Causes For Violence In Schools

The FPF also believes that there is a very simple solution to all this violence. It has been proven to work in practice for over 30 years in a private school in Massachusettes. More on this later.

First, a little about the symptoms:

Bullying flourishes because students have no real recourse against those who bully them. The bullies receive mild punishments, if any, and are then free to further bully those who turned them in.

Harrassment flourishes for the same reason -- no recourse. This lack of recourse exists in part because the financial incentives the school has to keep trouble-makers in school. If they kick out those who violate the well being of others, they lose federal funding. So instead of valuing the rights of those few students who want to learn, they value maintaining their revenues.

For twelve years, students are denied most of the rights they are expected to wield responsibly once they turn 18. The very school system that is commissioned to "prepare students to be good citizens" does so in an environment of political tyranny - the students have no freedom of speech (right to criticize the government, ie. school administration), no right to a trial by a jury of their peers, no right against unwarranted searches, no right to representation in the law-making, etc., etc.

How do we expect the students to value and protect rights which they are never granted until they are eighteen? The very system which is supposed to prepare them to live in a free society is itself a very closed, heirarchical and tyranny-rich environment -- no mutual self-government going on there.

Compulsion kills incentive -- the old Soviet Union's disasterous economy proved that. When you compel people to produce (or learn) what they do not have any desire for, their motivation and their initiative both die, and, they begin to hate the very "rewarding" tasks they are being compelled to complete.

Compelling children to learn subjects that they have no desire to learn, on an artificial schedule, under contrived circumstances is a recipe for the hatred of learning.

It has been said that "if a child lives with criticism, he will learn to condemn." Does it not also follow, that:
If a child lives in a tyranny, he will learn to tyrannize.
If a child lives with harrassment, he will learn harrass.
If a child lives with violence, he will learn to be violent

It is our contention that school violence is caused by -- violence in the schools -- physical, social, political violence perpetrated by both students and staff. The violent youth saw no other means to defend himself against the violences being foisted upon him, but to strike out. Others, passively submit because "that is just the way things are."

Can't believe that children are harmed by what we are identifying here as political and intellectual tyranny? Then read what they say about why they hate school. You will be surprised.

THE CURE

The solution to school violence is... freedom, ie. self-government on an individual and group basis. Not "license", but "liberty in law". The Sudbury Valley School provides an environment of physical, social, political, and intellectual freedom which has proven to function quite well. It is beyond the scope of this web page to describe the amazing results SVS has achieved. But they have had phenominal success in creating a miniature version of the greater free society, where the children, by practicing self-government every day, enjoy an environment virtually free of violence of any kind.

The Freedom Preservation Foundation invites you to assist in awaking more people to this solution by forwarding our URL to your family, friends, and associates. The FPF is deeply committed to the creation of a nationwide network of such private violence-free schools.

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(c) 2003 by Freedom Works! Inc.