School Insults and the Broken Windows Theory Applied

Vecteezy

The 1990s may be over, but there are times I feel like reviewing them. Many times, I feel like the teacher is often the enforcer and the victim of a bad system. You can have a smart teacher, but the same person is constrained by the work culture of that day. There's this irritating mentality that says, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." mentality. This is like saying insults supposedly have no lasting impact. This reminds me of some incidents growing up. For the privacy of the people, I will not mention their names or the names of the institutions where they took place.

1. In one incident when I was seven years old, a girl taunted me and wagged her tongue at me. I got mad, and I punched her in the eye in front of the whole class. The teacher comforted her and scolded me severely. I said I was insulted and I told the teacher, "Come on, you saw it." However, the more I look at the work culture of that day, people were expected to "toughen up" against insults. The same girl just got worse, and my feud with her got worse, presumably because she could get away with her tongue wagging and name-calling. It became necessary for either one of us to transfer to another school. I ended up being the one transferred because the school environment was too toxic.
2. In another incident, I slapped a male classmate in the middle of a class. The teacher demanded I go to the office, presumably out of shock. She said, "So what!" angrily when I told her, "He started it!" However, when she realized that she was out of options, she had me and the insulter go down to the disciplinarian's office. I felt the teacher's real desire was to let the two go down. However, she was bound in the system that treats the outcome (the punch) without looking at the underlying cause (the provocation). It seems the system rewards provocateurs more than it seeks to give them appropriate punishments. I felt it was actually fairer to have me and the insulter sent to the office together. Even if I was still seething mad that day when I was 12 years old, I still felt some justice because the other guy didn't get away either.

As I was looking into the problem, we tend to look at insults like they're "nothing". A parent can be that crazy to say, "Come on, it was just an insult!" It happens when a stricter school decides to release a disciplinary notice to a child for name-calling (e.g.). calling a classmate a moron) or tongue-wagging, or that when a child was made to pick up a piece of paper on the floor, or get minus points. That reminds me of a certain family that moved away from the stricter school to the lenient school (where the tongue-wagging happened) because they found the stricter school "too strict". 

Looking at insults through the lens of the Broken Windows Theory 

Credit: Verywell / Dennis Madamba

This brings us into what's called the Broken Windows Theory. If we look into the theory, we need to look into this definition by the Very Well Mind by Rachael Green:

Origins and Explanation 

The theory is named after an analogy used to explain it. If a window in a building is broken and remains unrepaired for too long, the rest of the windows in that building will eventually be broken, too. According to Wilson and Kelling, that’s because the unrepaired window acts as a signal to people in that neighborhood that they can break windows without fear of consequence because nobody cares enough to stop it or fix it. Eventually, Wilson and Kelling argued, more serious crimes like robbery and violence will flourish.

The idea is that physical signs of neglect and deterioration encourage criminal behavior because they act as a signal that this is a place where disorder is allowed to persist. If no one cares enough to pick up the litter on the sidewalk or repair and reuse abandoned buildings, maybe they won’t care enough to call the police when they see a drug deal or a burglary either.

This is what happens. Emotional windows can get broken between children during an angry exchange of insults. Insults may not be as serious as the disproportionate response; however, if a teacher ends up comforting the instigator of the punch instead of lecturing them, "The person who punched you will be dealt with. But we must address the fact that you stuck your tongue out at the person and mocked him, too. You know he's volatile. You can't play the victim if you're also not-so-innocent."

The Broken Windows Theory may have flaws due to biases. What we need to realize is that any school of thought is destined to evolve. For example, the very same Very Well Mind  article by Rachael Green also says that this can help evolve the Broken Windows Theory:

The Impact of Physical Environment on Behavior

While the broken windows theory and its application are flawed, the underlying idea that our physical environment can influence our behavior does hold some water. On one hand, “the physical environment conveys social norms that influence our behavior,” Tzall explained. “When we observe others adhering to certain norms in a particular space, we tend to adjust our own behavior to align with them.”

If a person sees litter on the street, they might be more likely to litter themselves, for example. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll make the leap from littering to robbery or violent assault. Moreover, litter can often be a sign that there aren’t enough public trashcans available on the streets for people to throw away food wrappers and other waste while they’re out. In that scenario, installing more trashcans would do far more to reduce litter than increasing the number of citations for littering.

“The design and layout of spaces can also signal specific expectations and guide our actions,” Tzall explained. In the litter example, then, the addition of more trashcans could also act as an environmental cue to encourage throwing trash away rather than littering.

How to Create Positive Environments to Foster Safety, Health, and Well-Being

Ultimately, reducing crime requires addressing the root causes of poverty and social inequality that lead to crime. But taking care of public spaces and neighborhoods to keep them clean and enjoyable can still have a positive impact on the communities who live in and use them.

“Positive environments provide opportunities for meaningful interactions and collaboration among community members,” Tzall said. “Access to green spaces, recreational facilities, mental health resources, and community services contribute to physical, mental, and emotional health,” said Tzall.

By creating more positive environments, we can encourage healthier lifestyle choices—like adding protected bike lanes to encourage people to ride bikes—and prosocial behavior—like adding basketball courts in parks to encourage people to meet and play a game with their neighbors.

At the individual level, Tzall suggests people “can initiate or participate in community projects, volunteer for local organizations, support inclusive initiatives, engage in dialogue with neighbors, and collaborate with local authorities or community leaders.” Create positive environments by taking the initiative to pick up litter when you see it, participate in tree planting initiatives, collaborate with your neighbors to establish a community garden, or volunteer with a local organization to advocate for better public spaces and resources. 

That is when we use the Broken Windows Theory; we don't just fix the windows by addressing the offense, but the root cause of the offense. For example, I felt that the insults hurled at me by that girl might be the result of her parents condoning her offense or the school not punishing the insults. However, if we think about it, that girl may have some deep-seated insecurities that made her wag her tongue or throw insults, thinking she was cute when she wasn't. The school could've monitored me and her as to why we do the things we did. If the girl was simply condoned for her "cute behavior" of sticking her tongue out and teasing, the school might've set her up for an early grave. Hopefully, she has outgrown that behavior.