THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 30, 1994 TAG: 9410280246
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
You must conduct yourselves as young ladies and young gentlemen at all times. . .
Printed in bold type on a page-long memo to I.C. Norcom students participating in Homecoming Assembly, this line jumped out at me.
What a wonderful message! Why is this message reserved only for a few special people on a few special occasions?
Why don't we print the message in bold type on every piece of paper circulated in all the public schools? Why don't we flash it in neon over all the doors? Why don't we have published consequences?
The memo goes on to list other ``musts'' for those who intend to participate in the assembly.
Not only must they be prepared to arrive at the homecoming football game early; they also must stay for the entire game.
Students are admonished to exhibit ``good taste'' in their clothing. They are told that the assembly will be conducted in ``a dignified manner.'' Behavior must be, the memo says, ``above reproach.''
``Unbecoming behavior will bring consequences,'' the memo states matter-of-factly.
And, it continues, ``Remember that you represent the school, Norcom alumni and yourself.''
The memo is stern and straight-forward. It tells the students what is expected of them and threatens reprisals for not complying to expected behavior.
To a person who went to public schools many years ago, that makes sense.
Every day in every school, certain standards of behavior were a way of life. Our parents expected no less from the schools - or from their children, for that matter.
Our teachers were expected by the principal to enforce behavior. If words wouldn't work, then we were sent to the library or, in serious cases, to the principal's office - a very disgracful trip, I might add. Although I have heard people older than I am talk about whippings in school, I never knew of any classmates or teachers, for that matter, who let behavior get that far out of hand.
If today's principals were into corporal punishment, they would have to spend entire days beating discipline into their charges.
Alas, we now bend so far in the other direction that many kids think they have a ``right'' to do whatever they want to do.
Somewhere, somehow, the schools lost control.
They could begin to regain control, perhaps, if they took a lesson from the memo to the students preparing for the Norcom homecoming.
I'm sure the phrasing in the memo sounds arbitrary to most students of today and to those who have come through the public schools in recent years.
Phrases like ``good taste,'' ``dignified manner,'' ``unbecoming behavior'' and ``beyond reproach'' are indeed subjective. They probably seem archaic to those who have no concept of good behavior.
But it's time we returned the authority to teachers and principals - the authority to decide what constitutes such intangibles as taste, dignity and good behavior - even if we sometimes disagree with their interpretations.
Students must start learning in kindergarten that they don't have a ``right'' to disrupt a class or to infringe in other ways on the ``rights'' of their classmates.
They must learn during the first years of life that there will be negative consequences if they behave in unacceptable ways. They can learn this only if we delineate what is unacceptable and then apply the punishment in an even-handed way to all students.
Most folks, especially young people, understand ``consequences.'' All schools should establish standards and publish the consenquences just as the Norcom memo has done.
Beyond that, to achieve results, the schools also must follow through to the end with punishment appropriate to the deed.
If you violate any rules, your name will not appear. . . and you will not represent I.C. Norcom. . . MEMO: Do you have a comment, compliment or criticism? The Currents would like
to hear from you. Send your thoughts to The Currents, 307 County St.,
Suite 100, Portsmouth, Va. 23704-3702, fax us at 446-2607 or call us at
446-2612.
by CNB