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Author Watson, Rollin J., 1941-

Title The school as a safe haven / Rollin J. Watson and Robert S. Watson
Published Westport, Conn. : Bergin & Garvey, 2002

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 217 pages)
Contents Preface: Metaphor and Myth -- The Sanctity of the Schoolhouse -- Postwar Innocence (1945-1950) -- Juvenile Delinquency and the Schools (1950-1975) -- Fire Bell in the Schoolyard (1945-1992) -- The Encroachment of an Old Catastrophe (1945-1992) -- Civil Rights, Uncivil Schools (1954-1969) -- The Demise of Discipline (1959-1969) -- A Decadent Counterculture (1970-2001) -- Terror Comes to School (1945-1992) -- The Paradox of the Clinton Era (1993-2001) -- Postscript: Forging a New Paradigm
Summary A well-balanced book on the subject of school safety which uses historical and sociological data to illustrate how much the school is subject to social realities and changes. The authors set out to see if the American school has always been safe. Unfortunately, they found that it has not, that it is confronted in each new generation with a whole new set of threats and dangers. This is a unique book that examines American schools and their safety from the point of view of historical incursions and threats rather than from anecdotal and sometimes questionable information. Through the examination of thousands of documents and incidents, the authors show that the American school has always been subjected to threats from many different sources. Student violence is only a small part of this danger; in fact, the authors show that schools are confronted with many threats besides those presented sporadically by lone violent killers. The authors, at the same time, believe there has been an overreaction to violence that may in itself not be salubrious for the academic programs and moral climates of our schools.; After the crisis at Columbine High School, many well-known commentators said that this was the worst crisis ever to take place in an American school. The authors decided to look at the whole topic of school safety in America from the period right after World War II to the present. This unique book is the first to place school safety at the heart of the educational endeavor in America, the first to treat the subject of threats to the school in a broader, historical context, and the first to treat the subject as part of intellectual history. By documenting thousands of instances during the period after World War II through the end of the century, the authors have concluded that the myth of "the school as a safe haven" has been a comforting, but not always accurate, metaphor. The approach to the subject is from a myriad of perspectives: first, the state of school buildings after the War is discussed. Next, the authors look at juvenile delinquency in the 1950s. Then they put school fires in context, followed by a chapter on school bus accidents and other devastating events from nature.; In "Civil Rights, Uncivil Schools" they discuss the deleterious impact of the century's most important social movement on schools. In the creative chapter, "The Demise of Discipline," they demonstrate, through research, ways in which discipline in the schools has been eroded. In "A Decadent Counterculture" they assess the threats to schools by sex, drugs, and gangs. In "Terror Comes to School" they show that many violent intrusions began in the 1970s and earlier, well before the 1990s. The concluding chapter, "The Paradox of the Clinton Era" brings the history to the end of the century. The "Postscript" discusses new ways of looking at threats to school safety
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
Print version record
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject School accidents -- United States -- History -- 20th century
School violence -- United States -- History -- 20th century
School crisis management -- United States -- History -- 20th century
EDUCATION -- Educational Policy & Reform -- School Safety & Violence.
School accidents
School crisis management
School violence
Gewalt
Schülerunfall
Schule
United States
USA
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
Author Watson, Robert S
LC no. 2001052795
ISBN 0313012989
9780313012983
1280908572
9781280908576
9786610908578
6610908575