The Elements in Need of Repair: The Pieces

America’s degradation of ethics has been attributed to many societal flaws.  Some would say a decline in religious values.  Others would point to the rise of dysfunctional families.  Most would blame the predominate use of the media to parent our youth.  Whatever the reason, the focus on absolutes has been watered down and today’s youth can no longer discern right from wrong.  Relativism is especially rampant in our middle and senior high schools as students seek adolescent individuality and independence.  (See the report on Media’s Influence of Youth which I wrote for my Master’s Capstone which includes a thorough literature study on relativism and media’s parenting of today’s youth.) Without a solid foundation of core societal norms, our students will simply continue to relegate relativism to their future generations and this replication will induce what Thomas Jefferson equated to as “decay” upon our country. (Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Doctor Thomas Cooper, Monticello, November 2, 1822)

I suggest that WCA’s issues of decay include the following four areas:

· Discipline –
WCA’s prior discipline structure (including limited consequences, communication deficiencies and inconsistency)

· Mentoring –
Inadequate and inconsistent individual student mentoring,

· Character Development –
The suspension of a collaborative character development program,

· Incentives –
The lack of an organized system of incentives or rewards for academic and behavioral success.

In 25 years of teaching and youth worker experience (of which most has been with at risk inner city youth), I have seen these issues of decay in many schools and districts.   However, when I became the Dean of Students at WCA in late October 2006, I immediately sought to develop a plan for change. While I did not document a formal proposal, mentally I had an idea about what was needed to positively impact our school’s negative behavioral issues.  I knew I did not want to simply be the school’s central disciplinarian, modifying behavior externally through reprimand and consequences; instead, I desired to modify their behavior intrinsically through a combination of discipline and character development.  The change I envision today requires a new way of thinking and a more focused approach to dealing with these key decay areas.

As I developed this proposal into a written format, I included aspects of my mental plan. Therefore, some issues are already in their first stages of being dealt with.  For example, the discipline structure was modified last semester and this year is being tweaked to coincide with the other aspects of the proposal.  Also in direct response to this proposal, second quarter 2007 was the beginning of a mentorship pilot program whereas a teacher-mentor as been aligned with every student in the school. Finally, the WCA grade chairs have been meeting with me bi-weekly to develop a character development program tailored to the individual grade levels and we will be discussing a rewards / incentive program soon.  Each of these components is critical and must be individually addressed; however, a collaboration of the four is necessary for complete success. 

The next section, The Solutions, will offer a more thorough description about how I propose we deal with each issue starting with discipline.

WEB RESOURCES:

· Media’s Influence on Youth: Literature Study

Thomas Jefferson Quotes:

· Letter to Doctor Thomas Cooper, Monticello, November 2, 1822