communities, cultures, and societies. I think the absolute worst thing we can do is blame violence on one thing (like gun control) and widen our scope, looking at all possible causes and solutions. I also think we can realize that many districts take preventing violence "to the max" and adopt useless and ridiculous "zero tolerance" policies which do nothing but encourage overreaction and knee-jerking. For their part, the media should not rile the public up about how one thing is causing the destruction of our schools when clearly that's not probable: it will always be a multitude of causes which impact schools.
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Stupendous Sickness

2/27/2014

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My apologies to all for not posting anything this week! I've been laid up with what they call "Fresher's Flu" which is rather nasty and not particularly enjoyable. I hope to do one tonight, although I have two tutorial papers due Tuesday so this weekend will be a bit of a mad rush!

Musical Madness March is approaching so I will be posting more regularly about the joys of music education in a multi-part series with guest authors! Something to look forward to I suppose!
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Some Oxford Observations

2/22/2014

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Here are a few things I've seen and learned about Oxford. And some pet peeves too!
  1. At any given point walking down the street in Oxford, you can hear about a dozen languages. It's a really neat, I was walking home one day and counted the number of different languages I could identify and it was astonishing! French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Czech, the list goes on and on!
  2. "Look both ways" doesn't apply when crossing the street. First, you have to look left, then right, then left, then right again, just in case some maniacal taxi driver or cyclist has decided to forgo the rules of traffic and ignore pedestrians.  I've learned curse words in three or four of the languages I've mentioned because tourists apparently don't like getting run over by said cyclists.
  3. Weekends aren't fun, even in the dead of winter, because there are tourists EVERYWHERE. They clog up the streets, sidewalks, restaurants, shops; anything and everything in Oxford. I've been here for over a month and I'm offered a "free guided walking tour" at least four times on weekends. Also, the libraries aren't open as long, which means less time you can spend studying to catch up for the next week.
  4. If you are dying of tuberculosis and you're coughing your lungs out, please exit the library and stop spreading your disease to the rest of the lovely island we call Great Britain.
  5. Please stop making out with your girlfriend across from me while I am trying to work. Besides the fact that Valentine's Day was yesterday and you missed your chance, you're making some disgusting noises.
  6. It will rain. The only thing you can do about it is hope you're prepared. Unfortunately, this means being ready for horizontal rain, biting wind, blinding sun, and/or slippery sidewalks, separately or simultaneously.
I do love Oxford though, a lot of fun!
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British Tauntaun Geese

2/16/2014

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So outside my window today there was a flock of geese that sounded suspiciously like a Tauntaun from Star Wars....
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Affirmative Action Awareness

2/12/2014

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My tutorial paper this week answered the following prompt:
Should educational centers be penalized for not facilitating socio-economic mobility? Why or why not? Illustrate your answer with relevant case studies.
This brought me into the world of higher education, an area in which I most certainly do not specialize. However, it was interesting to read about many different options that institutions of higher education have in facilitating socio-economic mobility. Lois Bibbings (2006, p. 83) separates "widening participation policies" into two separate types:

Hard Options
"include positive discrimination in the form of quotas or preferential selection methods, which aim to assist institutions to meet participation targets" (Bibbings 2006, p. 83)

Soft Options
"entail the use of positive action to promote equality of opportunity and, thus, seek to assist disadvantaged groups to compete more effectively" (Bbibbings 2006, p. 83)

The key term I focused on here is the "positive discrimination," mentioned in the definition of "hard options," which unfairly discriminates against applicants from good schools" (p. 75). I think it does much more than that and discriminates against hard work and determination!

I concluded in my paper that any kind of discrimination should be penalized, either "positive" or negative. What good is "eliminating" discrimination by substituting one type for another?? All it does is promote and even create tension amid the population!

College Board
Removing all discrimination would prompt universities to use more merit-based selection methods which treat students as individuals, not just a set of test scores. They should take students' situations into account and take those who have strong work ethics and who have the potential to excel in college. At the same time, colleges and universities should lower the cost of attendance and provide equal amounts of merit- and need-based financial aid. According to the College Board, the cost of attending any kind of higher education has tripled and in some cases almost quadrupled in the past forty years. Talk about not facilitating socio-economic mobility!

Counselors
This burden does not just fall on the "institution[s] of higher learning," oh no. Secondary schools can begin the process much earlier than universities can. One big problem among students of low socio-economic status (SES) is that there is a certain level of mystery about higher education: they tend to think they are not “good enough” nor is it “for the likes of them,” regarding it as “highly risky and/or impossible” (p. 77). Schools need to demystify higher education and explain to both parents and students the options available to them upon graduation. They also must remind the student that in many cases, not going to post-compulsory education is an option as well! This is what guidance counselors are for!

I propose that universities pair up with struggling schools and provide outreach activities to all students (visits, tutoring, etc.). The key is to bring low SES students into the fold, demystifying higher education while also providing more services to every possible applicant.
Do you fundamentally disagree?
Want to "let me have it"?
Comment! I'd love to hear about it!
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Innovation Initiator - Brian Keough

2/10/2014

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Brian Keough is the Lead Instructional Coordinator for Charleston County School District. Brian came to education as a second career after working in healthcare research and communications. He then taught elementary school with a focus on literacy instruction, became an interim principal, taught at the college level, and now works in the Charleston County School District to integrate literacy instruction and intervention to meet the district's literacy goals.
Community Center Schoolshttp://familylocator.info/wp-content/uploads/kids-school.jpg
Schools have always been 'in' the center of communities, but in recent years, with the many additional demands and expectations placed on them, some schools have shifted their focus to in fact become 'community centers' in their own right.

Elementary schools in particular have partnered with doctors, mental health, Children and Family Services, child-care providers, and local service organizations to provide the many needs and enrichment opportunities that often go unanswered for today's children.

In my own experience, I saw the impact of what bringing pediatricians and mental health/social workers into the school on a regular basis did for our students and their families. In a rural setting in a rural county, a trip to the pediatrician from "my neck of the woods" was often a 40-50 mile round trip, and to see a specialist in the next county over could be over 100 miles. By partnering with the local pediatrics group, our students could be seen by a physician's assistant right at the school, and prescriptions were called into the local pharmacy in the next town over. We used the same system for mental health workers/social workers from the county's Human Services division. Parents were much more comfortable in the school setting where they were comfortable to tackle issues of abuse, homelessness, custody with a partner on their side.  Our school also hosted a food-bank and clothes closet supported by local churches and service organizations that families were free to "shop" at without having to travel directly to these organizations. GED classes, adult education courses, and family fitness activities were also offered at the school after school hours. In effect, we became the 'one-stop-shop' for families in our isolated community.

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Harlem Children's Zone
Models for using schools as community centers has been successful in urban settings as well, with the Harlem Children's Zone being nationally-recognized for its long-term impact on the 'whole-child' using schools as community center for students and parents' needs.

Charleston County School District in Charleston, SC is piloting a similar program in four of their elementary schools. Called the "Charleston Promise Neighborhood," these schools are changing the way they do business in every way to ensure students of poverty get the support they need to be successful. Early in its development, these schools may be a model for other poor urban schools and districts to embrace the whole child and become 'community centers' in their own right. If it takes a village to raise a child, we should bring the village to the child to weave a support network that children cannot fall through -- school is where they spend most of their waking hours -- let's make school, through the use of community partnerships, the place where families turn to when raising their children takes more than one pair of hands.

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Charleston Promise Neighborhood
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Introducing Innovation

2/6/2014

1 Comment

 
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a very simple diagram and, when I first learned about it, I thought it was just another stupid theory that I had to memorize.

Oh boy, was I wrong.

I think the future of schools lies in this very pyramid (yes, including the "WiFi" addition to the bottom).

What Maslow says in a nutshell is that physiological, safety, "love and belonging" and self-esteem needs must be met before any substantive learning can take place. If one comes from the 10th richest county in the United States, chances are one probably will not be affected by the bottom blocks (food, water, shelter, safety, etc.), although one never knows...

Here's where schools need to step in! Children who are missing these basic necessities in their lives can be provided them at school. For example:
  • A school breakfast program, coupled with a normal school lunch (and possibly even a late lunch after school) would fix a large portion of their food needs.
  • Extra-curricular activities and sports are a must, especially as many parents work from 9am to 5pm (or later) and have difficulty finding and paying for someone to watch their children. Activities also keep kids out of trouble, allow students to explore topics that interest them, and create friendships so the more activities the better!
  • A medical and dental service, and not necessarily only for its students! Some schools have a nurse full time and have a doctor come and do check-ups once or twice a week, for both students and families.
  • Student Resource Officers are police officers from the community who either visit or work in schools during regular (and/or afterschool) hours. SROs are common in many schools and serve a crucial community-outreach role necessary for students to feel safe and have someone they can talk to specifically about safety issues.

I try to be very conscious of economics and I realize that in this day and age all of these services can cost a great deal of money. That is where school districts come in handy.

Many states define districts differently, like New Jersey and South Carolina for example: South Carolina has county-wide districts (ex. the Charleston County School District), while New Jersey has primarily municipal and some regional districts.

Schools in districts can share services with one another, working together to provide the best services for their students. One doctor who rotates between schools, extra-curricular activities that alternate days, etc.

Districts can also team up to provide services in tandem, again rotating resources and sharing the costs: a district with more pupils could have the doctor more than one without, or something like that.
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What I'm trying to say is that it's possible and necessary for schools to become community centers, pulling multiple cultures and backgrounds of students together in order to care for their neighborhoods, towns and/or cities. Once we provide for a student and a family's physical well-being, real progress in educating and uplifting individuals and communities can commence!
1 Comment

An Exciting Excursion

2/4/2014

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This past weekend I went on a trip to London with OSAP! In total I think about 40 of us went and afterwards I went to my godfather Steve's house and stayed with his family over night. This trip was anything but uneventful as the transit was marred in obscure accidents and mishaps.
After meeting at The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, we boarded the bus and headed to London. About twenty minutes into the journey, we heard a loud noise and someone on the right-hand side of the bus saw a hubcap go rolling away! Apparently we blew a tire and we had to wait for a second bus to come pick us up on the side of the motorway.

As we entered London, we took a quick tour of Westminster on the bus. Notable landmarks included (but were not limited to):
- Baker Street (Sherlock Holmes' street)
- The American Embassy (with plenty of armed guards)
- The wall to the Queen's gardens (barbed wire and spikes)
- A pointy, triangularly shaped glass building

We then proceeded to go on a walking tour, which was quite chilly as it was ridiculously windy! Here we got to see Westminster Abbey, the Westminster Abbey Choir School, the Changing of the Horse Guards, the Admiralty building, an old building called the "Admiralty Citadel", 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Column and The National Gallery, which had a giant blue rooster out front...

I had lunch in the square and then went to the Churchill War Rooms (run by the Imperial War Museum). On the way there I stopped to mess around with my camera settings and took some cool pictures.

A fascinating piece of British and in fact world history, the bunkers from which Churchill conducted the allied war effort are restored and open to the public, and I highly recommend anyone who visits London go see them. I hope when I am a teacher they will have some sort of virtual tour on which I can take my students! Much of the complex was untouched after workers vacated the bunkers (which were not even fully bombproof) and it is a fascinating artifact of WWII history.
After the tour, we visited Buckingham Palace via the Mall, then headed to Piccadilly Circus. I separated from the group and went to Charing Cross station, to take a train to Steve's house. Since I had some time to kill, I decided to walk from the Hungerford Bridge to Big Ben, across that bridge to the London Eye, and back across the Hungerford.

I had a great time with his kids especially as the youngest had a birthday sleepover at their house and I got to babysit! I got to help with homework and look after the kids which was a blast! I cannot thank them enough for letting me stay over, I needed the break from tutorial papers and 8-10 hour stints in the library! On Sunday, we went to the mall (yes, they have those here in the UK!) which was built in an old chalk quarry (good use for a large area of fallow land), then I headed off back to Oxford. Albeit a very round-about way...

Into London, through the underground (part of which was closed for engineering), into Paddington Station, onto a train with barely any standing room to Didcot Parkway (stopped four times due to signal problems), then a bus to Oxford to complete the three hour ordeal. Overall a great weekend!!!

All pictures available on Flickr and on Facebook!
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