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Lesson 1: Introduction

Purpose

Lesson 1 has two purposes. The first is to provide an introduction to the course and an overview of the material to be covered. The second purpose of the lesson is to help you to begin to understand the reasons why violence occurs in our schools.

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Objectives

• relate how the course material is organized;

• identify the authors’ premises for the text;

• recognize the various theoretical perspectives represented in the text writings;

• list and explain the six elements of Garbarino’s “conceptual toolbox.”

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Reading Assignment

• Preface and Chapter 1

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Commentary

As a favorite professor was known to say, “In this course I hope to complicate your thinking.” Whether you work in schools or not, the underlying causes of youth violence are worthy of study as they are complex and far reaching in their impact both on schools and on society as a whole.

The preface to the textbook presents an excellent overview of the readings to come and how they are organized. The authors note their own guiding principles in choosing these particular readings. Perhaps more importantly, they note the theoretical perspectives of the contributors. An author’s theoretical framework can be considered as a way of looking at the world as well as a way of organizing knowledge. It is rare to see these perspectives made as overt as they are in this text, though all writers approach the world with a particular theoretical framework and every editor is guided by some set of organizing principles in selecting the work to be included in any collection.

Our understanding of a work is enriched by having a grasp of its theoretical underpinnings, because each theoretical approach implies assumptions about how the world works and about the best ways to approach problems. A deep study of these perspectives is beyond the scope of this course, but is a worthy topic for further study. The theoretical perspectives included in our text are included in the authors’ “second premise” on page vi of the preface.

Violence in schools has made headline news many times in the last decade, with incidents ranging in severity from petty unkindness to school shootings. The issue of school violence has become the focus for many discussions and the driving force behind many security and crisis planning measures. It is far from a simple issue. James Garbarino, the author of the first chapter in our textbook, has studied violent children and the reasons that they turn violent for many years. He presents the factors that may combine to turn children toward violence and suggests ways of looking at these issues that are valuable for anyone seeking to prevent violence from developing. Garbarino is a compelling, readable author. His books are “must reads” for anyone who seeks to understand the interface between children and violence. (See Recommended Readings in the “Overview” part of this Web course.)

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Progress Evaluation

True/False: Choose the one best answer. (1 point)

1. The textbook authors attribute the decrease in risk-taking and violent behaviors among schoolchildren in the last few years to the increase of violence reduction and crisis intervention programs in schools.
2. 1. True
   2. False

2. What happened when Old’s home visiting program was turned over to the local health department?
1. The program was complicated because key elements were changed.
2. The program decreased the amount of child abuse.
3. The program was successfully run by volunteers.
4. The program successfully increased the amount of services provided to families.
3. What does James Garbarino mean by an ecological perspective on human development?
1. attending to the antecedents and consequences of behavior when determining the causes of violence
2. attending to the whole person, including outside influences and family context when determining the causes of violence
3. attending to the early childhood experiences of individuals when determining the causes of violence
4. attending to the thought distortions of individuals when determining the causes of violence
4. The Sameroff study looked at the accumulation of risk and its impact on intellectual development. What do the results of this study indicate?
1. Children’s lives must be free of risk to have a positive impact on intellectual development.
2. Poverty causes poor intellectual development in children.
3. As the number of individual risk factors increase, the negative impact on intellectual development also increases.
4. Parental drug abuse causes poor intellectual development in children.
5. According to Eden and Otto’s study in 1997, what percentage of boys in prison have conduct disorders?
1. 8%
2. 27%
3. 49%
4. 85%

6. Define resiliency as discussed in Chapter 1. (2 points)

7. List three areas/factors in a child’s life you should consider when examining precursors to violent behavior. (3 points)

8. Write a one– to two–page paper explaining and elaborating on one of the concepts of Garbarino’s “conceptual toolbox.” Include examples from your own experience to illustrate the concept that you have chosen.

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