Devlin's Last Solution example essay topic

Dudley Erk sine Devlin's essay "Teaching Tolerance in America" discusses the problems with racial and social divisions in high schools today. Devlin states, "the social clique is based on the notion that one group imagines that it is superior to another, and thus can ridicule, taunt, or even bully another group" (189). He suggests class divisions originate from three sources: racial, gender, and social differences. Regarding the racial issue, Devlin describes a reporter's visit to a typical suburban high school. Each ethnic group had its own little area where they would congregate with each other. The groups all thought that they were better than the others, and would make insulting comments to each other, "creating tension and conflict in the school" (190).

Devlin describes the gender problems by referring to a sexual harassment case in which fifteen boys verbally abused a girl on a regular basis. Teachers would tell the administrator of these occurrences, but he wouldn't do anything about it, saying that it wasn't a big deal. Devlin claims that when a case such as this involves high status males, "chances are even more likely that school administrators will look the other way" (190). Devlin explains the social differences which arise from conflicts between the popular and the unpopular cliques, "the jocks and the geeks... the powerful and the weak" (190). The unpopular people - the geeks, the gays, and the outsiders - are picked on and bullied by the popular people. These are the types of things that have been a factor in the school shootings in the past.

Devlin proposes three main ways to solve these problems. He believes that first we must eliminate the solutions that are not working, such as introducing diversity into classes. Most students apparently respond negatively to the classes. The first solution that Devlin offers is that schools should adopt uniforms, and follow a zero tolerance policy with them. He suggests uniforms would "reduce the visual cues that enable one group to maintain social power" (191). Another solution that Devlin introduces is making "single- sex classes a standard practice" because students "learn better in single-sex environments" (191).

He claims that reducing the differences by segregating the classes will reduce conflict. The last idea Devlin proposes is improving the security in schools. He suggests that schools do this by getting more video cameras and drug dogs, giving teachers anti-riot training, and requiring that students wear picture ID's. Two of the solutions that Devlin proposed to solve these division problems do not seem completely logical. The first is his idea of adopting uniforms. Enforcing uniforms may help reduce the social differences, but only to a certain extent.

Even with uniforms, some students may buy name brand clothing while others wear "Wal-Mart brand". Enforcing the zero tolerance policy takes away from the learning in the classroom. Teachers waste valuable time when they take time out of class to discipline students with the dress code. A student may get written up and sent to detention just because he is wearing the wrong color shirt, or he isn't wearing a belt, or his shirt wasn't tucked in - things that have nothing to do with the behavior or learning ability of the student. Adopting uniforms can even have the total opposite effect than what it was intended for; students may rebel against the uniforms. Teachers and administrators should pay more attention to teaching their students and helping them learn, rather than taking so much time and effort to make sure they are dressed perfectly according to dress code.

The other solution that seems almost ridiculous is the single-sex classes. Students may feel more comfortable in a class full of the same gender, but that does not prepare them for the rest of their everyday life, the real world. When you go out into the real world, jobs and careers are not single-sex, men and women work together in the same environment. Students going out into the real world coming from single-sex classes would have a hard time adjusting to the co-ed environment. Contrary to his first two solutions, Devlin's last solution is plausible. Improving security would defiantly help reduce conflict in schools.

Things such as video cameras, drug dogs, and spot checks would create a somewhat safer environment. Devlin's essay effectively presents the problems with racial, sexual, and social discrimination in high schools today. Although some of his solutions to these problems are a bit irrational, he has good intentions behind them.