You may have seen the Ohio State
University Band animate half- time with their amazing Michael Jackson
moonwalk. It is hard to imagine that this extraordinary band is under
investigation for serious hazing activities, but, they are.
This time of year, bands, spirit clubs
and sports teams are practicing hard and doing all kinds of
activities to build team spirit. In college, freshmen are shopping
around for clubs and fraternities for social support. All
organizations have initiation rites to welcome new members and help
them feel like they fully belong. These rites should be public,
safe, and designed to build positive social relationships.
Too many organizations still confuse
welcoming initiation rites with hazing, which is why we are still
reading about il- legal hazing practices in high schools and colleges
across the U.S.A.
What’s the difference? If an
initiation rite is safe, no one will be harmed physically,
emotionally, or socially. The persons inducted to a group will feel
that they belong, that they have a positive role in the group, and
that their time spent with the group can blossom into lifetime
friendships.
Hazing causes physical or psychological
harm. In Louisiana, hazing is illegal, thank goodness. Those who haze
or permit hazing can be fined and/or imprisoned for 10-30 days if
convicted. Students who haze can be expelled from school.
Sadly, our most popular leaders and
students can be caught up in hazing incidents. Students who want
desperately to belong will go along with hazing if they think they
will be accepted by their peers.
Teachers, coaches, band directors have
tolerated the practice, or actively encouraged hazing in the
misguided belief that hazing is a form of discipline or
character-building. But, hazing does not build strong character.
Hazing creates an abusive atmosphere of meanness and intimidation.
Some of us are old enough to remember
relatives who served in the military during its worse days – the
Vietnam era, when soldiers were physically abused and psychologically
demeaned. After that war, there was a severe leadership crisis. But,
the Army worked hard to change its culture for the better.
I was lucky to attend Officer Candidate
School at “Fort Benning’s School for Boys” in the early 1980's –
when the military worked hard to create a positive training culture –
welcoming of diversity, welcoming of men and women who brought all
kinds of skills and talent to their lives as soldiers.
Of course, soldiers were rated for
their character traits, then, as now. We studied all kinds of
reflections from leaders who kept their soldiers together in battle.
I learned my best leadership lessons there. The first was how to
correct behavior in my subordinates. We were required not only to
memorize, but to live up to Schofield’s Definition of Discipline:
The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country
reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical
treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to
destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instructions
and to give commands in such a manner and in such a tone of voice as
to inspire in the soldier no feeling but and intense desire to obey,
while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite
strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or other of
dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the
breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due others
cannot fail to inspire in them regard for himself; while he who
feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward other, especially his
inferiors, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.
There’s no question in my mind that those teachers and coaches who
have tolerated hazing in the past had very good, but very misguided
intentions. They wanted to build discipline in their organization.
But in fact, if discipline happened, it was in spite of the hazing.
As a parent, let your child know that under no circumstances should
they participate in or be victim to any kind of hazing. Hazing is not
welcoming. It is not good discipline. Hazing is a crime, not worthy
of any sport or extracurricular activity in your child’s life. No
matter how much prestige that group has in the moment, at some point,
their hazing culture will be exposed.
Hopefully, before serious damage is done.
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