Columbine -Type Students In American Public Schools :: science

Columbine -Type Students In American Public SchoolsDont kid yourself. Theres trouble in paradise that escapes the vision of folks wearing rose-colored glasses. Im not a modern Chicken Little running around screaming The sky is falling And Im not a little boy crying fall out WolfI am a former English teacher with thirty-four years classroom experience. Ive taught through wars, recessions, political assassinations and public anti-war protests. Ive seen and broken-up hundreds of bloody student fights. Ive been threatened by enraged students and by their irate parents. Been there done thatColumbine-type students attend most high and middle school days crosswise the country. They attend Hammonton High, Hammonton Middle, Edgewood, Oakcrest and even Beverly Hills High. They might not always wear trench coats and carry concealed guns and grenades. But the Columbine student mindset is definitely present. These upset Columbine-type youths are scarier than the obnoxious wise guys that daily defy teacher authority and they are more frightening than the student bullies that terrorize weaker peers and start brawls in the school cafeteria or hallways. The tacit behavior of Columbine-like students makes them a formidable challenge to school authority.Sure, high schools have peer mediation. The basic problem is that these Columbine-like students dont expect to communicate with representatives of standard academic school society. The sinister-minded teens often dont even communicate with each other. Thats what makes them walking and sitting time-bombs ready to detonate. They favour having an insular existence that does not want to be disturbed. They dont express themselves until its too late.The Columbine student mentality has a certain(a) behavioral profile. Thats right all you politically correct critics out there, I emphatically stated the improper word profile. The kids say little or nothing at all. They keep their feelings and thoughts mainly to themselves while sitt ing in their desks, often seething beneath cool external faades. Columbine-type kids seldom participate in classroom discussions or volunteer to do constructive things in school. To them athletics, school clubs and awards are not worth pursuing. Their rebellion is silent, stealthy, cold, cunning and calculated. Their ongoing rage is adroitly camouflaged they could erupt and explode at any minute. These kids, probably around five percent of any middle or high schools student body, are individual sticks of dynamite ready to be lit. Not even the students guidance counselors have any psychological handle on what these foxy youths are thinking, feeling or plotting.The Columbine-type kid often feels picked-on, frustrated, alienated and persecuted.