Schools that close in on themselves! Why and how to reverse this phenomenon.

Violent incidents occur in schools. Far from being an inevitability, this must lead educational communities to find solutions.

Class 1984, a seminal film?

In 1982, just 40 years ago, the film Class of 1984. For those who haven't heard of it, here is the trailer trailer in its original. The teacher's nightmare is caricatured in it.

The synopsis is as follows:

"In the near future, Andy Norris, a young music teacher, is appointed as a substitute teacher at Abraham Lincoln High School.Soon he runs into Peter Stegman, a teenage leader of a delinquent gang. Norris first tries to tame the teenage violence. The suicide of a high school student under the influence of drugs shocks him. Norris knows that the drugs were sold by Peter Stegman, but the only teenage witness, Arthur, refuses to talk.

So soon, Andy Norris faces pressure and threats from the rowdy teens, especially after he turns Stegman away from his band despite his qualities as a musician. Destroying cars, making threats, etc., the relationship between the teacher and his student keeps escalating to a point of no return. "Source

40 years later what is the situation?

The schism is growing between so-called difficult schools and those in more privileged neighborhoods.

The teaching world was traumatized by the savagely assaulted death of Samuel Paty and other similar cases. In response, schools are becoming less open. One can even even think that they are turning inward, both to try to protect themselves from the outside world, which can be violent, but also to avoid showing the reality of what is happening in some schools.

To see the violence that exists in some countries that were relatively protected from the phenomenon, one only has to look at what happened in Brussels following a simple soccer match between Belgium and Morocco.

Is the withdrawal of schools inevitable?

Trust is an essential element between those involved in education.

For years, Finland has been held up as an example for its PISA test results. In this regard, Saunalahti School is an interesting example. In one sentence, this article describes the mentality and atmosphere there:

"Children who want to get out of class and engage in activities elsewhere in the school or outside also find ample room everywhere."

On the other hand, there are attempts to reinforce discipline and this is done through the introduction of ever more restrictive rules and punishments.

At the level of teachers, there is also a sense of distrust fueled by increased and fussy constraints and obligations. Currently, in some schools in Belgium, the good teacher is no longer the one who manages to make his or her learners acquire skills by implementing learning strategies adapted to each class group he or she is facing. No, the good teacher is the one who has his, many, administrative documents in order.

A counterproductive system?

Human beings are so made that when you constrain them, you usually get the opposite of the desired effect. It's the eternal story of the carrot or the stick. In the long run, if you put constraints that are not very useful, people will be amused that they have managed to evade or circumvent them.

Solutions?

Centralization and standardization exclude many people from the system. Indeed, this can be seen as a reason for demotions in education. The system that hovers sanctions or punishments over the actors, teacher or student, cannot function very effectively, as much of its energies are turned against itself.

Getting fear out of the system

Fear breeds conformity. The student as well as the teacher who acts like others and does strictly what is expected of him or her is not putting himself or herself in danger and does not risk sanctions or reprisals. This passage from an article published on open edition describes the mechanism very well:

"The independence of each individual is limited, for all his behaviors are modulated by his contacts with the society, groups, and culture in which he evolves. From these interactions, the following are developed codes specifying standards of conduct: members of a group know, therefore, what other members expect of them." Source

Letting individual initiatives develop

Conformism prevents initiative and a different way of thinking. To change this logic, rather than being part of a top-down top-down approach as our educational systems do, the opposite should be done which would allow people on the ground to imagine, create and develop mechanisms adapted to their context.

New tools are developing, such as AIs (https://cursus.edu/fr/25916/une-ia-peut-elle-faire-les-devoirs-et-travaux-a-la-place-des-etudiants) or various devices with advanced technologies, and it is not people as smart and experienced as they may be who, from their desks (or ivory towers) are going to come up with effective educational strategies. This can only come from individuals who will understand the needs, experiment, and ultimately find solutions.

On the other hand, if these individuals risk punishment, they will If these individuals risk punishment, they will bend to an uninspiring routine or leave this world of teaching.

And the learners.

Constraint is sometimes essential...but there can only be constraints to the image. The sentence in this article shows what a system based solely on authority produces:

"A person who repeatedly takes the opposite direction from authority is a slave to her need to show herself to be free to herself and to others. She is quick to reassert an illusion of freedom by consistently going in the opposite direction." Source

Constraint liberates from the moment that constraint sets up a framework but does not restrain, or bridle. It is by rebuilding an educational system that the school will be able to open up again, following the example of the Saunalahti school.