III. OVERVIEW OF CERTAIN CONSIDERATIONS THE SCHOOL AS AN AGENCY OF SOCIAL CONTROL The preceding papers support the conviction of the subcommittee that our schools play, or should play, a crucial role in the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency. The subcommittee stated its belief in an earlier report that-- this Nation's first line of defense in preventing juvenile the recommendation for Federal aid for school construction The school is second only to the family in being responsible for preparing the child for life-that includes, of course, enabling children to get along with others, to observe society's rules as well as the deliberate cultivation of the basic intellectual tools.90 One of the most important of such tools is the ability to read, comprehending the full meaning of the printed page. The school, too, may reproduce some of the features found in the home, but it supplies a social setting in which new and varied experiences are inevitable."1 92 If the schools are to fulfill their responsibility in helping youth to law-abiding adulthood, the schools must assist society in devoting sufficient energy and resources not just to rehabilitate young people after they get into trouble but also to those programs that serve to prevent their getting into trouble in the first place. The schools are centrally involved in any program designed to prevent juvenile delinquency. 89 Juvenile Delinquency, Interim Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 83d Cong., 2d sess., pursuant to S. Res. 89, as extended, to study juvenile delinquency in the United States, pp. 57-58. 90 But above all, an energetic and thoroughgoing reexamination of the methods of mass education now in use must comb through present courses in an effort to eliminate the inconsequential and the trivial, to revise the ineffective ways in which knowledge is now dispensed and measured.-Taylor, Harold, Toward a New Cultural Era?, Newsweek, vol. 46, No. 23, Dec. 5, 1955, p. 58. 91 National Society for the Study of Education, 47th yearbook, op. cit., p. 36. There are, let us remember, clearly marked stages in the educational process. To the elementary-school child experience is still in considerable part undifferentiated. The teacher must take hold at this point, of course. But the tendency in the elementary school must be consciously and continuously toward the analysis of experience into manageable elements. These various elements have been distinguished, the secondary school has as its primary task the systematic exploration of them, through study of the separate, organized disciplines. Effective teaching requires, of course, that the student be kept continually aware of the relationship between the analytical disciplines he is studying and the complex whole they are designed Since children enter school with their behavior patterns not yet crystallized, there is a substantial need for the school to provide the necessary values and support that they must have to function in our society as law-abiding citizens. Outside of the family, the school has the potentiality of being the major means of developing and strengthening the "internal controls," the social conscience, so necessary in the mental and emotional development of children. The school can serve, too, as a means of external social control by motivating the child toward socially constructive behavior and by operating as a central community institution which exerts pressure toward social conformity. Not only does the school have a role to play in insuring that every child experiences some success but that the schools can often help to compensate for a child's lack of acceptance and achievement within the home. Conformity in this sense means the following of society's rules of conduct. Important as it is to have an emotional balance in the family, it is also important to have it in the school system. The schools want to create children with rounded personalities; a well-integrated personality has to have a certain basis, therefore, it is necessary that schools foster definite or basic values as their goals. The subcommittee has become aware that in addition to factual information on pertinent subjects, the school must give children moral and spiritual values. In the past, however, the American public-school system has been oriented toward such ideas as a general intellectual preparation for advanced education or vocational training and the values of achievement in a competitive society. This has generally meant emphasis upon intellectual attainment (or getting good grades), competitive achievement, the suppression of any aggressive behavior and the dependence of the child on the approval of the teacher and parents for achievement.93 Observation suggests that in our present society there is no single criterion for success; therefore, the criteria by which we measure the effectiveness of our school systems will be many and varied. It follows naturally that some groups in our society will approve one set of criteria and other groups quite another. Fifty years ago, American high schools had a fairly fixed standard curriculum. Those few people able enough and fortunate enough to have a high-school education generally took the same courses in classics and sciences. But today our high schools are open to all students-those who will be our future scientists, political leaders, industrialists, as well as the skilled and unskilled laborers. For the former, high-school education is merely a stage in the process of formal education. For most of the latter, to eliminate. But the actual classroom attempt to coordinate the distinctive disciplines in an orderly attack upon complex, intertwined problems should come as the culmination of long-continued study, so that the intellectual powers applied may be as fully developed as possible. For students who must conclude their education with high school, an integrated course in the senior year is appropriate. For students who go on to more advanced study, however, the wisest plan is to wait until the college years.-Bestor, Arthur E., The Restoration of Learning, pp. 62-63. Distinguishing characteristics of the scientific method are: 1. In the first place science is based upon observable facts. 2. Science employs the method of analysis in the comprehension of complex phenomena. 3. Science employs hypotheses in guiding the thinking process. 4. Science is characterized by freedom from emotional bias. 5. Science employs objective measurement. 6. Finally, science employs quantitative methods in the treatment of data. -Barr, A. S., Burton, W. H., and Brueckner, L. J., op. cit., pp. 815-816. Reiss, Albert, J., Jr., statement in hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delin quency, of the Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate. 84th Cong., 1st sess., Education, August 12, 1955. pp.260-265. high school represents the terminal point in education. The educational needs of these two groups are different. Educational theorists during the past three decades have emphasized that the responsibility of the public school is to educate future citizens to live and work effectively in adult society. The kind of education. a future citizen requires will naturally vary with the role he will play in adult society. If his formal education is to terminate at the secondary level then it is incumbent upon the high school to provide a curriculum of sufficient breadth to fit him for his responsibility as a future parent, as an intelligent voter, as an effective worker, and as a law-abiding citizen. By contrast, for those who seek higher formal education, such courses will naturally be less important at the highschool level. But this means that high schools, if they are to fulfill the needs of our society, must provide diversified curricula. Such diversified curricula do not necessarily mean, however, a broad range of very general courses for each individual student, but diversified curricula fitting the needs of different students. The seemingly contradictory points of view presented by different authorities, writing in chapter II of this study, may only emphasize the need for diversification, wherein the more academically talented students would need more emphasis on intellectual endeavors while the less academically inclined may need greater emphasis on nonacademic learning. Among the most important problems that confront people today are those which apply to their relationships with each other. The successful man is the one who is able to relate deeply and warmly to people and thus is able to apply his skills and knowledges to the solution of their problems. In the older school system, the individual student was relatively unimportant-the subject matter transcended any one person. Acceptable teaching techniques were those which produced the greatest change in the shortest time and the measure of success was in terms of content and specifics. Effects on the student usually were not considered but where they were, unpleasant techniques seemed more desirable than pleasant ones. This was true probably because they were effective. Practices such as shaming, nagging, humiliating the student and making him feel inferior were tolerated if they helped drive home the facts. Of course, the main fact of the child's unhappiness was not understood or was overlooked. These authoritarian and oppressive techniques may not cause delinquent behavior but they certainly do little to avert it. Few children who have ever been ridiculed by a teacher have ever forgotten that teacher, for there can be no greater or more devastating weapon than this, none more wounding to the person. Ridicule in anyone is a form of sadism, and sadism in a teacher of the future adults of the world, is certainly undesirable in any school system. Today the greatest instances of delinquency exist in areas where educational techniques are used almost exclusively to implement skill and knowledge objectives, and where concern with human relationship is at a minimum.9 94 Such instances are most likely to occur in crowded schools. In the newer school concept, it is recognized that it is impossible and undesirable to avoid the learning of such factors as attitudes 94 See Koopman, G. Robert, The Community School Program Is One Answer to This Problem, School Executive, vol. 75, No. 1, September 1955, pp. 76-77. |