Archives for The Education of Oronte Churm

Casino Royale

I have to say that I came around to Casino Royale only recently myself, and frankly having never read the novel I found it difficult to get through the first half of the movie, it was damn near impossible to relate to this Bond, but seeing him exacting revenge in his restored invincibility was a really sweet moment.

J David, at 2:30 pm EDT on April 4, 2007

No, unfortunately, I’ve never found the temerity to teach...

JDavid, at 5:26 pm EDT on April 18, 2007

“a cold chisel and a claw hammer.” dude, you keep writing like that and i’m going to quit making fun of you. that’s a manly stretch of hard-boiled embrace.

Rory, at 4:31 pm EDT on April 13, 2007

...it makes so much sense now.....

....so that is why I picture my dog’s skull being crushed by a car tire everytime I make a martini, because that really happened in my life, it did. It sucks being an artist....

Christopher, Bartender at Cocktails, at 10:25 am EDT on April 11, 2007

Churm, does a career as a ladies’ man, from which I retired the first time at the age of 26, count? And I’m not sure how you measure success.

Rory, at 4:31 pm EDT on April 13, 2007

Oronte: what of the report that the gunman had written disturbing stories in an English class? As a creative writing professor, you must have encountered something similar. Is it the place of faculty to act on vaguely expressed threats in a student’s work? And if so, when can the professor sit back and say, “I’ve done enough"?

dan, at 10:46 pm EDT on April 17, 2007

The law regarding how administration interacts with students who write disturbing things seems to be similar to laws dealing with stalkers — until they actually do something, their hands are tied. In this case, that is truly unfortunate. We do know that his professor tried to be a good mentor, & get him to counseling. I’m not sure what the VT campus judiciary system has to say about his earlier run-ins, & if they would have been able to have him expelled from school.Even then, short of somehow having him arrested, or committed, he may have come to the same end, perhaps at another campus, or in the workplace, something we can never know.

jon, Radford University, at 2:11 pm EDT on April 18, 2007

Virginia Tech Shootings

The world is expressing bewilderment at the actions of Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech student who shot and killed 32 people in the largest campus massacre in history. However, it seems that at least some explanation for his horrific crime is slowly emerging. Cho’s story is a classic portrait of a young man who lost all sense of connection to the people around him and became capable of mass murder.

The New York Times (April 22, 2007) reported that Cho led a lifetime of excruciating silence: “From the beginning, he did not talk. Not to other children, not to his own family. … [In high school] he was unresponsive in class, and unwilling to speak. … Classmates recall some teasing and bullying over his taciturn nature. The few times he was required to speak for a class assignment, students mocked his poor English and deep-throated voice.” Recently at Virginia Tech, as Cho’s behavior grew ever stranger and the writing he submitted in class became more violent and obscene, he “was allowed to remain in the seminar but was placed off to the side, where, [his teacher] said, he did not speak. She did not share his writings with the class. … And then he stopped going to class” (NY Times, April 19, 2007).

It is a pattern that has been repeated too many times, in too many school tragedies. When society isolates social offenders, it only decreases their desire to behave appropriately. They lose their sense of “connectedness” to their fellow human beings and lash out violently, a reaction that the world — rightly — finds shocking and appalling.

This is not a crisis that can be solved by tougher enforcement of “zero tolerance” policies, which studies (such as a recent report from the American Psychological Association) have shown to be ineffective at best and further damaging to social relationships at worst. Rather, it is restoration of the sense of connectedness, essential for social and emotional health, which is critical.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1994–present), a large federally funded research project, found that where school environments promote connectedness, there are significant positive outcomes among students, such as less violence, less drug and alcohol use and less teen pregnancy. The need for children and young people (and, indeed, all people), to feel they belong and are cared for is one of the most crucial requirements for good health and well-being.

But how can schools create connectedness, while at the same time addressing serious behavioral problems?

The emerging social science known as “restorative practices,” which is spreading throughout education, criminal justice, and child and family services across the world, speaks directly to this issue. As a proactive expansion of “restorative justice,” a collaborative process involving those most directly affected by a crime in determining how best to repair the harm caused by the offense, “restorative practices” posits that the best way to help troubled people is to directly engage them in a restorative environment, one that fosters that essential sense of connectedness.

In a restorative environment, such as those that have been created at the alternative schools my wife and I started 30 years ago for delinquent and high-risk youth, “restorative practices” are systematically applied. These practices help create a supportive, caring environment for youth who have been rejected by other schools and the world at large. Above all, restorative practices are about engaging people. “Check-in” groups are held several times a day, so that every student may speak about his or her feelings and experiences. In this way, everyone feels heard and understood, building that all-important sense of community and connectedness. When students in these alternative schools misbehave, problems are neither swept under the rug nor handled rigidly. Instead, the students are asked to take responsibility for their actions. They must reflect on their own behavior, hear how their behavior has affected others and find ways to repair harm caused by their actions. A connection is again made, this time between action and consequence, and with a supportive group of peers and staff that, however, insists on accountability.

Empirical research has shown that restorative practices produce remarkably positive outcomes in the behavior and attitudes of young people who attend the alternative schools where the practices are consistently applied. Similar positive outcomes have been seen in public schools that have embraced restorative practices throughout the world, including those in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Research suggests that restorative practices are effective in dealing with bullying, and in lowering suspension, expulsion and truancy rates. A new graduate school, the International Institute for Restorative Practices, has been founded to provide education and research and to help foster this emerging social science.

I do not believe that the people who comprised Cho Seung-Hui’s community at Virginia Tech are to blame for what happened there. I only want to suggest, for the sake of the future, that if people like Cho Seung-Hui experienced restorative practices as part of their educational environment, it would enhance and sustain that critical sense of connectedness — crucial to all human health and well-being — so that hideous tragedies like this would be far less likely.

—Ted Wachtel

Ted Wachtel is the founder and president of the International Institute of Restorative Practices, a graduate school (http://www.iirp.org), founder of CSF Buxmont schools for troubled youth (http://www.csfbuxmont.org) and co-author of the best seller Toughlove.

Ted Wachtel, President at International Institute for Restorative Practices, at 9:25 am EDT on May 1, 2007

This past Mother’s Weekend was the first chance my mom ever had to see the campus. Avoiding the more mainstream attractions (Craft fair, Rock n’ Roll Garden Show), we ended up taking shelter from the glum weather down in the Undergrad. Our brief tour took us to the Main Library. I should have known better than to spring the sprawling card catalogs on a former librarian without warning. She couldn’t stop smiling as she slid a random shelf out and examined the contents. I took her into the main stacks, and watched her become visibly sullen. We stopped and shelved a few books that had been stacked on a step-stool. I had visions of glove-clad workers scrubbing oil from seabirds with a toothbrush. My friend would later tell me she had spent the weekend demonstrating keg-stands and beerpong to her mother.

Mike, at 7:15 am EDT on April 22, 2007

The story that stood out to me through the insane amounts of media coverage of the VT shootings was this teacher, this old crocodile, who helped save his students’ lives. Thank you for putting his beautiful act into words. He truly stood for good when faced with evil.

Chelsea, at 4:30 pm EDT on April 23, 2007

Another beautiful entry at McSwny. Thanks for your writing.

BRC, at 5:15 am EDT on April 24, 2007

Good advice

I’ve got to get my hands on a chicken foot for next semester...

Dallas, at 7:45 pm EDT on April 26, 2007

Ahhh, The Lorax incident.... Thank you for helping me recall that particularly gruesome adventure. I think, though, that we can both agree that it definitely confirmed my decision NOT to become a high school English teacher (that and the fact that, if I had, we never would have met, and what would your life be without me?)

Mrs. Churm, at 1:30 pm EDT on May 7, 2007

An excellent book on the same theme: “Disciplined Minds” by Jeff Schmidt. Dr. Schmidt earned a PhD in physics from Cal-Irvine and worked as an editor at Physics Today for nearly twenty years. After writing the book, he was promptly fired.

In the book, he focuses on the experience of graduate students in physics, and how that professional degree program — like all other professional degree programs — is more focused on selecting those candidates who conform to a behvioral pattern than those candidates who would make the best scientists.

My favorite chapter was “How to Survive Grad School With Your Soul Intact", which includes long quotations from the Army manual on resisting interrogation as a POW.

dan, at 8:55 pm EDT on April 27, 2007

The junior high I attended suffered from “budgeting problems.” Our tech support carried CD wallet’s of burned software, field trips were cancelled, and a few of my teachers asked us to bring printer paper from home. I didn’t understand the whole tenure thing in those days, but knew the majority of my teachers were new and spoke to each other on the sly about not receiving it. Going back to that school 2 years later, only 1 of the teachers I ever had was still there. Sensing their impending termination, they fled to schools in the city, or out of the state. All of them found employment. That school now has larger classes, and suffers a “hiring problem.”

Mike, UIUC, at 7:20 pm EDT on April 28, 2007