or security in classroom living. While the delinquent becomes a headache for the school, it should be remembered that the school is an even greater headache and heartache to him. WHAT THE SCHOOL CAN DO There is no one thing that school staffs, acting by themselves, can do that will make any great difference in the delinquency story. The teachers' major contributions will be forthcoming only when they co-ordinate their efforts within the framework of total community endeavor and only after good schools become better schools. In a sense the school's responsibility for the malbehaving child is not any different from its responsibility to any child needing help. Group study may develop major ideas for school use • KNOW YOUR PUPILS As good schools become better schools, they will tend to identify delinquency the way litmus paper identifies acid and base mediums. In fact, the nature of the true delinquent and the nature and role of the good school are such that the true delinquent will nearly always be flushed out as a part of the school's program of child study, testing, and observation. School Factors Precipitating Delinquency As one studies the nature of the true delinquent and the nature and role of the good school, the volatile aspects of the impending delinquent-like, reaction-behavior becomes obvious. In fact, it can be said that good schools, as a part of their natural function, will bring out delinquency and thus enable help and assistance to be directed to those who show themselves vulnerable and exposed to the development of malbehavior. The following seven factors will act and react in positive and negative fashion to spark antisocial aggressions and delinquency. 1. Good schools must maintain and enforce ordered patterns of living in the daily experiences which they provide all children. Most delinquents come from homes and neighborhoods which are singularly devoid of any patterns of systematic living. 2. The good school demands self-denial, self-control, self-restraint, and a focus on distant goals. The delinquent personality structure reveals an infantile self-indulging, here-and-now makeup operating on a strong pleasure principle, allergic to the hard work and continuous-effort principles implicit in the learning process. 3. The good school presents the face of a benign authority figure. The delinquent's concept of authority is generally on the negative side in view of the emotional damage and deprivation which he has often suffered at the hands of the inconsistent, disloyal, betraying, and rejecting authority figures which often frequent his preschool life. 4. The good school tries to retain all youngsters in their school program even after they reach the age of school-leaving. The delinquent child intends to drop out of school and does so at the earliest opportunity, thus conveying his true feelings and estimate of the school's worth. 5. The good school remains always the bastion of the virtues of fair play, honesty, cleanliness, and good and clean speech. The delinquent's value system rates these virtues as weaknesses and finds greater prestige in swearing, stealing, and sex play-all anathema to the school. 6. The school places a high priority and prestige on abilities to verbalize and abstract which find best expression through the academic phase of the curriculum. The delinquent more often than not is lacking in the quality of abilities and interests he can bring to bear on the academic program. 7. The good school must remain a center for learning and teaching and avoid becoming a community convenience for the emotionally disturbed and socially maladjusted. Many true delinquents, when appraised emotionally, are found to be sick and are more in the need of therapy than instruction. In a sense, many true delinquents are sitting in the wrong institution. As can be seen from the juxtaposition of these positive and negative forces, the good school, almost in spite of itself, will tend to drive from cover the potential and the hidden delinquent. There is no single practice in the school program that can affect the delinquency problem to any appreciable extent. There are, however, a number of adaptations which typify the good school and which enable the school to maximize its strategic role as one community agency concerned with the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency. Three factors that tend to immobilize the potential force of the school agency and which tend to dissipate its energy must be mentioned at this time. They include the delinquency trilogy of anonymity, boredom, and failurefrustration. These, in turn, frequently can be viewed as natural consequences of bigness, both in size of school and in size of class, fostering a mass system of instruction which vitiates the basic principle of individual differences. Favorable School Conditions Many of the following suggestions are aimed at correcting these conditions that foster rather than prevent undesirable behavior. 1. Knowing and accepting the student delinquent as a person. The classroom teacher must know his individual students. He can do this through the use of cumulative school records, standardized tests,. medical examinations, home visits and parent interviews, and case conferences. But it is not enough for the teacher to know each student as a person; each student must be accepted and appreciated as a human being no matter how he irritates and offends on occasion. Lacking a relationship of mutual confidence and trust, it is impossible for the teacher to achieve a therapeutic relationship through which to lead to improvement in behavior and adjust ment. Most delinquents suffer rejection and emotional deprivation in the arena of the home. They should be able to find in the school a haven of refuge and a measure of uplift. Instead of depressing further the low self-esteem that most delinquents have been known to suffer (their outward behavior notwithstanding), every effort needs to be made to raise the self-concept of the delinquent to a level of hope and respectability. This will call for positive and constructive attitude toward the delinquent on the part of all those in school. 2. Locating the predelinquent early. Preventive efforts at delinquency control are possible if the youngster, who is exposed or vulnerable to the development of delinquent patterns of adjustment, can be identified early and be drawn off for study and treatment. Since the school receives the child early and maintains an intimate contact with him for a prolonged period of time, it is in a strategic position to spot the child who gives indications of future behavioral deviation. A number of research studies indicate that it is possible to identify many of the future delinquents by alerting the school staff to the telltale signs of potential delinquency that are visible on the school's horizon. The check list of 18 factors (see page 342), all perceptible within the school setting, can be used to estimate delinquency proneness. Since these 18 factors have been shown to be significantly characteristic of delinquents when contrasted with nondelinquents, it is suggested that classroom teachers keep a weather eye open for those pupils in their classes who show a saturation of these characteristics. We should give them a second look and a helping hand. Early identification and referral of children who show many of these signs to local child-study and diagnostic agencies within the school organization or within the community for complete study and treatment can provide the precious ounce of prevention. 3. Preserving an impersonal and objective point of view. When unpleasant and unseemly episodes occur inside or outside the classroom, the teacher must not jump to early conclusions and take the offensive behavior as a matter of personal affront. To bemoan the fact that "My pupil-think of it-is involved!" is to put self before the welfare of the young offender. The teacher, DELINQUENCY PRONENESS CHECK LIST Not Yes No Sure 11 ? 1. Shows marked dislike för school. 2. Resents school routine and restriction. 3. Disinterested in school program. 4. Is failing in a number of subjects. 5. Has repeated one or more grades. 6. Attends special class for retarded pupils. 7. Has attended many different schools. 8. Intends to leave school as soon as the law allows. 9. Has only vague academic or vocational plans. 10. Has limited academic ability. 11. Is a child who seriously or persistently misbehaves. 12. Destroys school materials or property. 13. Is cruel and bullying on the playground. 14. Has temper tantrums in the classroom. 15. Wants to stop schooling at once. 16. Truants from school. 17. Does not participate in organized extracurricular programs. 18. Feels he does not "belong" in the classroom. |