A Study of the Patterns of Unrest in the Springfield Public Schools
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1972 A study of the patterns of unrest in the Springfield public schools. John Victor Shea University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Shea, John Victor, "A study of the patterns of unrest in the Springfield public schools." (1972). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2628. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2628 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UMASS/AMHER^ 3 1 2 b b Q 1 3 S fi 1 ^ ^ All Rights Reserved (e) John V. Shea, Jr. , 1972 /f'57 72- A STUDY OF THE PATTERNS OF UNREST IN THE SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS A Dissertation Presented By JOHN V. SHEA, JR. Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION June 1972 Major Subject: Administration ) ) A STUDY OF THE PATTERNS OF UNREST IN THE SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS A Dissertation By John Victor Shea, Jr. Approved as to style and content by: ?. oUL i (Member) y T * ' X ^' h ’ L r* (Member) June 1972 (Month ( Year DEDICATION TO MY BELOVED WIFE, LIZ ACKNOWLEDGMENT This study would not be complete without an expression of appreciation to all who assisted in its development, especially: Dr. George Urch, Chairman of my committee, for his personal encouragement, sincere interest, and helpful direction; Dr. Emma Cappelluzzo for her critical reading of the entire manuscript; and Dr. Atron Gentry, Dr. Alfred Alschuler and Dr. Thomas Bernard, for their professional interest and support. I am also grateful to Mrs. Lena Cessarini, Mrs. Elsie Cady, and Mrs. Pauline Ashby for their secretarial skills and their generous help beyond the call of duty. Finally, to my wife Liz and our children, for their vital interest and sustaining love through these turbulent years, I am thankful. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of Problem 1 Hypotheses 6 Limitations of the Study 7 Definition of Terms 8 Significance of the Study 10 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 15 Social Control Theories T Structural Straia 23 Social Change and Violence 24 Systematic Frustrations 25 Social Strain 23 Labeling A Disturbance 31 Summary 33 III. AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 40 Violence in Western Europe '1 Revolutionary Conditions The Revolutionary Spirit 47 r Youth Movements ; 0 Student Discontent ^2 The Value of Student Movements 58 Conclusion 63 IV. TEE SPRINGFIELD SURVEY 65 Efforts Made to Integrate Schools 66 METOO The Year of Crises 69 Teacher Training Programs 70 Student Unrest High School Unrest 73 Meetings of Parents - City-Wide 75 Meetings - Black Leaders 77 • Black Students’ Demands . * 78 White Students 79 A National Student Crisis 80 Causative Factors - National Scale 8? Origins of Unrest 84 The Survey of Springfields’ Unrest 85 Poll Results §6 Students 86 College Youths 87 Teachers 88 Administration 88 Parents 89 Write-in Comments 90 Students 90 College Students 91 Teachers 02 Parents 03 Administration 94 Interview Responses 95 Conclusions 97 METHODOLOGY 100 Questionnaire Design 10/ 103 Statement of the Information Desired Identification of the Universe 10- The Sample 10' v Construction of the Questionnaire Wording and Phrasing of the Questions 1° 3 1° -1 Initial Contact Recruitment and Training of Interviewers .... 1°6 The Interview 10 1 ' Identifying Events which Spill Over into 10- the Schools Light of Research .10- Analyzing Events in the . # # Analyzing Data l° s VI. TESTING THE HYPOTHESES 109 Introduction 109 Testing the Hypotheses Ill National Surveys and Significant Conclusions . .117 Conclusions 120 VII. A SUGGESTED COURSE OF ACTION 121 Evidence of a Movement for Change 122 Stu.cent Dissenters 124 Facing a Confrontation 126 Avoiding Confrontations - Teacher Training .... 12:9 Student Participation 132 Rumors 135 Communication between Races 136 Alienation 137 The Student Council 141 I: igh School Student Involvement 142 Parcnts-Community-School Relationships 143 The Academic Program 14'; What the Students are Saying Causes Unrest .... 147 A Total Action Program 150 Joint Recommendations - Workshop 151 Involving Parents and Students .......... 166 Appraisal of Workshop Achievements 172 Summary 183 The Need for Future Research 189 Conclusion 1-1 APPENDIX I 53 BIBLIOGRAPHY ,217 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION To describe the conditions existing in districts seeking to educate a pluralistic society, a weekly newsletter on education affairs headed its article "Violence Soars in Nation's Schools. 1,1 The article read: Violence and crime in the nation's secondary schools are increasing at an alarming rate. Attacks on students and teachers, violent fights among students, and the use of hard drugs have become more commonplace, especially in urban areas. Violence has become so serious across the country that national news columnists who usually ignore education, are predicting the collapse of the schools and are calling public high schools the most violence prone and divisive battleground of American society. .Surveyors claim that 75% of the teachers in the East St. Louis school system carried guns last year to protect themselves from the constant possibility of assaults. Informal data collected by the Office of Students and Youth in the U. S. Office of Education, relying solely on newspaper clippings, list 118 school 'incidents' from September through December 1969. Of these, 81 were "racial in nature." A resurgence of violence in our country during the 1960 's has caused rising feelings of anxiety, frustration, anger, fear, and even hopelessness and ceitainly among many Americans. Yet, while it is intrinsically undesirable January 19, 1970 Education U. S. A. (Washington, D. C.), 2 not inevitable, violence, ii historically viewed, might be considered normal 3 behavior. Tilly reminds us that western civilization and various forms of collective violence have always been close partners, with collective violence flowing regularly out of the central political processes of Western countries. The oppressed have reacted to seek justice, the elite to seek order, and the masses in between have been bathed in the wake of fear. There are no easy solutions to the violence in our cities' streets and schools. The causes are complex and poorly understood. Possible solutions present continuing challenge to our intelligence, our beliefs, and the educational system we have adopted to mold our society into a progressive functioning unit. Perhaps, as Masotti and Bowen suggest, "The answers can only be found through a careful, systematic research free of the shopworn, oversimplified analogies of the past, and by listening to the voices of the masses rebelling silently or demonstrably in the present. Today's students are as much the products of our society as are the thousands of Blacks who riot in the streets of their own ghettoes destroying what has been left to them by society in the form of "hand me down" structures called dwellings. History informs us that what is happening Charles Tilly, "Collective Violence in European Perspective," in to Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspective , a report the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, June 1969, prepared under the direction and authorship of Hugh D. Graham and Ted R. Gurr (New York: New American Library, Inc., 1969), p. 5. 3 Ibid., p. 4. 4 Riots and Rebellion, ed. Louis H. Masotti and Len R. Bowen (Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, Inc., 1968), p. 40. 3 in our cities, schools and campuses today are not strange phenomena peculiar to our times. They have been witnessed before. However, as Shaffer states, the past can be "easily obscured by the exaggerated glare of present day mass media and the 5 over reaction of a jittery, insecure society. Unrest is a manifestation of the challenge facing our pluralistic society. It is a message to those in a position to direct the course of our nation that our society is under- going a change that could be expensive and it would be wise to reassess the values which have shaped us in the past and reject those that are no longer supportive of our goals replacing them with new ones. Nowhere is this unrest more evident than in Springfield, where, during the last few months in 1969, unrest became so prevalent in junior and senior high schools, that normal school operation became difficult to sustain. Trouble in two junior high schools in October and early November foreshadowed the breakdown of order and the disruption of formal education at Technical High School later in November. As administrators sought to isolate causes and find solutions, the adult community, both Black and white, also entered the picture. It was clear that while the problems erupted among the youth of the city, the roots were much deeper and required broad interests and participation. It was feared that Springfield was on the brink of a major racial confrontation. The mayor termed 5 Robert Shaffer, "Youth's Challenge to Educators, " Today's Education November, 1969, p. 32. 4 the polarization between blacks and whites "deplorable, " and called upon all citizens to unite. In spite of pleas for sanity, racial tensions spread to other high schools and Black students staged walkouts to remind the school committee that they were still awaiting an answer to a list of demands they had presented. Adult-student meetings were being held during these days in hopes of jointly arriving at ameliorative courses of action. In spite of seemingly favorable school committee actions toward meeting student demands, sporadic incidents of violence continued during the early part of December, 1969. The momentum gained in November was not to be easily controlled.