CONTENTS - ouroboros ponderosa

Tflf- I'II Ii\H .... ' f II· 1111· 'HO',
prohlt'-Ill,'\ :lrc increasing, wilh as 1H,IIIy as (,, "'illin" adull ilJilt'ratt' .... ;
'\1istrusl' of the institutions of the mainstrc£!Ol culture" is advanced as a
key factor in this "American dilemma."
And within thc educational system there are the most active ()fms "f
rebellion paralleling the quieter "crisis in our schools." A bricf chrono­
logical sample will havc to take the place of an easily voluminous catalog
of student mayhem and teacher retreat. Early in '79 two 11 -year old
schoolboys in Marianna, Florida, armed with a gun and a knife tried to
take Over their classroom but were forced out, police reported. On April
6, two Stafford (Connecticut) High School students were arrested for
bombing a chemistry lab, which caused $100,000 damage. On April 24,
four Isleton (California) Elementary School children laced a teacher's
coffee with poison; agcd 12 and J 3. They were later convicted in juvenile
court of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Tbe May
21 u.s. News & Wo rld Report reported that "Now It's Suburbs Where
School Violence Flares: From ice picks to explosives, a frightening array
of weapons are contributing to disorder in the classroom-especially in
areas once relatively untroubled." Also in May, the third arson incident
within a month Occurred in California's San Juan Unified School District,
which brought thc school year's arson losses to over $1 million. The
school districts centering around Sacramento and San Jose are among
other California arcas-largelysuburban_also registering extremely high
arson and vandalism damages. In June '79 a San Diego Teachers
Association "violence inventory" was completed, showing increaSing
student violence; nearly one-fourth of San Diego teachers had been
physically attacked by students during the '78-79 school year. R.M.
Kidder's "Where Have All the Teachers Gone?," in the July 19 Christian
Science Monitor discussed the growing f light trom the field, owing largely
to resistant students. Education periodicals feature articles like Lee
Cauter's "Discipline: You Can Do It!" and "Lessons in Anti-vandalism,"
both in the Instructor, September '79.
Meanwhile, even the most mass-circulation "entertainment" magazines
are forccd to devote space to the crisis. People, September 10, 1979
intervicwed Willard McGuire, p r esident of the National Education
Association, in a piece entitled "Classroom Violence and Public Apathy:
Why Teachers Are Quitting in Droves." McGuirc talked about the
"growing malady of 'teacher burnout'" a problem he believes "threatens
to reach hurricane force if it isn't checked Soon." McGuire's NEA had
met earlier in the summer of '79 and had included one teacher, Emmit
Williams, who understands rather well the meaning of "teacher burnout,"
his homc was burned by one of his students. Phyllis Burch, a teacher with
I
I
"
1(1
- . .
I IIMI ' N IS I I, I,I III',:\/
- . . .. 'issa Cod in the Octoher 10 SUII
.\ 1l';1I"S '_' ql('I H' t1tT I II t(lUl
. st.'t('S' . ' '' 'Yn (:
t h ' g in the schools since the
I .
/;1;111('1.\,0 '.Xl iIlIl ( .
. I' . 1/ ., tint the IO! cmos c ,
.
.
I Il1d- I " "the mllshroommg pro bl e ms ., of violence , yanda lsm,
' ()()s laS "een ,
.
.
",HI drugs 10 t h> e c lassr oom . " Put more m, Idly , "A survey by the
_
.
American Federation of Teachs n d. ates disruptive students are the
;
main cause of stress expenence y eac 'ers:' reported the Novcmber 20,
bi surprise then to fi nd Neil
1979 Wall Street Jo urnal . It 'S not a g . . '. .
1 969 to have
Postman, author 0 f T: ec h· zng As a SubverSIve ACllvlly 10 ,
.
written Teaching as a Conservlng
A ctll . " iy ·n 1979-or to find his "Order
In . t h e CI assr . oom'" in the scptem
b e r I '79 Atlantic . Work, political
. .
t b failing grandly as pillars 0 f our
society, espeCIally perhaps
It is not surpnsmg that newer, I ess su . btle devices must be projected to
come to the rescue 0
. . .
Such a program was unvetled m MId . -Februa '79, with the Committee
for the Study of National Service , s rep rt titl:;; "Youth and the Needs
I servic ' o t e
e for American youth is
f a O
I n
.
nceded to curb . ". CYOlClSffi . and selfishness that can destroy society.
a
u ose and their apathy or self­
participation, educa
. lton all
i e
t : ir Ols as domestication of the young.
. f a rotting social order.
. h N· t · " It declared that umversa
.
"
"Too many ... are dnftmg w
l
t out p
:
h I rp
g " i t added Actually, of course,
this is a retur to the draft, th
p
w: :
arks and the like. ASide from I S h or results in terms of a national
O P
d tl c
l
ear that the volunteer army,
eenteredness is seldom cured y sc
t O 10
;ion of Civilian duty, in slums,
socializing force, It IS also abun an y
.
f1utcd in 1973 has been "a disaster vel . gm . g on a scandal" according
to Congressman Robm Bear d m'
N vcmber '79
0 J 97 spoke o · The EconomIst, March ,
f "sevcre problems of
.
I . ' th ·mmediate backdrop for talk
of reviving consnptlOn. attrition are major problem e, , . h t rnover very high in combat
units and a third of all so I e . :er inishing their first term of
.
enhstment. P en t a gon sources have
mcrea s·,ngly been callina the overall
0 •
status of the volunteer Army "h pe I ess".
, allegedly only a few elite UOlts
f
d ct . have any semblance of mra e or cation 'to national defense.
Beginning in May '79 a recrUlhng scnd:1
pread involving the cnlisting
f h d of unqualified recrUlts, h un dreds ;f Army recruiters have
.
been re leve 0 f duty for their illegal efforts at shoring up a growm
.
shortage of volunteers. In mld-S ep t m ber the Army announced It woul
take enlistees With less than a tent -gra
de education due to manpower
t $6 000 were announced
InS 1
" .
discipline" with the vOlun r v(en ithout leave), training, and
o t ou an
de ! iciencies. Educational bonuses o f u Pni d b dies in the face of the
November 29, 1979 in a bid to attract qua ,
shortage.
,