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From the description my friend offers regarding what goes on in the classrooms of a public middle school (now it's 6th, 7th and 8th grades -- when I was in school we had 7th and 8th called Junior High School), it sounds like total anarchy.
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They have the desks arranged so that students face each other in small groups, instead of all facing the teacher in front.
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Students carry on conversations with each other and ignore the teacher.
They often exhibit complete indifference to authority, and behave as though they are in control.
They ignore what teachers or aides tell them.
They do as they please, even to the extent of disrupting instruction for the whole classroom.
A specific example is one particularly troublesome boy who brings a water balloon into the classroom.
He holds the balloon in his lap and makes loud, obscene noises as he squirts the water over the other desks and students.
The administration forbids any form of punishment or consequences for delinquency.
Their whole principle is formulated by this maxim:
"We are all about capturing hearts." .
I noticed in about 1992 the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) took away the paddle from elementary school principals.
Then I took notice about 5 years later, in order to enforce "safety" they installed SHOTGUNS in the School Police cruisers.
Therefore, instead of the Principal giving an occasional swat to belligerent brats, the School Police blows them away with a gun?
There haven't been any instances of children being shot to death, but who knows?
Maybe that's the kind of news that doesn't get coverage. People might get upset, you know?
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Meanwhile, there is a children's detention facility in Sylmar named the
Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall.
They use an entirely different approach.
Consequences for objectionable behavior are everyday realities.
Otherwise, it would be nonstop riots in there.
The day a boy or girl turns 18 is the day he (or she) goes to County Jail, if they aren't released.
And they don't call it "commencement."
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