Juvenal said, "Two things only the people anxiously desire, bread and circuses." Even that famously cynical Roman poet might have been taken aback by some quarters of American K-12 education. In Baltimore this week, a high-school presentation on anger management erupted into "chaos," in the words of administrators, after a parent accosted a group of students who, she said, were picking on her daughter. Within minutes, a cafeteria-wide melee had erupted, with students standing on chairs to get a better view of the action and the anger management "facilitators" screaming wildly for people to sit down. Unrelated fights broke out, and eventually two people - including the parent - were arrested and 11 students suspended. In the same school, 10 people were arrested last year for disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer at an evening fashion show. Honestly, administrators at Woodlawn may want to reconsider the extracurriculars.
"At Woodlawn High, fight erupts amid anger management lesson," by Julie Bykowicz, Baltimore Sun, April 2, 2004