By Bob Hager
Wholeschool Founder and Executive Director
Let's Get Police out of Schools
Do you remember when a police officer in the school building meant we were going to watch those horrific pictures of kids in traffic accidents? If you do, then you are in my age group. Today, police are assigned to our schools to handle violence and patrol for weapons. This is not the way to solve the problem! We must take action much earlier.
The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences stated:
"Most types of antisocial behavior (e.g., aggression, bullying, violence) are already evident by third grade. Because middle childhood is a time when children’s beliefs about aggression and conflict resolution skills are developing, researchers have suggested that interventions aimed at preventing youth violence ought to begin at this time."
The time to take action is when children are in elementary school. And the action to take is introducing them to themselves, to become self-aware.
In his book "Emotional Intelligence" Daniel Goleman talks about John Mayer, a University of New Hampshire psychologist who, with Yale’s Peter Salovey, co-formulated the theory of emotional intelligence. Goleman writes, "Although there is a logical distinction between being aware of feelings and acting to change them, Mayer finds that for all practical purposes the two usually go hand-in-hand: to recognize a foul mood is to want to get out of it. This recognition, however, is distinct from the efforts we make to keep from acting on an emotional impulse. When we say "Stop that!" to a child whose anger has led him to hit a playmate, we may stop the hitting, but the anger still simmers. The child’s thoughts are still fixated on the trigger for the anger -- "But he stole my toy!" -- and the anger continues unabated. Self- awareness has a more powerful effect on strong, aversive feelings: the realization "This is anger I’m feeling" offers a greater degree of freedom—not just the option not to act on it, but the added option to try to let go of it."
Working with these premises, Wholeschool developed a 16-lesson program in self-understanding for children 6 to 11 years of age.
Presented in a fun context called The YETI Club, we produced three pilot programs involving over 200 elementary age children. We interviewed teachers and facilitators within each participating group and clear behavior improvements were cited after the six-week programs. For example, the program director for the Tulalip Tribe Boys and Girls Club said the lessons stimulated conversations about organ damage from drug and alcohol use. Sister Suzanne Gallagher, Principal of the St. Mary Elementary School in Guttenberg, Iowa wrote: "Children who had more difficulty in the emotional/social realm really blossomed in YETI Club. They seem to have developed a greater respect for themselves that transferred to their relationships with others. YETI gave confidence to our at-risk kids."
I understand that school administrators may not have any other choice at present, and that obviously student safety is their first priority. However, Wholeschool offers an alternative that may eventually lead to a solution that stops the violence at the source, before it starts and ends the need for a police presence in our schools.
