I always find it interesting when students decide that they want to try to act like someone they are not. I know I've done it in my youth. I pretended to act like my friends from the "rough neighborhood" of my town, and dressed a certain way when hanging out with them, and a different way when I was hanging out at home. I don't see how it is any different with other adolescents. They want to be respected, and in any community, you dress and act the way that's going to get you respect. In this article, it just happens to be acting. Peer pressure keeps kids in trouble rather than out of it.
And not only that, but looking at what is on television and in the news doesn't help either. Violence is glorified day in and out. Between that and social pressures to be "hardcore" and "tough," it's no shock to me that students are turning to violence. I do find it sad, however, that students continue to make destructive decisions despite all of the school resources that some schools have available.
Perhaps as educators there is more we can do. Maybe in classes, laws on gang violence and destructive behaviors can be addressed and discussed, like in a health class. Clubs and after school programs can be devised to help promote healthy, low-risk decision making, similar to LCHC's Teen Coalition. Keeping students busy, giving them an outlet and helping them through their teen years.
I suppose we should only hope that these teens who are "at risk" for such behavior will join these organizations, and that more areas of the state/country can provide such services for America's youth.
I completely agree! I remember doing these same things when I was younger to fit in. I think sacrificing your own identity to not suffer the harassment from your peers seems like a fair trade off to a young person. I think as teachers we can try to get students to understand that people of all walks of life do every job and every activity, and can be "cool". For example, being into mixed martial arts, if there were some athletic young people bullying someone for being gay, I might show them the UFC fighter Jake Shields, a well respected top five welterweight who happens to be gay, but is also tough and a good fighter, showing them that sexual orientation actually does not matter and is not something to be joked about. I think you highlight the importance of supporting youth in every way possible and do a very good job in doing so.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading the article on being hardcore, i really felt as though the students that were in the situations that forced them to become hard were not something that they ever got a break from. In order to survive where they lived, they needed to develop a specific personality, and then the school systems failed to make any alternative to the illegal lifestyles appear possible for the student. I'm not sure that it really has a lot to do with "glorifying violence" that we frequently see in the media.
ReplyDeleteWe put too much emphasis on what people look like and how the first impressions that we get from them. We need to learn to step back and reevaluate students beyond those first impressions in order to give ourselves a chance to meet the actual person, rather than the stereotype we place them under. We need to be able to do that before we can even attempt to help them with their problems.
I think that as kids are still discovering themselves they are going to try things they are obviously aren't. But they don't know that yet. I think as teachers we can do our best by helping guide the students and keep them from going down the darker paths in their adventure of self discovery. The more we can help them learn about themselves without having to resort to violence or drugs the better.
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