Introduction
In these two modules, we looked at the causes and effects of prejudices and biases in schools. Social media, news reports, and the internet in general play a large role in these areas. Lately, it seems like media is less about reporting and more about dividing the nation. It is partly due to this division that we see such hateful acts committed in not only schools, but in the community in general.
How does the media cause prejudice and bias?
Many people today blame racist behaviors on our current President and paint
hose who support him as racists and fascists. To say that this is all people
would be incorrect and hypocritical because you would just be using the same
logic as them. The media (on both sides) has divided our country lately by trying
to slander the other side rather than promote its own beliefs. This divide creates
more stereotypes than had already existed. Racial/cultural stereotypes have
always existed, but that does not make them true. These stereotypes often cause
people to treat each other differently, usually in a negative way, and often turns
into a form of racism.
PEW Research Center did some research as to how concerned different groups are about a possible school shooting. The results were not very surprising.
With how the media portrays the different groups that were studied, the numbers
seem accurate. The media portrays that women are thought of as inferior or weak and
therefore they are more scared of possible shootings. African Americans and Hispanic
people are painted as the main targets of gun violence so it makes sense that
they would be more afraid of a school shooting than white students. Higher income
households can afford private education where their children may be considered
in a safer environment so its no wonder that they show less concern than people
who come from a lower income household whose children go to public school. The media does not realize the affect that their constant slander has on the youth.
So what else factors into violence in schools?
The main source of learning during early childhood is the home. Kids learn how to speak, how to act, and how to think from their parents. If parents are not careful to keep racist behaviors out of their children’s lives, it leads to bad behavioral habits in the children. These bad behavioral habits
are often the cause of bullying, hate speech, and violent acts in school. These
behaviors may not be passed just from parents to children, but also children to
other children. When many children succumb to such ideas, they begin to gang up
on the targets of those ideas.
This is not always the case though. Sometimes students and adolescents reject what they learn form their parents and have completely opposite values. What I found surprising about the PEW research was the support for gun policy proposals. The media leads us to believe
that the majority of Americans support a ban on “assault weapons” yet the ban
on “assault weapons ranks second to lowest on support for gun policy proposals.”
It instead seems like teens are worried about who can obtain firearms and how
to prevent people from bringing them into schools. I believe that teens are more educated in this case than
many adults and policy makers. As students, they witness firsthand that “rules
are meant to be broken” and how easy it is to get around the rules. They know
that a ban on firearms is pointless because just because something is banned,
does not mean it is prevented nor will that ban be effectively enforced. Metal
Detectors in schools are a much more efficient way to prevent school shootings
than a ban on “assault weapons.”
What can I do about it?
As an educator, it is important to enforce equality in the classroom and
make sure your students to do treat each other differently based on race,
gender, background, sexual orientation, or any other factors that that student
cannot control. This should not be done explicitly in the sense of calling each
student out for what they are and explaining that it should not make a
difference. It should be implicitly modeled by showing all students the same
respect and ensuring they are in a safe environment where they can come to you
if they feel uncomfortable. If acts of discrimination do occur in your classroom,
that is when you should explicitly address the issue and explain to the child
that they need to keep those ideas to themselves.
References
Graf, N. (2018, April 18). Pew
Research on School Shootings. Retrieved from
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/18/a-majority-of-u-s-teens-fear-a-shooting-could-happen-at-their-school-and-most-parents-share-their-concern/
Vara-Orta, F. (2019, July 19). Hate
in Schools: An In-Depth Look. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/projects/hate-in-schools.html
