IS DISCIPLINE IN HIGH SCHOOL HELPFUL?

The early formidable years of life, the most impressionable years in life are the teenage years. There are many positive character traits that can be generated during high school if one has discipline. Some of these include responsibility, strength, skill and consistency.

We can see that in our current school system, where discipline is not strictly enforced and is not a priority, students can and do run amok. In recent years, we have seen a rise in teenage pregnancies, smoking, drugs, student bullying, and even shootings. In our world today, we have an entire sex culture which prevails; the number of people smoking and doing drugs is on the rise; there have been a handful of cases involving students who have been killed by other students or who have committed suicide due to bullying; from all of this, we can see that the outcome of allowing more openness in high schools and freedom to our students has not done our future generation and our potential leaders any good.

Catholic schools, who claim to have more discipline than public schools have students who claim that this is not so. I have spoken to students who have graduated from catholic schools and apparently, it is a known fact that catholic school students get away with much more. They say that catholic school make them better liars and thieves. They became better at concealing drugs, etc.. and were not caught on school grounds.
But this only goes to show that even Catholic schools or especially catholic schools are not doing enough to discipline kids in High School. They should be doing random searches, and have "prefects" who are class monitors, elected by a committee of teachers, not students.

In many schools the head of the school is in student life, etc.. and elected by the students themselves. This makes for more of a popularity contest. The really good and well rounded students may never have a chance, as they are drowned out by the "coolest", the best looking and the most popular student. In reality, the best role model may even be considered a "nerd" by other students and he or she may never have a chance to represent the school.

We should consider taking the good qualities of schools established in Europe and Asia. In those schools, the head of each grade or class is determined by a committee of teachers. The teachers evaluate the students based on certain established criteria, which is also agreed upon by the school teachers and the Principal, and not fellow students. These criteria include, but are not limited to achieving excellence in: Sports, Academia, Music, Choir, Character traits, General Principles, Drama and Art. This individual is called a Prefect. He/She is usually well-rounded in all of these areas.
The prefect must maintain and abide by certain set standards, and other students look up to the Prefect as a model to follow. The Prefects are given the duty of monitoring classes and reporting any misbehavior to the head teachers. In many cases, the prefects were unpopular with the students, but these would be the students who truly represented the essence of the school and reflected the schools potential in every respect. The Prefects in turn are monitored by teachers assigned to them.

If these changes could be made, the number of teen pregnancies, drugs, smoking, cell phone use,etc.. will diminish dramatically. Prefects should be asked to do random searches, while accompanied by a teacher. This is done to make sure that the prefect is doing a good job, and were not allowing some of their friends to get onto school grounds with drugs, cell phones, cigarettes,etc..There should be a set system of checks and balances. Our entire culture needs to to revamp its ethics and priorities. When discipline is instituted in schools in this manner, we will be able to see a big difference.