The problems of inner city schools - violence, lack of funding, gang-banging - has been discussed and written about since I was growing up in south-central LA. And that was when God was a boy. That's not to say a lot's been done about it, but there's been no shortage of reports and, er, white papers about it over the years.

Keep in mind that the original post described the "study" as pertaining to violence among "ordinary" children in "ordinary" schools. Decode that and it reads: "white suburban teenagers in adequately funded schools." High violence in inner-city schools (decoded as: largely black/hispanic students or simply - disproportionalely non-white schools in poor areas) has been glossed over or flat- out ignored because it pertained to "Them" and not "Us." Violence in schools only became an issue when it moved into white suburban schools. This isn't a new phenomenon.

I wonder who taught you that there was a giant conspiracy to keep students drones?

Speaking as someone who recently finishing high school (graduated in 2000) I can there are a lot of teachers who really care. But, as Chris says, they are largely being forced out of the education "business." Quite frankly, "the powers that be" do not want people who can think for themselves, because thinking for yourself will ultimately lead to questioning authority.

I went to public school in Texas until 7th grade. My understanding of the way things worked there at the time is that the schools with the highest mean scores on certain standardized tests were given the most funding. Thus, the schools I went to, mostly in small towns with poor economies, spent most of their time teaching kids how to fill in circles carefully and make educated guesses.

I moved to Wyoming while I was in 7th grade, and education was much different there. There was no state standardized testing and preparing students for work and\or college were the main goals of most teachers. During my junior year, the state finally created a state standardized test and things changed immediately. Suddenly teachers were being accused of doing a poor job of teaching. And naturally, the administration began to change the requirements of the curriculum to emphasize standardized testing skills. Fortunately I was finished with all my graduation requirements and spent the rest of my high school career taking courses I wanted to take. But now the graduation requirements are different and the classes are different. Electives are being cut, and teachers’ jobs are being threatened. Some of the best teachers are leaving. Some of the younger ones are moving into other careers, the older ones retiring.

In school I had few problems with teachers, most of my problems came from the administration who insisted on strict adherence to pointless rules that often conflicted with education. For example, arriving in class three seconds after the bell rang would land you a conversation with the assistant principal that took up more of your class time than you missed being late. As near as I could tell no one in my high school’s administration gave a rat’s ass about education, they were interested in money and conformity.

Most teachers who *really* care have been more or less pushed out of teaching. It's now about turnover and profit, not education. Most teachers long ago gave up trying to be a role model in addition to all their other duties. With the business managers running the schools, quality is an optional extra -- and this is the environment most parents are handing over the growth of their children to.

I've done some teaching and I can tell you that between the crap attitude of most of the students and the penny-pinching demonstrated by management you can either give up on giving the kids a real future or leave. Not much of a choice.

I have some elderly friends who, from memory, spent a huge proportion of their lives teaching at public schools. They now live in a caravan beyond the outer suburbs not because they want to, but because they can't afford anything better.

Meanwhile, colleges continue to pump out graduates with no useful skills. My qualifications only qualified me to teach more people the same qualifications -- there's no job at the end of the pyramid. When there are already several hundred unemployed IT people in a community actively looking for work, why are several hundred more spat out of tertiary studies each year? Because students aren't "the future" anymore, they're "customers" -- and parting them with their money is all a business ever cares about these days.

Chris, teachers DO care--some teachers. That's the sort of blanket statement that annoys the hell out of me. Teachers are the designated whipping child for every societal problem--things suck because teachers don't care. Knock it off. It's a low blow and you're smart enough to know that.

That said, my (very limited) experience with Japanese schools would suggest that the problems you site are growing, but far from epidemic. What Japanese educators told us was that their societal problems always seem to be about fifteen years behind ours. So right now they're very worried about the future.

I think you and Chico hit at the heart of the problem when you talked about the absent parent. Many kids go to daycare until they're in fifth grade, then they go home to empty houses to hang out together like feral cats. It's a definate problem. That and chronically tired parents.

Pat: http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~hwolod/problems.html

Excerpt: "Bullying is a problem that has become more prominent among Japanese children. It first became important in Japanese society when it became the supposed cause of a rash of suicides among school-aged children in the mid-1980s. Bullying is referred to as ijime. Recently, bullying has manifested itself in the form of exclusion. Children band together to ostracize a particular student, thereby solidifying the group and at the same time asserting their superiority."

Japan had a higher proportion of multigenerational households until far more recently than western cultures. They are just a little behind "us" in the "Bad Teen" stakes.

Haas is right, although "encouraging sport" is a bit vague and many popular sports are little more than gang warfare with scoring.

My mother used to help me with my studies, from primary school to high school. If committments meant she couldn't be with me after school hours I stayed with my grandmother. This means that my behaviour was influenced more by my family (of varying ages and experiences) than my peers (of the same age, and limited experience).

Children will learn behaviour from anybody they're exposed to. In today's schools teachers don't care. If parents also don't put in the time then kids are going to reinforce each other's bad behaviour, often in a effort to fit in and be treated well by the people they spend the most time with.

Eat dinner together. Stay interested in schoolwork. Ask about their music. Argue politics. Give jobs around the house. Talk don't tell. Listen don't interrupt. Trust R ratings. Encourage sports and other activities. Attend 'em. Meet the friends. Support the teachers. Avoid the two big minefields: too much freedom and not enough. And maybe they won't pull a Mendendez on you or anyone else. I've failed many times in every category. But I know the goal. Yours truly, polonius haas.

O.K. , Chris, then explain Japanese society where kids are cut off almost completely from their fathers and yet turn out fine. Well, most of them.

I've always wondered how the post wwII, workaholic dads turned out generations of well behaved, socially responsible kids. They depend -a lot- on schools to socialize, but it seems to work.

New generations are being cut off from older ones in much of western society. Parents leave raising their children to schools. Kids have to learn to mature by themselves. Without the steadying hand of *several* generations, children develop behavioural problems. This has even been observed outside of the human species. Parents who don't take a real interest in there children's schooling are basically turning all of society into a school yard. Without the wisdom of the elders to jump-start a child's social development they have to make it up as they go along.

Workplaces expecting permanent overtime don't help either. Having to choose between having a job or a well adjusted child is just cruel.

Shut up you!

I'll get you after math.

are you doing research on "mean teens"?