Stemming the tide towards violence
What is an educator’s responsibility in troubled times?
The three international, interwoven events that occurred earlier this year — the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher market in Paris, and the return to school of Pakistani students to the Army School of Peshawar — have turned me to the following question: what is the role that teachers and schools can and must play in stemming the tide of children towards extremist and mass violence? Schools, as the only institutions that require universal attendance in most democracies, have the unique and unparalleled opportunity to imbue all citizens with the emotional dispositions and habits of mind for citizenship. How can educators use that opportunity effectively?
Built from a diverse and rambling populace, schools in the United States have always faced questions of how best to assimilate newcomers into American society. While the question of whether schools have been successful is up for debate, and while the methods and commitment have ebbed and flowed, schools in the U.S. have the longest history of working on and debating social emotional literacy and character education. Unfortunately, in the last ten years this kind of work has been eclipsed by the panic to compete globally, which has manifested in strict curriculum standards and high stakes testing to the neglect of effective education.
Meanwhile, most school systems in the rest of the world, particularly Europe, Asia and South America, have typically seen the role of education as cultivating the academic, artistic, and physical attributes, leaving social-emotional development to families and religious institutions.
However, there is no better time for educators around the world to collectively reflect on how education can stem the tide of young people towards mass violence and extremism and towards civic engagement and problem-solving. I suggest three major components to educating for Civic Engagement and Problem-Solving: social emotional literacy (SEL), democratic school practices, and opportunities for civic engagement. The essential components of social-emotional development that must be engaged to support the growth of civic behaviors in our youth include:
• Self-awareness: how do I feel, why do I feel that way, what can I do about it?
• Empathy: how is another feeling, can I connect with what they are feeling, how can I help?
• Effective communication: how do I express my thoughts and feelings effectively, so that I can improve my situation, or the situation of another?
• Problem-solving: what is the essence of the problem, and what solution will have the greatest benefit for the largest number of people?
Building these habits of mind with children day by day will reveal important information to teachers about the emotional strengths, challenges, and states of those in their classrooms. Because teachers will ultimately be the first line in this effort, education departments must press teacher training institutions to cultivate and imbue in its teachers these very same habits of mind that we are seeking for our students to possess.
Teachers that are themselves self-aware, empathic, effective communicators and problem-solvers will create classrooms that are inclusive and authentically welcoming to diversity.
Work in the classroom must be supported by school systems that think in the long term about the support needed by children who are struggling with social-emotional problems. Much has been learned in the United States about children who have turned to gangs and mass violence, including the failure of schools, doctors, social institutions and parents to see when a child is in crisis and appropriately intervene before they act. Most recently are detailed reports addressing the series of failures to intervene in the life of Adam Lanza, the teen who committed mass violence in Newtown, Connecticut. The murders at Charlie Hebdo were committed by two brothers who were abandoned to orphanages and possessed long histories of anti-social behavior. What do we know about the interventions made in their interest as children without adequate supports? Teachers, schools, and the medical world need to analyze this body of information and create a protocol for acting on behalf of children heading for a crisis.
Next, building inclusive schools that offer opportunities for real democratic engagement will require fundamental rethinking about how schools represent and serve the communities in which they reside. This takes time — time for professional development and curriculum development geared towards authentic learning about diversity, civic engagement, and the subcultures of the community. Time for building partnerships with parents and communities is critical to the school understanding and including all of the cultures from which their students come. This type of deep exploration of the community the school serves should lead to the inclusion of multiple perspectives, both in the curriculum and in the school’s culture-building and decision-making. James Banks, renowned expert on educating for diversity states:
“Merely incorporating new perspectives into the curriculum will not result in authentic educational reform related to diversity. Rather, curriculum reform without more fundamental restructuring of the school will result in classrooms that are not fundamentally changed.” (Banks, James A.; Multicultural Education: Transformative Knowledge and Action)
Finally, building in many opportunities for children, particularly teens, to participate in community service and service learning is critical for putting their social-emotional literacy to work. Many and varied opportunities to apply SEL to real situations and real problem-solving will help mitigate the overwhelming pressures teens face to turn away from their personal ethics and emotional awareness. Community service opportunities in which students have real contact with people, animals, or environmental sites in need of their support and the opportunity to identify a problem and design a solution are examples of democracy in action, and offer a sense of being part of a greater whole. Serious action on building a sense of inclusion for every child must incorporate experiences that reinforce their worth and importance to their society.
In order for schools to effectively participate in the ongoing development and safety of the democracies within which they educate the nation’s children, national departments of education and unions must come to see the necessity of, and support schools in the actively cultivation of, social-emotional literacy skills which undergird civic engagement from a young age. This is different than assimilating new citizens; this is offering children the key to true citizenship through engaging with the mechanisms of democracy. In democracies, schools need to embody the principles of democracy, engaging teachers, staff, and students in co-creating the life and culture of their schools. As John Dewey wrote:
“The aim of education [and] the object and reward of learning is continued capacity for growth. Now this idea cannot be applied to all the members of a society except where intercourse of man with man is mutual, and except where there is adequate provision for the reconstruction of social habits and institutions by means of wide stimulation arising from equitably distributed interests. And this means a democratic society.” (Featherstone, Joseph; What Schools Can Do)
While I am not suggesting that education alone can stem the flow of young people to extremist groups or actions, I believe strongly that thoughtful teaching and integration of skills that are the foundation for civic engagement and problem solving are critical. Such an educational approach can prevent the isolation and disenfranchisement of citizens which lead to violent and extremist behavior — so what are we waiting for?
Bio: Michelle Rosenfeld Hughes was born in 1960 to two public school teachers, grew up in New York City, and attended public schools. She spent the first twelve years of her teaching career as a progressive public middle school teacher in Red Hook, New York. In her twelfth year of teaching, No Child Left Behind policies took hold and, after struggling to find ways to continue real teaching and learning, like many, she found it impossible to remain teaching in the system. She left public education to begin the middle school program at High Meadow School in Stone Ridge, NY, in 2001 and assumed the headship in 2010. High Meadow is an independent not-for-profit progressive school serving 165 children from Nursery to 8th grade. In addition to her work in schools, Michelle is a writer of fiction and essays on education. She received her BA in Visual Arts from SUNY New Paltz and her MA in Elementary and Museum Education from Bank Street College of Education.
