You become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions. ~ Aristotle

At one time, inner city schools were the primary focus of concerns over chaos and violence, largely due to the intense concentration of poverty and rival ethnic groups. However, suburban schools like Columbine High School have awakened America to a different form of assault. No longer are drive-by shootings or gang intimidation or drug dealing the clear and present dangers. Even elementary school students have taken on the thug persona. Students in a Georgia elementary school secured the necessary resources to kill their schoolteacher and had written an extremely detailed plan before the plot was uncovered.

Brave teachers now have to deal with the quiet and elusive dangers of such premeditated attacks on innocent individuals. Often, the assailant’s profile is not clear, nor the reasons behind his or her decisions.

Through these outbreaks of violence, it is apparent that many young people are frustrated and angry. Teachers see this frustration every day in the forms of physical bullying and verbal intimidation, feelings of isolation, illusions of invincibility, desires for power. Teachers are now tasked with helping young people develop effective strategies for communicating and expressing their anger in productive ways; such efforts are central to preventing the most unimaginable and heinous crimes.

To add to the problem, the obvious, ever-present dangers of teaching also continue: the angry parents who disagree with a decision; the student who hates a teacher for the grade he or she earned; the gang member in the hallway who didn’t appreciate a teacher telling him to go to class; or the group of kids who showed up at school to settle a neighborhood conflict. Teachers commonly face and actively engage these situations, hoping their intervention might provide optimism and resolution.

Where does this mentality come from? Why are students more aggressive now than ever before? Video games, music, the media, and lack of parental involvement have all been cited as contributing to the desensitization of violence and its results among our youth; the fact that brutality and hostility are everywhere for every child and teenager to see and experience has made it difficult for young people to distinguish between fiction and real consequences.

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