The road to the transformation of troubled teenagers

The children are taking basketball lessons

Photo by Yan Weiguo

In LuoyangHe District, there is a special school: other schools choose "excellent" admission, this school chooses "poor" admission; a class teacher in another school manages forty or fifty students, and this school has four class teachers in a class, only one or twenty students... As the only work-study school in our city, Xusheng Middle School undertakes the education of "problem teenagers" and has also experienced changes in the times.

1 The Redemption of a "Troubled Teenager"

"This ball passes well!" "Wonderful!" On December 21, 2020, the winter solstice was cold and windy. On the basketball court of Xusheng Middle School, the cheers continued - the school's basketball coach Chen Peng was taking students to basketball training classes. Seeing the children playing seriously, Chen Peng sighed a lot: this is a work school, and most of the people accepted are "problem teenagers"; he was also one of them.

Eight years ago, due to boredom, fighting, etc., Chen Peng, who was in the second year of junior high school, was sent to Xusheng Middle School in the city. "If the second year of junior high school hadn't turned around, my life might have slid into the abyss." Chen Peng said that since he can remember, his parents have been busy with work and have been in other places all year round, and he has lived with his grandmother. He has a reclusive personality and is often bullied in elementary school. After entering junior high school, bullying intensified, he began to resist, fights became commonplace, and later learned to skip class and skip school.

Only then did Chen Peng's parents realize the problem. They resigned and returned to Luo to persuade them, but it was too late. Chen Peng confronted his parents fiercely and said he did not intend to study. Later, Chen Peng's parents learned that there was a public school that could correct the child's behavior, so they sent Chen Peng to Xusheng Middle School in the city, hoping that the teacher could persuade him.

"When I first met Chen Peng, he was thirteen or fourteen years old, but he was one meter and nine meters tall, stubborn and silent." Wang Huaizhang, vice president of the school, said that it was difficult to communicate with Chen Peng at first. Later, after learning that he had won the first place in the high jump and long jump at the primary school games, Wang Huaizhang went to the school every evening to teach him to play basketball. More than half a month later, Chen Peng adapted to the new environment.

The residential school life and the all-weather companionship of teachers have made Chen Peng feel safe. Usually, he studies culture classes like ordinary junior high school students, and in his spare time, he attends club classes according to his personal interests. In the second semester of the second semester of junior high school, Chen Peng participated in the campus basketball league organized by the Municipal Education Bureau and won awards. Standing on the trophy, thunderous applause made him regain his self-confidence for the first time.

In June 2013, Chen Peng was admitted to the Municipal Hui Middle School through the policy of recruiting sports students. After three years of high school, every afternoon after school, Chen Peng still went to Xusheng Middle School to practice basketball. During the college entrance examination, he was admitted to the Physical Education Major of Jiaozuo Teachers College of Physical Education.

After graduating from university last year, Chen Peng returned to Xusheng Middle School as a substitute teacher for basketball clubs. Like the teachers taught himself, he started from dribbling, turning, and shooting, helping "problem teenagers" like him to rekindle their confidence and find their way.

2 Embarrassment of a working school

Over the years, like Chen Peng, there are many students who have come out of Xusheng Middle School. Located at the intersection of Qiming East Road and Sanitation Road in Yinghe District, this school is one of the two existing work-study schools in Henan Province and the only work-study school in the city.

The school has nearly 70 students in six classes from grades 6 to 9. "Most of them are 'three difficulties' teenagers who are difficult to manage at home, difficult to teach in school, and difficult to tolerate in society, and it is difficult to use conventional education methods to take effect." Pan Haichao, the principal of the school, said that the school implements a fully enclosed and semi-military management to help students rebuild their living and learning habits.

There are 10 or 20 students in a class, and the school has four class teachers. In life, students are in school from Monday to Friday, in addition to classes, but also with the coach running exercises, housekeeping, etc., work and rest is accurate to every minute, weekend by the parents to pick up; in learning, the teachers of each subject combined with ordinary primary school, junior high school textbooks, research and development of courses, to solve the problem of weak foundation of students, serious lack of interest in learning. In addition, the school also has paper-cutting, Chinese painting, basketball, martial arts and other club classes to cultivate students' patience and strengths, and prepare for future admissions to further education.

For this management method, the feelings of junior high school student Xiaozhe are representative, "The first month of coming is the most difficult, I feel that I have lost my freedom, and I always want to escape." As a severe Internet addict, every time he returns to school, he will steal his mobile phone, but it is often confiscated, so after several times, he will be punished - not allowed to go home on weekends, receive ideological education at school, exercise, tidy up housekeeping, etc. The next month, after adapting to school life, Xiaozhe was rewarded with eating outside the school and playing games for a limited time. More than a year after entering the school, Xiaozhe has long been integrated into campus life and is currently preparing for next year's middle school entrance examination.

"Through such corrections, many students have embarked on the right path." Pan Haichao said that some were admitted to ordinary high schools, some were admitted to the Sichuan Conservatory of Music affiliated middle school and Henan Vocational Art College because of their specialties; and some joined the army... "I am really happy for them, but there are also regrets, in fact, we can help more such children."

Not long ago, Pan Haichao received a request for help from the person in charge of a public junior high school in our city: a junior high school student of the school has violent tendencies, repeatedly fights with classmates, confronts teachers, and refuses to admit mistakes, the school suggests that it be sent to Xusheng Middle School, but the child's parents believe that "the work school is a concentration camp for juvenile delinquents" and are worried about affecting the child's future further education and employment. Despite repeated persuasion from teachers, the child was eventually transferred to a boarding private school, where problems persisted.

"The school has also taken some measures to solve the worries of parents." Pan Haichao said that for example, after students transfer to Xusheng Middle School, they can choose to keep their student status in the original school, the enrollment situation is not recorded in the file, and they can return to the original school at any time after bad behavior correction, but it is still difficult to change the parents' views. The school's annual enrollment has gone from nearly a hundred in the early days to dozens now, and it is gradually decreasing.

Does the small number of students and the difficulty of enrolling students mean that there are fewer "problem teenagers"? Not really. In June this year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released the "White Paper on Juvenile Procuratorial Work (2014-2019)", showing that although the number of serious violent crimes committed by minors in China has decreased in recent years, the number of people gathering to fight and picking quarrels and provoking troubles has increased year by year.

3 An expectation of solving the dilemma

On the one hand, there are few students in work-study schools, and on the other hand, "problem teenagers" are wandering - not only The City Xusheng Middle School, but also from a national perspective, work-study schools everywhere have encountered this problem. According to the data, as of 2017, there are 93 work-study schools in the country, and most schools are short of students. There were at most 7 work-study schools in Henan, and at present, only one is each in Zhengzhou and Luoyang.

"The difficulty in enrolment may be related to the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency Law enacted in 1999 and the newly revised Compulsory Education Law in 2006." Yang Liufu, a retired police officer of the Public Security Detachment of the Municipal Public Security Bureau and former vice principal of Xusheng Middle School, said that previously, the enrollment of work-study schools was mandatory, that is, it was compulsory to be sent to work-study schools after the approval of the original school report to the Public Security Bureau or the public security organs to the education department. After the promulgation of the new law, students must be applied for by their parents or other guardians, the original school, and approved by the education department before they can be sent to the work school. Parents' perception of work-study schools has led to their rare willingness to take the initiative to send their children.

Parents are reluctant to send, where will the "problem teenagers" go? Pan Haichao said that some students will insist on staying in the original school, some drop out of school and flow into the society, and some parents will contact the new school to transfer their children after a short period of correction in the work school.

"The middle school stage is an important period for the formation of children's outlook on life and values, some children have weak wills, and it seems that they have been transformed after a short period of correction, but after leaving this environment, they will return to their old ways, and it is not uncommon to embark on the road of drug abuse and illegal crimes." Pan Haichao said that if work-study education can be extended to high school or vocational high school, children can learn in a stable environment, wait until the age of 18, life outlook, values are stable before entering the society, the possibility of crime will be reduced.

In recent years, this issue has also been mentioned in the revision of the relevant draft laws.

"In August this year, the Draft Amendment to the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (hereinafter referred to as the Draft) proposed to further clarify the legal positioning of specialized schools and specialized education." Lin Guoqiang, an associate professor at the Law School of Heke University, said. The Draft indicates that for minors with serious misconduct, whose parents or other guardians or their schools are unable to discipline them, they may apply to the Special Education Steering Committee and send them to specialized schools for special education after assessment. Where public security organs discover that minors have specific circumstances in handling cases, they may send them to a special school to receive special education after being assessed by the special education steering committee.

In 2019, the General Office of the Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Specialized Schools and Specialized Education Work, encouraging all localities to expand the forms and channels of enriching specialized education through the opening of specialized classes in vocational colleges and universities and cooperation with social forces.

"One more school, one less prison." Instead of making up for it afterwards, it is better to do a good job of prevention. Sociologist An Feng said that to save the trek teenagers, it is necessary for families, schools and society to form a joint force and devote more resources and energy to prevent juvenile delinquency.

(At the request of the interviewee, Chen Peng and Xiaozhe are pseudonyms)

Author: Jiao Lin

Source: Luoyang Evening News