Classrooms: How to Turn Them from Battlegrounds to Connecting Places.

How are things going in our nation's classrooms? Well, according to Basic, Balaz, Uzelac, and Jugovac (1997), in the first four grades often place high value on their schooling, while in the later grades are not nearly so positive. Hence, school drop-out rates and gang memberships--at least among older youth--have been increasing in recent years, particularly in larger urban areas. Some might say that these older are simply choosing to drop-out by voting with their feet. More specifically, they are finding their school-related experiences to be less need fulfilling than they had been in their earlier grades, and are opting to give-up on their schooling altogether. Of course, teachers could be solely to blame for this highly undesirable situation, possibly because they have been too concerned about their need to convey the 3 R's (i.e., reading, [w]riting, & [a]rithmetic) to their students, when they might have been more successful by concentrating more on the 4 C's (i.e., be caring, be concerned, be considerate, & be committed to helping their to reach their potential) instead. In other words, it just could be that really don't care how much their teachers know, until they know how much their teachers care. In the words of Parish (2000), if we truly wish to improve education, then we shouldn't try hard to get tough. Rather, we should simply try harder to get connected. Parish (2000) goes on to outline a number of things that teachers can do in order to achieve this end, and the present paper will seek to provide additional ideas (see Table 1) regarding how teachers can work their way into their students' worlds (see Parish, 1992), where they need to be if they are really going to be successful in helping their to do their very best. Notably, though, teachers are probably not deserving of all the blame, or all of the credit for their students' successes. Rather, each student can also choose to be of the problem, or of the solution. Yes, need to be doing some soul-searching, too, in order to determine if what they are doing is actually causing problems for others (e.g., teachers, fellow students) and/or themselves, or are their actions serving to correct the problems instead. For example, Parish and Parish (in press) recently reported that could greatly facilitate their own happiness levels in their classrooms IF they would do their part to make their classrooms a better place to be. Ideas are offered in Table 2 that should become common knowledge among at all grade levels (from pre-school through college), for as these acquire these ideas, and strive to implement them, they will quickly find that their classrooms can be improved through what they do too. After all, if don't care unless their teachers do, it just might be that teachers don't care unless they can readily see that their care too. Doesn't it make good sense to realize that classrooms really don't need to be war zones tilled with animosity and stress, but instead can easily become a place where teachers and alike can both achieve success. All that needs to be understood is that no one operates alone, and that everyone needs to get it together (i.e., both teachers and students), for as they do so, things are very likely to become a whole lot better. References Basic, J., Balaza, S., Uzelac, S., & Jugovac, G. (1997). School in the students' quality world. International Journal of Reality Therapy, 17(1), 46-49. Parish, T. S. (1992). Ways of assessing and enhancing student motivation. Journal of Reality Therapy, 11(2), 27-36. Parish, T. S. (2000). How to improve education: Don't get tough; Just gel connected. Mid-Western Educational Researcher 13(1), 13-16. Parish, T. S. & Parish, J. G. (in press). Comparing students classroom-related behaviors across grade levels and happiness levels. …