Southern Illinoisan, November 19, 1998, p. B2, Editorial Page
[Excerpted from the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee (newspaper)]
Higher standards, better educated teachers and more well-equipped classrooms have topped the list of the nation's school reform agenda. But even as progress is made toward those important goals, student learning is being sabotaged by a more difficult problem: kids who misbehave.
Far more pervasive than the high-profile cases of students shooting people on campus are the day-in, day-out incidents of students mouthing off at teachers, smoking in school bathrooms, cheating on quizzes, wandering into class late. Such relatively less serious offenses are nothing new, but a new study by the Educational Testing Service indicates both that they are disturbingly widespread and have a demonstrable effect on achievement. ...
It is clear that discipline must occupy a top spot on the reform agenda, with expectations for civil behavior and consequences for misbehavior going hand-in-hand with higher expectations for achievement. But as in curriculr reforms, schools should be careful not to swing the pendulum too far ...
If those goals are met, officials may be able to avoid schools where metal detectors, surveillance cameras and hall monitors bearing walkie-talkies set a tone of tension and mistrust. The point of discipline at school should be to create an atmosphere where learning can flourish, teaching the benefits of self-discipline and responsibility to others.
A phenomenon called "Class Erosion (gakkyu hokai)" has been spreading in elementary schools all over the country (Japan). It is the phenomenon that classroom instruction becomes impossible to establish because of student discipline problems.
The Ministry of Education defined the problem as "the big problem of schooling" and decided to begin a research study to understand the state of the problem. "Class Erosion" is now understood as one of the most important problems, along with bullying (ijime), absenteism (hutoko), and school violence (konai-boryoku). The Ministry of Education also discusses the possibility of sending specialist teachers to schools to tackle these problems.
"Class Erosion" is the phenomenon that class management becomes impossible--because pupils walk around and chat and this has been happening in elementary schools. The problem became salient from the mid-1990's, but the Ministry of Education did not intervene back then because they thought that the problem should be dealt with at the level of each school.
Yet in the past couple years, the problem began to appear in discussion of local government officials and it became apparent as a problem all over Japan. The Ministry of Education decided to intervene because they noticed finally that many teachers are quitting teaching or retiring early for the reasons that apparently are related to this.
The Ministry of Educaiton will begin a research effort on this problem by visiting schools. Also, if schools request an increase in the number of teachers for solving this problem, the Ministry will consider the request with flexibility.
Additional note from a colleague in Japan: This is a translation of a short article on the front page of the Asahi newspaper.There is additional information on "Class Erosion" on pages 27 and 28 and another related article on page 35. About two months ago, there was a TV program that focused on "Class Erosion," using a video report from inside a classroom. The program seems to have had a certain impact on many people, to help them to become more aware of what is going on in the classroom. This problem seems to be closely related to the changing role of parents in educating their children and to the relationship between parents and schools.
************************************************* * * Jerry P. Becker Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901-4610 USA Fax: (618)453-4244 Phone: (618)453-4241 (office) E-mail: JBECKER@SIU.EDU