Waging a War on Incivility

By C. Stephen Wallis

While Congress wrangles over President Clinton's proposed voluntary national testing plan in reading and mathematics, a far greater issue for K-12 education--pervasive school disruption--cries out for equal time in the national debate. The problems of abysmally poor school culture and its accompanying bad behavior daily undercut any attempt to address academic achievement. Many parents, corporate executives, educators, legislators, and students realize this. They express exasperation with an education system that seems incapable of educating all of those it serves.

The lack of civility in our schools--urban, suburban, and rural alike--continues to be the most pivotal reason for the country's lackluster educational performance. How can we assert the need to "set rigorous standards" when we ignore the main reason such standards are unachievable? The number of classroom disruptions that interfere with teaching and the number of threats and injuries to teachers and students grow exponentially. Like a common thief, they are stealing the learning potential of our students.

That pervasive disrespectful behavior is such a powerful obstacle to learning is frequently unacknowledged and unaddressed by public school administrators and local boards of education. Yet teachers complain that they often are able to teach only two-thirds of course content because of the inordinate time spent managing behavior in the classroom. Successful students in many schools feel that their hard-earned accomplishments come in spite of the rampant bad behavior of peers, evidenced daily in classrooms, auditoriums,...