http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
Kenneth Johnson is a fascinating guy. Principal Chief of the Florida Tribe of Cherokee Indians, folklore master, culturalist, social scientist, negotiator/mediator, teacher, and more, now he's set out to write a book for teachers about teaching -- specifically, how to handle conflict in the classroom, in a way calculated to keep bad behavior from escalating to something that requires the court system. Given some of our conversations, I'm really looking forward to reading it.
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Ken:
First, let me say that it is always an honor to be invited
to guest blog for Stephanie Osborn. What a talented individual! NASA scientist,
former detective, ordained minister, bestselling author—you name it and she has
probably done it. But, that is a polymath for you.
Usually, I am talking about allegory and culture. After all, that is what I do as a culturalist
– I study cultures through the lens of a social scientist. And with culture also comes conflict. That is also the reason why I trained with
the Florida Supreme Court’s Dispute Resolution Center (FL DRC) and the
University of West Florida College of Professional Studies (UWF COPS) in the
fields of Conflict Resolution (CR) and Restorative Justice (RJ). Specifically, I am a Certified County Court
Mediator through the FL DRC. I
exclusively trained at UWF COPS under a best-selling Simon & Schuster
author while learning RJ. Part of this
training also required that I do some field work at Holman Prison in Atmore,
Alabama – a maximum security “death house.”
Conflict is a natural part of life. It can build you up – as in anabolic
conflict. Or it can destroy
relationships – as in catabolic conflict.
Sadly, the world focuses too much on the bad and too little on the good
to see the field for its dynamic complexity.
The 1990s were my teen years. Ironically, this decade arrested more youths
than all of previous US history combined.
One academic in particular capitalized on this national fear of our
youth with a Simon & Schuster best-selling book called Body Count. Here, pre-teen
boys were called Godless, murderous thugs who killed and raped without
remorse. This book, along with other
writings from the author, proposed a myth called the “Superpredator Theory.” Later, politicians like Florida Senator Bill
McCollum used this theory to push for stronger anti-juvenile legislation at the
federal level while states compounded the issue with even more onerous forms of
legislation. In particular, Florida
Governor Charlie Crist pushed for as much as 7% of the juvenile population of
the state to be arrested and charged as adults for felony and misdemeanor
crimes.
This book [Johnson's book, Unbroken Circles] is essentially a stand that I made. I asked myself, “Why not me? Why can’t I do something to stem this
tide?” Others have written books that
would have helped. However, to fully
understand all of the ins and outs of the programs, a school would have to fork
over to the author and his/her company thousands of dollars for program
manuals, books, cards, and other tools.
So, instead, I decided I would break from the herd and give a holistic
approach that would empower the community to make the changes that they felt
were needed. Best of all, I offered up
everything for free. This, I felt, would
allow for the schools to develop their own programs tailor-fitted to their
specific needs.
It would seem that I am not alone. Lately, Florida is now following suit with
California to no longer be the top arrester of juveniles in the country. Just this past June, Florida Senator Greg
Evers, along with other extraordinary leaders in the Legislature, passed the
“Pop Tart” bill that Governor Rick Scott just signed into law. The bill gets its name from an incident in
Baltimore, Maryland where 7 year old Josh Welsh was suspended for nibbling a
pop tart until it was somewhat in the shape of a gun. Nationally, 2 million students are arrested
each year. Even more are suspended and
expelled with the majority being for offenses such as what Josh Welsh did. Sadly, the media still plays these incidences
off as being trivial, weird, atypical, and rare rather than being
epidemic. And while this new law will
stem the tide of many suspensions and expulsions, it does nothing to stop the
58,000 arrests per year of juveniles in Florida.
The timing of this book’s release could not have been more
perfect. Communities are hurting all
over this nation with practically nothing being reported in the media. If you are poor, of a given racial/ethnic
class, a male, etc. then your chances of going to jail or prison as a juvenile
are significantly higher than that of an adult.
Schools have even supported this trend by bringing in grant-funded
School Resource Officers (SROs) in response to performance-based funding on
standardized tests. Social Scientists
now call this the “Test-to-Prison Pipeline” since an arrested student cannot
have their tests generally counted towards their overall school performance.
Here’s how the book works – I merge CR and RJ practices into
what is known as a Collaborative Justice practice. My book Unbroken Circles SM for Schools: Restoring Schools One Conflict at a Time is broken into two parts. Section I is designed to give an overview of
the programs needed as well as an understanding of what conflict really
is. Personally, I would buy the book
just for Chapter 1.2’s discussion of the history and nature of conflict. Meanwhile, Section II is devoted to the “nuts
and bolts” of how to make a Collaborative Justice program work
effectively. It gives options to best
use, and even eliminate over time, the SROs from schools. Using Circles, Peer Mediation, Panels,
Conferences, and Justice/Peace Circles the book fosters a meshing of various
practices together in order to form a network of overlapping programs to
eliminate catabolic conflict while fostering the benefits and transformative
powers of anabolic conflict.
Through this book, communities are urged to become empowered
to address issues at the local level rather than waiting for dictates from the
legislative and bureaucratic process. Concepts such as “Community of Care” and
“Reintegrative Shaming Theory” are used with proven science to back them up as
being better alternatives to the status quo.
Ken Johnson is an author, lecturer, and conflict specialist. His book Unbroken Circles SM for Schools: Restoring Schools One Conflict at a Time is published by SYP
Publishing (ISBN-10: 1940869161 & ISBN-13:
978-1-940869-16-2). He can be
found on Twitter (@KenJohnsonUSA) as well as on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/pub/ken-johnson-mba/8/241/b3/), Crokes
(@KenJohnson), and Facebook (www.linkedin.com/pub/ken-johnson-mba/8/241/b3/). You can learn more about Ken Johnson and his
works at http://kenjohnson.americasculturalist.tripod.com.
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Fascinating, Ken! I'm really looking forward to reading this!
-Stephanie Osborn
http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
