School Violence

This book is designed to examine issues related to schools, violence, and society. Since the 1960s, crime and violence have been increasing in America's schools. This violence is not limited to inner-city schools, but has struck virtually every strata and socio-economic level of American culture and society. The prevalence of crime and violence occurring in our nation's schools has become the concern of policymakers on the national and state levels. Concern has spread to parents, educators, and students themselves. This edited volume reviews violence in society, school violence, and crime. Coverage includes past trends in school violence and describes the current extent of the problem, as well as tspects of its causes and prevention. The influence on the students and community of gang activity, gang-related issues, drugs, alcohol, and weapons on campus is discussed.

Ensuring Safe School Environments: Exploring Issues-Seeking Solutions grew out of a policy statement issued by the American Council on Rural Special Education (ACRES). During the 1998 ACRES Conference in Charleston, school violence erupted in Arkansas. The ACRES membership responded immediately with a policy statement followed by a special topical issue of the Rural Special Education Quarterly. (RSEQ). This text includes many of the articles published in the journal and has added discussion questions and activities to enhance understanding of and reflection on the issues surrounding school violence.

Presenting the "big picture" in regard to school violence, this book discusses:

* different solutions others have used to deal with youth violence;

*the different types of programs that have been successful with youth violence;

*school violence from the perspectives of Various parts of the country;

*the frequency of violence in urban, suburban, and rural schools, as well as violence as it directly impacts the school administrator;

*strategies for preventing and addressing violence at both school and individual levels; and

*ways to work with the community, both in and out of the school.

The text is intended as supplementary material for any course preparing school administrators. Containing both research and practice, the text can be a guide for practicing school administrators, as well in their search for ways to insure the safety and well being of the students whom they serve.

The aim of the book is to enhance understanding of the great danger and some sources of animosity between human groups and to focus on developmental processes by which it should be possible to diminish orientations of ethnocentrism, prejudice and hatred. Teaching prejudice and ethnocentrism to children has, all too often in so many places, been virtually automatic and has been conducive to terrible harm in the past. The dangers of hateful outlooks are likely to be much greater as the twenty-first century unfolds. Scholarship and practice in international relations, including war and peace issues, have gravely neglected the crucial psychological aspects of these terrible problems and the educational opportunities. There is a fruitful conjunction of developmental and social psychology in understanding such vital issues and in working toward a more humane, democratic and safe course of adolescent and child development than can in turn affect the safety of humanity in the long run. There are many intriguing examples of research, educational innovations, and visionary leadership in several countries. Most of the book is devoted to promising lines of inquiry and innovation that foster a more humane and less violent development in childhood and adolescence. It should be of interest to scholars, to the education community, and to a well-educated and socially concerned segment of the community.

Violence in schools is a pervasive, highly emotive and, above all, global problem. Bullying and its negative social consequences are of perennial concern, while the media regularly highlights incidences of violent assault - and even murder - occurring within schools. This unique and fascinating text offers a comprehensive overview and analysis of how European nations are tackling this serious issue. Violence in Schools: The Response in Europe , brings together contributions from all EU member states and two associated states. Each chapter begins by clearly outlining the nature of the school violence situation in that country. It then goes on to describe those social policy initiatives and methods of intervention being used to address violence in schools and evaluates the effectiveness of these different strategies. Commentaries from Australia, Israel and the USA and an overview of the book's main themes by eminent psychologist Peter K. Smith complete a truly international and authoritative look at this important - and frequently controversial - subject. This book constitutes an invaluable resource for educational administrators, policymakers and researchers concerned with investigating, and ultimately addressing, the social and psychological causes, manifestations and effects of school violence.

Unruly classrooms, a general lack of discipline and study habits, truancy, and rampant cheating on exams--all of these are recognizable as symptoms of a decaying education system. Schoolland, who taught at the college level in Japan for five years, applies these symptoms to Japanese schools and shatters the myth of excellence surrounding that system of education. In this first person account, Schoolland reveals a side of Japanese education rarely seen in the West. Shogun's Ghost presents a new look at the education system with which the United States would supposedly have to contend in the race for economic supremacy.

Under the aegis of the two grandes dames of international studies in psychology, 23 experts examine violence in all of its multivarious forms around the world. They find that it is present in practically every society, at every socioeconomic level, and in every age group. The first group of essays look at violence as a societal phenomenon--its motivational aspects as related to, for example, terrorism or machismo. The second group of essays discuss violence involving children--incest, trauma, delinquency, school violence, and the death penalty for youths. The last section looks at adult violence, particularly within the family. Marital violence, domestic violence, substance abuse, women and crime, and maltreatment of elders are all presented. The consensus of the study is that the eradication of violence is essential to a better world and is possible. Proof of its possibility is given in the concluding description of life in Ladakh, a peaceable society of Tibetans in northwestern India.