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What are We Doing in This Handbasket, And Why is It So Warm in Here?  (Bus Monitor, Greece Central)

I see David’s comments on this matter, and well done, David… but wanted to touch on this myself because there’s a personal angle to the story. Both myself and Art Smith the proprietor of The Conservative Reader [1] both attended the school district in question.. Greece Central, [2]. which is outside Rochester, NY. That being said, I suppose that factoid hardly matters. This kind of nonsense could easily have occurred just about anywhere in the country.

First off, back then, there was no such animal as a schol bus monitor. That’s because of two things;

1: Kids were better behaved
2: That’s because they knew the consequences would be both swift and immediate, if they were not. Consequences from both the school district, and more importantly, the parents.

The school district response back in my day would have been swift and immediate. Such individuals would likely have been kicked off the bus, probably before it fully stopped, before half of what you see on this video had occurred. The next day, the students would likely have been expelled, or at the very least, suspended for a long period of time. And you know what? The students of my day knew that, and knew it well… aside from any reaction of the parents at home.

Now, it’s true, that there will be serious repercussions from this, for the brats involved. Now, at least. But, now consider; absent the video being posted, and all the attention, would it be so? I have much reason to doubt it. And therein, I suppose the problem is.

Look, I know lines got crossed back in the days I attended school, there. But the lines that got crossed were nowhere near this far out. And you know what? We didn’t even HAVE “School bus monitors”…. they simply were not needed.. students behaved.I remember seeing back in say in 1955, that the biggest discipline problem in the school district’s was centered on gum chewing in class. Consider that for a moment.

Why the difference?

It’s a combination of factors. First of all, discipline in those years was needed much less in the schools than today because, students came to school knowing that respecting the teachers and respecting fellow students was what they wanted to do. Parents… you remember them… laid it out for their kids from they day they were born… you respect your elders, end of story. That’s not happening, for the most part anymore.

We can’t expect the government schools to do anything about behavioral issues, when they are so restricted by laws and by parental pressure from reacting to such matters. One of the reasons that parochial schools have better track records with students and their academic performance is because of the level of discipline involved. Not only insofar as response to transgressions, but also in the instilling of values. They also tend to concentrate on involving the family as a unit. Particularly, the parents.

Of course, teachers, for their part, back in the day, in government schools, and even today, in the parochial and private schools, understood and accepted responsibilities of their chosen profession, and invoked more stern discipline for less infraction of their rules than is even dreamed of today. Today, government school teachers are directed to practice less discipline for more serious infraction of rules.

Consider the response [3] in the press release from the school district;

I need to stress that we have a specific process that we must follow before imposing discipline on students. Discipline for public school students in New York State is handled under specific procedures set forth in the New York Education law. In the event that a district is seeking a suspension of more than five days, the district must prove the student’s violation of its Code of Conduct in a due process hearing before a hearing officer. If the student is found guilty, the hearing officer makes a recommendation for an appropriate period of suspension to the superintendent of schools. Each case is determined based upon the actions engaged in by the student as well as consideration of a student’s prior disciplinary record.

Thing is, that legalistic approach, depends very heavily on parents being involved. We have become so mired in procedure, that we’ve forgotten our objective. That is, molding people to become members of society.

The Greece Central School District has a strong bullying prevention model that includes a district response team, training programs for staff and students including the Olweus Bullying Program, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and a Bullying Reporting Process. In March, we also hired a special counselor to train all staff in bullying prevention models. In fact, she is holding a previously scheduled training for administrators as we speak.

Clearly, this approach isn’t working. If parents don’t teach respect before their little darlings get to the early school years, this kind of legalistic approach isn’t going to mean anything at all, other than large expense, and very happy lawyers. And what happens when they reach society as adults? Huge prison populations, and a society which hardly qualifies as such.

Parents are not nearly so involved anymore, as they once were, and have prevented the schools from directly and immediately responding to disciplinary issues, and have forced the schools into the legalistic approach. What we see in that vid is the direct result of that combination.

Thing is, I doubt we’re going to learn the lesson of this.