because no one will get the joke
I entrust you with my letter to the admin team. I fear deeply that they will not think it's funny:
Dances: The Socio-Theoretical Justification for Fighting an Uphill Battle
The Problems
1. Students come to dances intoxicated, and seem to drink specifically because there is a dance.
2. Students dance in ways that are sexually lude and against district rules.
3. Parents disagree sharply on their desire for school intervention in drinking and dancing.
4. School officials dislike intervening in dancing.
5. ASB strategies have required quicker and more drastic action by school administrators, thereby exacerbating the dislike on the part of some.
6. Students in general are confused by inconsistent enforcement of district rules, changes in enforcement, and the purpose for the rule in the first place.
7. Neither students nor all administrators had input into the creation of the rule, but all must live with the rule.
The History
From concerns about Flappers showing and touching their own knees to the censorship of Elvis’ pelvic gyrations, to the nuns in my mother’s Catholic High School telling students to “leave room for Jesus” between them, intergenerational conflict about the appropriateness of dance moves has long been part of mainstream American culture. As such, it has long been a part of the planning and implementation of school dances.
Additionally, drinking has long plagued school officials. Though modern students seem to have more access to drugs and alcohol than their generational predecessors, one only has to watch the movie, “Rebel Without a Cause” to see the issue isn’t new. Current administrators and parents certainly dealt with the issue as students themselves, needing to decide whether to participate in drinking and drug use or not and to figure out ways to talk to peers who were using when they made the decision not to.
So Why Keep Having Dances?
One solution to the age-old problem is to cancel all dances. Certainly this solution has been employed by many other schools in the nation and would undoubtedly prevent students, parents, and administrators from having to engage in the conflict. But if Ballard’s school dances have survived the test of time and previous conflicts over lude dancing and substance abuse, we must ask ourselves very seriously what value dances have.
School, in its best form, serves to perpetuate democracy by infusing the energy of each generation into our political systems. We prepare students to read so that they can vote in an informed manner, to write so that they may come to inform others; to speak so that they may present their ideas in convincing ways; to calculate so that they may monitor the complex workings of public monies; to understand history so that when they are making it they may avoid repeating past mistakes; to appreciate culture so that they may value what matters; to understand work so that they can contribute to the economic well-being of our community. Certainly this is plenty? Must we also teach them to dance?
I say that we must, and we must precisely because if we fail to use this teaching opportunity, we will fail to fully prepare our students to participate in democratic processes. Political fundraisers, corporate Christmas parties, and inaugural balls represent only a few of the social functions that our students will someday participate in. Given their behavior at school dances, if they participate in these events with the social skills they have now, they will disempower themselves in the eyes of their community. Anyone who “got their freak on” at, say, a presidential inauguration would at least be shunned at the event, and at most create a media circus around a politician that they support. An employee who ventured to the corporate Fourth of July Picnic as drunk as some of our students have come to school dances, would risk termination (not to mention alcohol poisoning).
Perhaps when our students become presidents and CEOs, they will change culture so much that the way they dance becomes normal, not scandalous at all. But if that is to happen, then they will have to address the next generation of naked knees and shimmy shakes and we would do them a service to handle our challenge in a way that empowers them to advocate for changes they think are reasonable.
The ASB’s work to stop substance abuse through peer pressure is probably the most powerful tool we have to address the problem. If we remove the incentive of dances as fundraisers, they will not likely be as motivated to push their peers to spend a night sober. For many students this won’t matter: we have many clean and sober students at Ballard. However, for some students who are more vulnerable to the allure of drug or alcohol use, removing positive peer pressure might remove an important barrier to negative behaviors.
Based on their current behavior, our students do not know how to act at large, official social functions. It is our responsibility to engage them in learning good behavior and to continue in dialogue with them about what is appropriate and why. If we cancel dances, we will loose a few good teachable moments.
Dances: The Socio-Theoretical Justification for Fighting an Uphill Battle
The Problems
1. Students come to dances intoxicated, and seem to drink specifically because there is a dance.
2. Students dance in ways that are sexually lude and against district rules.
3. Parents disagree sharply on their desire for school intervention in drinking and dancing.
4. School officials dislike intervening in dancing.
5. ASB strategies have required quicker and more drastic action by school administrators, thereby exacerbating the dislike on the part of some.
6. Students in general are confused by inconsistent enforcement of district rules, changes in enforcement, and the purpose for the rule in the first place.
7. Neither students nor all administrators had input into the creation of the rule, but all must live with the rule.
The History
From concerns about Flappers showing and touching their own knees to the censorship of Elvis’ pelvic gyrations, to the nuns in my mother’s Catholic High School telling students to “leave room for Jesus” between them, intergenerational conflict about the appropriateness of dance moves has long been part of mainstream American culture. As such, it has long been a part of the planning and implementation of school dances.
Additionally, drinking has long plagued school officials. Though modern students seem to have more access to drugs and alcohol than their generational predecessors, one only has to watch the movie, “Rebel Without a Cause” to see the issue isn’t new. Current administrators and parents certainly dealt with the issue as students themselves, needing to decide whether to participate in drinking and drug use or not and to figure out ways to talk to peers who were using when they made the decision not to.
So Why Keep Having Dances?
One solution to the age-old problem is to cancel all dances. Certainly this solution has been employed by many other schools in the nation and would undoubtedly prevent students, parents, and administrators from having to engage in the conflict. But if Ballard’s school dances have survived the test of time and previous conflicts over lude dancing and substance abuse, we must ask ourselves very seriously what value dances have.
School, in its best form, serves to perpetuate democracy by infusing the energy of each generation into our political systems. We prepare students to read so that they can vote in an informed manner, to write so that they may come to inform others; to speak so that they may present their ideas in convincing ways; to calculate so that they may monitor the complex workings of public monies; to understand history so that when they are making it they may avoid repeating past mistakes; to appreciate culture so that they may value what matters; to understand work so that they can contribute to the economic well-being of our community. Certainly this is plenty? Must we also teach them to dance?
I say that we must, and we must precisely because if we fail to use this teaching opportunity, we will fail to fully prepare our students to participate in democratic processes. Political fundraisers, corporate Christmas parties, and inaugural balls represent only a few of the social functions that our students will someday participate in. Given their behavior at school dances, if they participate in these events with the social skills they have now, they will disempower themselves in the eyes of their community. Anyone who “got their freak on” at, say, a presidential inauguration would at least be shunned at the event, and at most create a media circus around a politician that they support. An employee who ventured to the corporate Fourth of July Picnic as drunk as some of our students have come to school dances, would risk termination (not to mention alcohol poisoning).
Perhaps when our students become presidents and CEOs, they will change culture so much that the way they dance becomes normal, not scandalous at all. But if that is to happen, then they will have to address the next generation of naked knees and shimmy shakes and we would do them a service to handle our challenge in a way that empowers them to advocate for changes they think are reasonable.
The ASB’s work to stop substance abuse through peer pressure is probably the most powerful tool we have to address the problem. If we remove the incentive of dances as fundraisers, they will not likely be as motivated to push their peers to spend a night sober. For many students this won’t matter: we have many clean and sober students at Ballard. However, for some students who are more vulnerable to the allure of drug or alcohol use, removing positive peer pressure might remove an important barrier to negative behaviors.
Based on their current behavior, our students do not know how to act at large, official social functions. It is our responsibility to engage them in learning good behavior and to continue in dialogue with them about what is appropriate and why. If we cancel dances, we will loose a few good teachable moments.