The Culture of Fear and Oppression in Schools
Imagine you live in a world in which you are not trusted, just for existing and making decisions. You always have to be on guard or you risk being screamed at for your actions, or glared at with a contempt so disheartening it makes your stomach drop. People will get in your face and talk you down so that you can “get in line.” You will be interrogated over small things, like where you go or what you say.
It happens everywhere.
Say you're at a buffet restaurant and you drop a dish. Out comes the manager at a slow pace, grimacing, and then he or she just yells, “What is WRONG with you, huh!” A fellow customer then walks up to you and slaps your hand, “Get your food and GET back to your table, you understand?” When you return to your seat your family just glares at you in silence. After the solemn meal is over and you get home, your spouse interrogates you. “Well, why did you do it? Why are you so clumsy? Don't you have respect for that manager? Who do you think you are? Didn't you care?” If you try to explain, “Well it was an accident. Obviously I wouldn't break it on PURPOSE,” your spouse throws hands up. “That isn't what I asked you. Maybe you DID do it on purpose. How about you try being a manager to see what it's like to deal with people like YOU.” And after all of that is over, you go to a neighborhood conference, where people discuss the punishments that you and others like you “deserve.” You are banned from participating in your favorite activities or worse, because you didn't meet people's expectations. Maybe your spouse or neighbors can easily express how eager they are to “lay hands on you,” or hurt you, if not for the law. That, they are sure, will make you compliant. “IF ONLY I could do what I really wanted, you'd be laying in the ground, unable to move!” It is like this, walking on thin ice, day after day after day.
This is what it is like for many youth in society, especially within their families and within their schools. We all know about the injustice kids have had to face in their families. That is why corporal punishment was recently outlawed (I say recently, because growing up in the 90's, “whoopings” were precious and encouraged). But what about school? Although corporal punishment has been eliminated from this system*, there is a large element of disrespect and intolerance for youth. I've witnessed it during my whole 12 years in various private and public schools.
When I was tutoring second graders during my senior year, I managed to make my own rules as best as possible. Instead of grading work, I would read books with kids, talk to them, give them their voice back for 30 minutes. Most of all I'd play my beta of a game my friend and I created. They loved it. Little 7-9 year olds understand negative numbers and debt, let me tell you! But that's for another day. Once, I was playing this game with David. He was happy, because he'd always have to go to the computer lab when I was around. He even wished the computer lab closed down, and he got his wish for a day. As we shuffled cards and played, I noticed the principal walking with a boy. He stopped, and then I witnessed it.
The principal got in the boys face about how he should “be better” than whatever situation he was in trouble for. The man was a centimeter away from the boy's face, and a teacher looked on as she gathered her little ones in for a student art exhibit. The boy began crying, but the pressure was still on. The principal barred his teeth and gruffed his middle aged voice down to a primal and RAW tone. “What did he do?” I asked David. He perked up, “Oh, well this boy, he got pushed by this other boy near the basketball courts. And the other boy hit first and this boy was just hitting back because the other kid wouldn't stop. But they only caught this boy. He didn't do anything, and I saw it.”
“Oh really? Do you think that the principal is being fair?”
“Well,” David started blushing with hesitation,” I don't think so, but he got caught and they didn't see the other boy and, no, it's not fair.”
“If you were a witness, wouldn't you want to say something?” David smiled hard and shook his head. We went back to the cards as the principal took the tearful boy away.
Another situation. A giddy boy named Jacob is minding his own business, saying “Hi,” to me over and over again, when the self proclaimed bully, Tyler comes along and harasses Jacob. Tyler does this whenever Jacob is happy and gleeful (I know why, but that's also for another time). Jacob makes an elevated fuss about it and the teacher comes over. Guess who she goes for? As Tyler sneaks off, the woman glares little Jacob down for 20 seconds. Even I felt a little uneasy. Why did she do that? Because Jacob's noise is what irked her, and because Jacob is a child and she can make him feel however she wants. At least that's the rationale when it comes to venting frustration. Release it on the weakest party available. In this school, students are also still being told to stand in corners.
In my American Government class this past year I've had to deal with the teacher yelling at us, cursing about how much of a [insert swear here] he can be when we make him mad. His rationale: we're kids (even people like myself who'd already turned 18 at some point) and we need to do as he wants us to do. Also he's from East LA, which according to him, gives him the right or credentials to be a [swear] if we made him mad. And YET, when a student had his typical outbursts of cynical rage, this man is the first one to want him to calm down and not resort to such behavior. We were not allowed to sit where we pleased, even after the first month of school as he said we could.
Our principal? She was allowed to yell at us about anything and to criticize us. And then you know what? They'd call home and the parents would stride along with it, and insult and criticize.It was like this all through schooling, and the teacher or principal would mock us. Oh haha, “I don't want to be YOU when YOU get home. I know your folks!” And then people wonder why teenagers and youth are so on edge and radical and rebellious. WE'RE OPPRESSED. Don't see how? Think about your day labor job, if you have one. For 8 hours you do busywork, sometimes hard, and your boss has total reign. Imagine that, minus the unions and worker's rights, on repeat for the first 18 years of your life across the board. Don't you remember at all?
Rather than trying what they can to understand the behavior and mediate to a resolution, many adults in schools result to the first authoritative actions on hand - because they are easier and appear to get the job done. The student will cower down into silence or non-resistance, and the class can resume. These are all things I witnessed at schools, private and public. When I was very young, at one private school, paddling was allowed. You were yelled at for not standing a block apart in the bathroom line. At another, intentional taunting, laughing and questioning the intelligence of other students if they didn't follow the procedures was also allowed and encouraged. In 8th grade, my English teacher locked a student out of the room on quite a few occasions because he was a few minutes late. Students laughed and the teacher felt it was deserved. For what reason, I don't know. He'd be knocking and banging and he'd just wait outside. He wasn't a trouble maker, just an awkward guy who deeply aspired to be a police officer, and was picked on all the time in school anyway, resulting in lashing out tantrums when he had enough. It was probably the tantrums that irked the man, but even still, why agitate it with such a punishment?
Is this just my experience, or are we that hypocritical as a society that we accept this as normal, and scorn the youth that dare to have an opinion or not comply with something once. Then it is expected for youth to ALL go to college to get a crash course in how to think for themselves and then get ready for the workforce, and bills, and taxes, and all the other information withheld from us until it's nearly too late.
Is this a fluke, or a reality of the youth experience? Ageism if you will.
*Correction. Please see comment below for the reality of corporal punishment.
**All names have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals mentioned. And because I think it's really cool to say that.
Posted in on Jul 28, 2010 - 03:15 PM
**Imagine you live in a world in which you are not trusted, just for existing and making decisions. You always have to be on guard or you risk being screamed at for your actions, or glared at with a contempt so disheartening it makes your stomach drop. People will get in your face and talk you down so that you can “get in line.” You will be interrogated over small things, like where you go or what you say.
It happens everywhere.
Say you're at a buffet restaurant and you drop a dish. Out comes the manager at a slow pace, grimacing, and then he or she just yells, “What is WRONG with you, huh!” A fellow customer then walks up to you and slaps your hand, “Get your food and GET back to your table, you understand?” When you return to your seat your family just glares at you in silence. After the solemn meal is over and you get home, your spouse interrogates you. “Well, why did you do it? Why are you so clumsy? Don't you have respect for that manager? Who do you think you are? Didn't you care?” If you try to explain, “Well it was an accident. Obviously I wouldn't break it on PURPOSE,” your spouse throws hands up. “That isn't what I asked you. Maybe you DID do it on purpose. How about you try being a manager to see what it's like to deal with people like YOU.” And after all of that is over, you go to a neighborhood conference, where people discuss the punishments that you and others like you “deserve.” You are banned from participating in your favorite activities or worse, because you didn't meet people's expectations. Maybe your spouse or neighbors can easily express how eager they are to “lay hands on you,” or hurt you, if not for the law. That, they are sure, will make you compliant. “IF ONLY I could do what I really wanted, you'd be laying in the ground, unable to move!” It is like this, walking on thin ice, day after day after day.
This is what it is like for many youth in society, especially within their families and within their schools. We all know about the injustice kids have had to face in their families. That is why corporal punishment was recently outlawed (I say recently, because growing up in the 90's, “whoopings” were precious and encouraged). But what about school? Although corporal punishment has been eliminated from this system*, there is a large element of disrespect and intolerance for youth. I've witnessed it during my whole 12 years in various private and public schools.
When I was tutoring second graders during my senior year, I managed to make my own rules as best as possible. Instead of grading work, I would read books with kids, talk to them, give them their voice back for 30 minutes. Most of all I'd play my beta of a game my friend and I created. They loved it. Little 7-9 year olds understand negative numbers and debt, let me tell you! But that's for another day. Once, I was playing this game with David. He was happy, because he'd always have to go to the computer lab when I was around. He even wished the computer lab closed down, and he got his wish for a day. As we shuffled cards and played, I noticed the principal walking with a boy. He stopped, and then I witnessed it.
The principal got in the boys face about how he should “be better” than whatever situation he was in trouble for. The man was a centimeter away from the boy's face, and a teacher looked on as she gathered her little ones in for a student art exhibit. The boy began crying, but the pressure was still on. The principal barred his teeth and gruffed his middle aged voice down to a primal and RAW tone. “What did he do?” I asked David. He perked up, “Oh, well this boy, he got pushed by this other boy near the basketball courts. And the other boy hit first and this boy was just hitting back because the other kid wouldn't stop. But they only caught this boy. He didn't do anything, and I saw it.”
“Oh really? Do you think that the principal is being fair?”
“Well,” David started blushing with hesitation,” I don't think so, but he got caught and they didn't see the other boy and, no, it's not fair.”
“If you were a witness, wouldn't you want to say something?” David smiled hard and shook his head. We went back to the cards as the principal took the tearful boy away.
Another situation. A giddy boy named Jacob is minding his own business, saying “Hi,” to me over and over again, when the self proclaimed bully, Tyler comes along and harasses Jacob. Tyler does this whenever Jacob is happy and gleeful (I know why, but that's also for another time). Jacob makes an elevated fuss about it and the teacher comes over. Guess who she goes for? As Tyler sneaks off, the woman glares little Jacob down for 20 seconds. Even I felt a little uneasy. Why did she do that? Because Jacob's noise is what irked her, and because Jacob is a child and she can make him feel however she wants. At least that's the rationale when it comes to venting frustration. Release it on the weakest party available. In this school, students are also still being told to stand in corners.
In my American Government class this past year I've had to deal with the teacher yelling at us, cursing about how much of a [insert swear here] he can be when we make him mad. His rationale: we're kids (even people like myself who'd already turned 18 at some point) and we need to do as he wants us to do. Also he's from East LA, which according to him, gives him the right or credentials to be a [swear] if we made him mad. And YET, when a student had his typical outbursts of cynical rage, this man is the first one to want him to calm down and not resort to such behavior. We were not allowed to sit where we pleased, even after the first month of school as he said we could.
Our principal? She was allowed to yell at us about anything and to criticize us. And then you know what? They'd call home and the parents would stride along with it, and insult and criticize.It was like this all through schooling, and the teacher or principal would mock us. Oh haha, “I don't want to be YOU when YOU get home. I know your folks!” And then people wonder why teenagers and youth are so on edge and radical and rebellious. WE'RE OPPRESSED. Don't see how? Think about your day labor job, if you have one. For 8 hours you do busywork, sometimes hard, and your boss has total reign. Imagine that, minus the unions and worker's rights, on repeat for the first 18 years of your life across the board. Don't you remember at all?
Rather than trying what they can to understand the behavior and mediate to a resolution, many adults in schools result to the first authoritative actions on hand - because they are easier and appear to get the job done. The student will cower down into silence or non-resistance, and the class can resume. These are all things I witnessed at schools, private and public. When I was very young, at one private school, paddling was allowed. You were yelled at for not standing a block apart in the bathroom line. At another, intentional taunting, laughing and questioning the intelligence of other students if they didn't follow the procedures was also allowed and encouraged. In 8th grade, my English teacher locked a student out of the room on quite a few occasions because he was a few minutes late. Students laughed and the teacher felt it was deserved. For what reason, I don't know. He'd be knocking and banging and he'd just wait outside. He wasn't a trouble maker, just an awkward guy who deeply aspired to be a police officer, and was picked on all the time in school anyway, resulting in lashing out tantrums when he had enough. It was probably the tantrums that irked the man, but even still, why agitate it with such a punishment?
Is this just my experience, or are we that hypocritical as a society that we accept this as normal, and scorn the youth that dare to have an opinion or not comply with something once. Then it is expected for youth to ALL go to college to get a crash course in how to think for themselves and then get ready for the workforce, and bills, and taxes, and all the other information withheld from us until it's nearly too late.
Is this a fluke, or a reality of the youth experience? Ageism if you will.
*Correction. Please see comment below for the reality of corporal punishment.
**All names have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals mentioned. And because I think it's really cool to say that.
Tags for this entry:
fearbrschoolsbrculturebrsocietybroppressionbryouthbrkids
Comments
Jul 28, 2010 - 11:58 PM
What an important, meaningful post, Zuleika. And even without these blatant examples, I would wager that every child has felt intimidation and fear at school at least some point in life—if not multiple times. And heaven forbid you end up on “the list,” as my husband often did; then you are humiliated and taunted on a daily basis, often for no reason other than that you are a child.
And sadly, corporal punishment is still legal in almost half of the states in the U.S., while dozens of other countries have long since outlawed it in their schools: http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=laws-main
What ARE we thinking?
Aug 01, 2010 - 08:42 PM
Thanks for the heads up you two. I am not sure if we are thinking at all, which is why I wanted to know if my experience and that of my younger brother and friends is normal. No one is speaking out about this, with the myriad of other issues clogging up the road to progressive academic change. I suppose it seems at the moment a back-burner or unrealized issue that holds education back.
Los Angeles; Poultney; aspiring to Portland
http://introvertedwisdom.wordpress.com/
Log-in or register below to leave comments
Cian Sawyer
Jul 28, 2010 - 11:40 PM
what you are saying is so critical. it must be voiced and it must be heard. thank you for this post!