Hence Violence

LK Abitur 2005  II – Com­po­si­ti­on Topic 3

Vio­lence at schools has increased over the last few years. Wri­te an artic­le for a qua­li­ty news­pa­per in which you ana­ly­se the cau­ses and effects of this development.

Titles:

The Stu­dent Strikes Back

Vio­lent Stu­dents Society

Vicious Vio­lence

Vio­lence Speaks Lou­der Than Words

Beat As You Would Be Beaten

Easier Hit Than Said

Hit And Don’t Forget

If at First You Don’t Knock Out

Vio­lence Most­ly Knocks Twice

Vio­lence Is the Spi­ce of School Life

When in School, Beat as the Stu­dents Do

Struc­tu­re:

Intro­duc­tion: cur­rent news / sta­tis­tics about incre­asing vio­lence or (inven­ted) head­lines (“Stu­dent Kno­cked Uncon­scious in Schoolyard”)

Main part:

cau­ses:

- break­down of fami­lies: negle­c­ted child­ren, lack of discipline/moral stan­dards etc.

- over­all increase of vio­lence: media, com­pu­ter games (e.g ego-shoo­ters like “Coun­terStrike”), avai­la­bi­li­ty (Inter­net)

effects:

- fear, lear­ning pro­blems which lead to fail­ure in school, increase of violence

Con­clu­si­on: media­tors as pos­si­ble solution

Model com­po­si­ti­on (von Tobi­as Gras­se)

Hence Violence

Immenstadt, 9^th of March. Poli­ce offi­cers sei­zed over a hundred mobi­le pho­nes in a Haupt­schu­le, from which fif­teen held extre­me­ly vio­lent or por­no­gra­phic vide­os. But not only vir­tu­al, also phy­si­cal vio­lence has increased dra­ma­ti­cal­ly at schools. What are the cau­ses and effects of this rising bru­ta­li­ty among pupils?

The main reasons for this increase of vio­lence are to be found in bru­tal com­pu­ter or video games; at least if you ask con­ser­va­ti­ve poli­ti­ci­ans. But the­re are also other, even con­tra­dic­to­ry state­ments. Some argue that the break­down of fami­lies and the lack of disci­pli­ne and moral stan­dards in edu­ca­ti­on are to be bla­med, whe­re­as others cla­im that child­ren learn to be ruthl­ess by loo­king at our socie­ty, which is vio­lent its­elf. Accor­ding to some experts bru­tal com­pu­ter and video games with their gory details are just a trig­ger to set off aggres­si­ve beha­viour which was built up by other influences.

But from what modern psy­cho­lo­gy and beha­viour rese­arch has dis­co­ver­ed, the main reason for the con­stant growth of vio­lence among­st child­ren is their edu­ca­ti­on and how their par­ents rai­se them. If a new­born is not trea­ted with the “nor­mal” paren­tal care and love, if the kid is not taught to show respect for other people’s health and well-being, if the teen­ager sees only vio­lence among­st adults, or even his par­ents are vio­lent them­sel­ves, then it is only a mat­ter of time until he uses vio­lence hims­elf, becau­se they have not lear­ned how to sol­ve a con­flict peaceful­ly and wit­hout phy­si­cal attacks.

The effects of this dai­ly vio­lence beco­mes more and more visi­ble in seve­ral sta­tis­tics. Phy­si­cal or ver­bal vio­lence among pupils has risen dra­ma­ti­cal­ly over the last ten years, and it has some kind of domi­no-effect: if a peaceful child is only con­fron­ted with vio­lence from other pupils, will seek to sol­ve pro­blems the only way others seem to sol­ve them: violently.

The­re seems to be no easy solu­ti­on to this pro­blem but media­ti­on has pro­ved to be a suc­cessful way of impro­ving the situa­ti­on. Schools which train media­tors sys­te­ma­ti­cal­ly have wit­nessed a visi­ble decli­ne of bul­ly­ing among their students.