Public schools are the building blocks of our societies they can be considered our foundational instruments although these in on to children. They become accustomed to it, to the point where they feel it is acceptable behavior.
Due to this fact, these students believe it is normal to act this way in school. Furthermore, broken families are practically the main reason for the formation of gangs (Kachur,1996). Society plays a major role, in the way which children are molded. The media may not realize but, by networks constantly showing violence, mostly for ratings, their younger audience absorbs it. By doing so, they in turn, themselves become violent.
The films that are distributed are more violent now than ever. Television has turned away, from wholesome family values, to more action-packed shows. Drugs are now seen everyday in schools. They have become just as common as pens and pencils. Children from elementary to high school appear to be using drugs.
As time goes on, it seems that drug use is not on a decline. Use of illicit drugs and alcohol are obviously direct influences of violence and crime. Although violence is apparent, there are several ways in which schools can make the number of incidents decline. For example, the creation of mentor programs.
Children, who do not receive the correct guidance at home, need someone to turn to. Role models have some of the most important jobs. They are there to point children in the right direction. Without these people, children are prone to run ramped.
Schools that do not have after-school programs allow children, whose parents are not home early, to wander on the streets. Extra-curricular activities occupy students. They force pupils to stay of out trouble. Also, these activities help students improve or learn special skills. The activities benefit society too, because they create jobs. Many community leaders are trying to start such programs.
Volunteer groups are becoming involved with schools, to help spread the word of non-violence. Congress has become involved, by passing the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994. The act provides for support of violence and drug prevention programs (Education, 1997). Besides students using drugs recreationally, there are a great number of potential athletes who are abusing substances. Almost every public school has athletic programs.
Players deal with competition, stress, and self-achievement. These athletes will do anything to persevere. The usage of steroids and other high performance substances are widely used. To manage this problem, school officials may attempt to enforce a policy of random drug testing of student athletes.
This solution unfortunately has some side effects. The use of drug tests, to screen students for drug use, is a relatively new phenomenon in the school setting. Drug testing of a student by a public school official is a search that must comply with the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment prohibits all unreasonable searches and seizures by State officers, (Health, 1997). Reasonableness is determined by balancing the governmental interest behind the search against the privacy intrusion of the search. Many students believed urinalysis drug tests are searches within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment that intrude upon a significant privacy interest.
In 1995, the Supreme Court passed a law that allows for all students, participating in athletic activities, to be randomly submitted to drug testing (Health, 1997). With governmental intervention school officials now have the power to efficiently stop the spread of drug use. The least expensive, time consuming, and quickest, obstacle to overcome is boosting a students motivation. Students must obtain a strong will, in order to succeed. They need to be driven, if they want to reach the highest achievement possible. Besides their parents, teachers and school officials should be the driving forces, behind them.
In most cases, teachers dont show their pupils that they care. Lately, teachers do not act like the role models they really are. One of their jobs is to mold students, into successful and prosperous young adults. As stated earlier, educators play an important role in a students academic and social life. An uncaring instructor can cause a damaging snowball effect.
If they show no interest, in a students work, then the students themselves will not show any interest in their own schoolwork. These educators will in turn, cause the student to become delinquent, in handing in and doing his or her work. The teacher would not be aware that it is his or her own fault, for the student delinquency, and the child would receive poor grades. Pertaining to a childs education, teachers are just as important as the books students read from. All problems, witnessed in our school system, can be fixed easily and sufficiently.
Parents and teachers must come together to show how important an education is. We do not live in the 1950s, where a person making roughly $20,000 a year, can live comfortably. Also, we are now living in the age of technology. It is very rare; you see personal working with pens and paper, rather than computers and software. Mom and Pop stores are becoming extinct.
Children can no longer rely on their parents for jobs. The use of illicit drugs, and other substances, inhibits pupils comprehension of this startling fact. Our future must become aware of this. Public schools, which are open all year, would be cost-effective and available to more students. By our communities establishing charter schools, they would not only be helping those at-risk students, but also assist in ending the problem of overcrowding. The government must enforce and fund drug prevention programs, to educate our youth.
It is imperative that our counselors and teachers evolve into the brilliant role models, they are supposed to be. Supplementing these schools, after school programs can almost guarantee a students well being. Richard W. Reil said it best, when he stated Why are after-school programs so important? Because childrens minds dont close at 3p.m., and neither should their schools, (Federal, 1997).
These minute adjustments can make a world of a difference. Bibliography Work Cited Baer, P.E. Alcohol use and psychosocial outcomes of two prevention classroom programs with seventh and tenth graders. Journal of Drug Education 322 (1998): 180-183. Brekke, N.
R. Year-round schools: An efficient and effective use of resources. School Business Affairs May, 1992: 53-55. Federal Register Summary Archives.
Study of Overcrowding in Public Schools. Washington: 1997. Kachur, S.P. School Associated Violent Deaths in the United States, 1992 to 1994, Journal of the American Mediical Association 275 (1996): 1729-1733. U.S. Department of Education.
Schools without drugs: What works. Washington, DC: 1999. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Violent Schools – Safe Schools: The Safe School Study Report to the Congress. Washington, DC: 1997.
