ABSTRACT
The police believe themselves powerless before a rising tide of mischief and violence-particularly a recent serious increase in ruffianism among city youth. This sort of statement is made every day and commands wide assent, but it is a quotation from a complaint voiced in 1898. In the 1890s a government enquiry was launched into the rising crime rate among young people; a century later, similar concerns resulted in the Elton Report (DES, 1989), which was the most comprehensive study of school discipline ever conducted in Britain. The report contains 138 recommendations addressed to every conceivable audience. Employers, parents, the Broadcasting Standards Council as well as teachers and even pupils are all the subject of advice as to how they can contribute to reducing bad behaviour in schools. Elton, unlike some of the experts we will consider in this book, promised no miracles: ‘Reducing bad behaviour is a realistic aim. Eliminating it completely is not’ (paragraph 2/29:65). The committee received extensive evidence, consulted research and commissioned some of its own, and came to the conclusion that ‘any quest for simple or complete remedies would be futile’. Its own summary covers eight pages and the theme of the report is clear: discipline in schools is the responsibility of everyone and not only a matter for teachers. Nevertheless, it concludes that much indiscipline can be diminished by making teachers better at classroom management.
