Students Have Always Been Violent

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Diagnostic assignment: * Please read the attached piece of writing, and write a 300-word (about 2 double-spaced pages) summary of its contents. * Summarize only what you believe to be the main ideas of the article. * Avoid copying the wording of the article, and do not include quotations. * Use only your own words. * Double space your writing. * Please state the article’s main idea in your first sentence. This assignment will not be graded or returned to you. It will be used to make sure you are in the appropriate course for your skill level and will be kept on file as a sample of your writing skills at the beginning of the term. It will also help your professor gauge the skill level of the class for teaching purposes. However, you may discuss the assignment with your professor if you wish. Students Have Always Been Violent By David Greenberg Judging by the histrionic Columbine massacre coverage you'd think that children are by nature innocent, free of violent or sexual thoughts until corrupted by our culture. That schools have traditionally been safe. That the recent spate of killings is unprecedented. History says otherwise. In every era, American schoolchildren--especially teenagers--have been unruly and destructive. As late as the 17th century, those "children" we now call teen-agers were considered adults. And preteens swore, drank, had sex, even dueled with guns. If school violence wasn't a problem back then, it's only because few children went to school. In colonial America, most young children were taught at home. Those who attended school were just as prone to be disorderly as today's youths. Teachers kept problem children in line with corporal punishments that seem positively barbaric today: They tied children to whipping posts and beat them or branded students for their crimes--a "T" for thievery, a "B" for blasphemy.

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