Action Research Project: - iMET

10Social BehaviorsStudents can become complacent when continuously confronting a school environmentthat seems incapable of functioning on their behalf. Some students respond to this environmentwith what Caine and Caine (1994) call downshifting. “Downshifting is a psychophysiologicalresponse to a perceived threat accompanied by a sense of helplessness and lack of self-efficacy”(p. 69). Other students act out their frustrations with the school environment by misbehaving.Some of the frustrations of learners in the traditional school are a result of themisbehaviors of other students. Indeed, misbehaviors not only require the attention of theteacher, thereby disrupting the learning process for others, they violate other students’ right tolearn. Mitch Hall describes how the online learning alternative circumvents this difficulty. “Theonline experience does not permit public reinforcement of misbehaviors that will often impedethe growth of the individual in the traditional school” (Personal communication, September 19,2001).EmotionsSchool life in a bureaucratic environment can be difficult for young people. Somestudents respond to its conditions emotionally. Bracey (1995) tells us there is a loss of sustainedpersonal contact between the staff and the students. This loss of personal contact coupled withenormous student population creates a feeling of anonymity within the individual. Anonymitybecomes the culprit of low self-esteem. Damasio sees a relationship between the inability toreason and the conditions that appear in a typical high school environment. “I see some failuresof rationality as not just due to a primary calculation weakness, but also due to the influence ofbiological drives such as obedience, conformity, the desire to preserve self-esteem, which areoften manifest as emotions and feelings” (p.191).