Empowering Students To Cope With Anger Management

“To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”- Theodore Roosevelt. Across the globe many societies continue to struggle with issues of values and attitudes. Without a doubt the time has come for the authorities to introduce the teaching of character education into the National Standards Curriculum (NSC). Recently, the nation was shaken to its core by numerous images of students engaged in fights both at school and in the public space. Notwithstanding these latest disturbing images, school violence is not new nor is it unique to any society. It is given that children learn from their lived experiences. Undoubtedly, behavioral traits when repeated become habits. And given a context when negative behaviours are pervasive and permissible the society is facing a crisis. It is often said that our education system is reactionary. It is rather unfortunate that given all the problems society has been experiencing with school violence character education is still not yet part of the curriculum. There is one school of thought that says the business of character education is the responsibility of parents. However, parents do not necessarily have the skills sets or time to undertake the holistic approach for the development of their child’s character development. Many parents depend on the school, the church and other agents of socialization to mould the character development of their children. The role of the school is critical to the type of society we wish to live in. Just imagine the positive and meaningful impact on society were we to have character education programmes being part of the curriculum. Schools have the opportunity to make a consequential contribution to the holistic development of their students. Regrettably, a male student at Irwin High School in the parish of St. James was killed after he was approached and attacked by a group of students outside the school compound. Yet, in another recent incident of school violence, the Mona High School was closed for two days amid ongoing violence among students of several Corporate Area schools. These incidents have not been isolated. There are numerous videos being circulated on social media concerning violence among students from both urban and rural schools. Unquestionably, our students have normalized violence. Who can forget the Columbine High School massacre? The Columbine shooting on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, occurred when two teenagers went on a shooting spree, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others, before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. Violence has become a sort of currency in the society where those who are powerless, mentally challenged and voiceless create havoc.

Schools as Safe Havens. School safety is defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as the process of establishing, and maintaining, a school that is a physically, cognitively, and emotionally safe space for students and staff to carry out learning activities. Many of our schools are not viewed as safe havens. It is rather foolhardy to suggest that students attending schools which are located in violence prone areas are not impacted by the ongoing violence in the surrounding areas. School safety is a combination of the physical, physiological and psychological elements. Regrettably, the tendency is to overlook the psychological and physiological impact of violence on our students. The student who comes to school hungry and disheveled oftentimes will become a target for ridiculed and bullying by other students. Both students and teachers are timid and fearful on a daily basis. The time to flip this script has long gone. As a society we need to reclaim our schools, one school at a time. For children to learn and teachers to teach, schools must be safe places. For many students and indeed teachers, school is a scary and frightening place where they are bullied daily. While the statistics regarding crimes occurring on or near schools is unknown in some countries, there is documented evidence that this is problematic and needs urgent attention. In the search for a solution we have turned many of our schools into fortresses yet the violence in schools continues. Not feeling safe at school was related to being victimized and mental health difficulties, including depressive symptoms and suicidal behaviour. Another well-known threat to students’ safety is bullying which takes different forms, namely physical, cyber, verbal, relational, and damage to property. Considering that the root causes of school violence are numerous, teaching our students to better understand and manage their fears and anger without violence remains a challenge that requires a comprehensive and coordinated effort by all stakeholders such as the schools, families, and other community institutions. Engendering a Safe and Positive School Environment . The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4 speaks to inclusive and equitable quality education. However, if our students and teachers do not feel safe this admirable global goal will not be achieved. The United Nations (UN) states, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was already off-track to achieve its education targets. The UN adds that if no additional measures are taken, only one in six countries will meet SDG4 and achieve universal access to quality education by 2030. An estimated 84 million children and young people will still be out of school and an estimated 300 million students will still not have the basic numeracy and literacy skills they need to succeed in life. To deliver SDG4, education systems must be re-imagined, and education financing must become a priority national investment. For children to learn and teachers to teach, schools must be seen as having a positive and safe environment. In order to safeguard the stakeholders it is necessary to implement character education in our schools. Character education is a growing discipline in recent times with the intent of optimizing student’s ethical behaviour. We need to stop and take a serious look at the society, since it appears that we lack the fortitude and wherewithal to produce men and women of good character. It should be very clear to all of us that without positive and good character, corruption intensifies. Corruption has become embedded and entrenched in the social fabric of the society over the years and it will take a strategic, collective and deliberate effort to rid the society of this destructive monster, and as such we must begin with the future of the society our children. We must ensure that our children are given the tools necessary to develop into citizens who have acquired positive social skills after learning the basic tenets of decency. Since it appears that our homes have failed in this regard, the onus is now on our schools to try and bridge the gap left by parents who have abandoned their duties. Character education is simply about how people treat each other. As a society we do not treat each other well. We kill and maim recklessly and we abuse our sons and daughters. We drive badly and curse each other on the roads daily. We spew out hate and show levels of intolerance against those in the society whom we view as different and threatening, failing to recognize that what binds us together as a people surpasses that which separates us. Character education is the deliberate effort to develop virtues that are good for the individual and society by affirming our human dignity Values and Attitudes. Values such as respect, responsibility, caring, fairness, justice, choices, safety, tolerance, knowledge are only some of the ideals which are associated with the teaching of character education. These values have become even more important in the teaching and learning experience of the 21st century since more and more of our students are exposed to issues of bullying, school violence, sexting and pornography, which continue to create havoc for school administrators, parents and the wider student population. It is important that we facilitate and expose our students to all the necessary tools and skills which will make them into better adults. There will be some who will argue that Social Studies is currently being taught in our schools. However, some of the traditional high schools did not include Social Studies among the subjects that they offer, and even when these schools offer Social Studies it's an option and not compulsory. The teaching of character education should be compulsory in all public institutions of learning at the early childhood, primary and secondary levels of the education system. We can and should implement inexpensive and corrective measures such as the teaching of character education in our schools. In recent times there has been a growing body of research that supports the idea that the teaching of character education results in the improvement in academic performance, students' behaviour and attitudes. Students who are taught character education at an early age are more likely to succeed in higher education as well as in their careers. Marvin Berkowitz, Professor of Character Education at the University of Missouri St Louis, in his well-reasoned and logical synopsis of the issue, believes that students who attend schools where they feel valued and safe will work harder. One certainly cannot argue against his hypothesis as this makes much sense. Teaching about character is just as important as teaching the basics of Mathematics, Social Studies or Physics. Surely, before we get to the academics which is the primary focus of our institutions of learning, we must inculcate a culture of respect for self and for others if our schools and the wider society are going to be places of safety for all of us to live, work and raise families. Character education cannot cure all the world's evils, but it can improve our classrooms and influence our students in positive ways, by equipping them with the skills that they will need to be successful adults. In the words of Thomas Lickona, character education helps to create an environment for caring and learning in schools. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo © #charactereducation