Dirty Dancing, Essay Example

I, Kathy Wilson, have been the superintendent of the Southwestern Regional School District for five years. There are four schools in my district that serve almost 10,000 students. I enjoy positive working relationships with the various stakeholders in the district school system and the district schools have been enjoying continuous improvement in student test scores under my leadership.

In one of the regular monthly meetings of the Board of Education, vice-president of the student congress at Western, Frank Piso complained against the ban of certain dance styles by Western’s Principal Tom Reagan. Mr. Piso argued that the ban against certain dance styles constituted violation of constitutional right of “freedom of expression”. Mr. Piso also informed us that Principal Reagan ignored their petition. It was a surprise to me because I was not aware of any formal action by any of the principals against any dance styles. The board president, Bob Dodson assigned me the task of thoroughly investigating the issue and report back my findings to the board.

I met with Principal Reagan and advised him to form a committee consisting of all the stakeholders and report me the guidelines in two weeks. I issued similar directive to the principals of other three schools, too. I went to the West’s next Friday dance party and what I saw did seem sexually suggestive to me but the students defended themselves on the ground that dance doesn’t equal actions. I could see the influence of electronic media in the suggestive dance styles (Kranz, 2001). The following Sunday, Mr. Dodson informed me that the students have alleged racial and cultural discrimination by the school administrators in a news article in the local Sunday morning paper.

After analyzing the background of the case, this looks a typical example of generational differences. The students live in increasingly digitalized world and audio as well as video music is assessable at a wider scale than ever in the history. The popularity of dance styles such as freak dance speaks about the influence of media in shaping the popular culture. Students emulate trends and they prefer freedom to develop and express their own lifestyle. Any attempt to curb the popular trend is seen as a violation of personal rights by the young generation. Thus, it is not surprising to read in the paper that students alleged racial and cultural discrimination. This is an effective attack because freak dances trace their popularity to this rise of hip-hop and rap music which has been driven by mostly black singers. Moreover, this line of attack will draw greater community’s sympathy and support for the students since racial discrimination violates the spirit of modern American values.

In contrast, the older generation remains close to the values they grew up with and see the liberal dance styles as a threat to their moral values. They are also concerned with the secularization of the media that are targeting their young audience with sexually suggestive content on everyday basis. The older generation is aware that these conflicts occurred during their times, too but they may claim that their dances were more civilized than the current trends. This is an expected line of defense but weak in the light of historical trend that demonstrates the secularization of society’s values over time. The evolution of women swimwear is one good example.

After thinking over the problem, I have identified certain pieces of information that would be helpful in formulating the final strategy. As a district superintendent, I am not only responsible for Western but all four schools and this case has alerted me to the fact that my supervision has room to improve. If Mr. Piso hadn’t come to the board meeting, I would never have come to know the formal ban of certain dance styles. So I am going to hold discussions with the stakeholders of other three schools as well just as I did with Western. It would help me become aware of the issues that are dear to various stakeholders. It may even provide me with some useful tips in dealing with Western’s situation if any of the other three schools may have faced a situation like this and solved it to everyone’s satisfaction. These monthly meetings with the stakeholders of all four schools will become a regular event eventually. It would also help me compare policies across all four schools and bring them in line with each other. First of all, this will communicate a consistent image of the district and second, as an education official I believe that every student in my district should have same rights no matter which school he or she attends.

Mr. Piso gave a great example that these inter-generational conflicts have also occurred before when swing dance saw resurgence in the mid-80s (Edmondson)and Charleston dance became popular in the early 1920s after the success of the movie with the same name (Rosenberg). I am a student of history and I will be interested in studying how schools back in 1920s and 1980s solved this dilemma and how these dance styles became widely accepted in the mainstream culture. I will reach out to different schools if they may have records related to issues that rose due to the popularity of new dance styles. My fellow board members may also prove to be knowledgeable sources since many of them grew in 1960s and 1970s and might have memories of similar events. I am going to do personal research on other schools in the state as well and across the nation to educate myself how academic institutions are managing such conflicts; are they allowing these dance styles on campus, have prohibited it, or going the middle way.

There are two solutions in my mind. One solution calls for a compromise between the students and the parents/teachers. These stakeholders will compile a list of occasions where suggestive dance styles may be prohibited such as family events and other formal events. Other events where majority of the participants will be students, they will have the freedom to choose music and dances of their choice. Students will also be asked to abide by a code of conduct where no student will be harassed against his or her will. In addition, the events with suggestive dances will report in advance so students who don’t feel comfortable are informed. The benefit of this alternative is that it takes the middle ground where the wishes of all stakeholders are being honored to some extent. The drawback is that allowing these dance styles may open school to sexual harassment lawsuits since there is always a danger of misconduct by certain students against their colleagues. This alternative may also take more time because both parties will have to find common agreement and each party would want to get the most out of the bargaining.

The second solution is to agree with the students in the light of historical evidence that new dance styles have always shocked the older generations when they were first introduced due to their more liberal nature. But with time, they became part of our mainstream culture. We educate our students to be practical and flexible due to the rapidly changing world. By holding on to our old traditions and personal ego, we will be setting conflicting examples for our students. Our students may also perceive us as intolerant which will hurt our credibility as public education servants. The benefit of this alternative is that we are taking a realistic approach to the changing nature of our society. The drawback is that our events may be less welcoming to guests with strong traditional values and some parents may even withdraw their children from the district school system.

I prefer the first solution since it finds a middle ground. It will improve working relationships among the different stakeholders and encourage each party to be more respectful of other’s wishes. Over time, the dance styles may become more widely accepted in the mainstream culture but until them it will be better to take a gradual approach for the sake of harmony. I understand how any new liberal trend shocks in the beginning and many of my fellow board members are on the same page but we also realize that even within generation, people may hold different values and different levels of allegiance to traditions.

I am going to involve all stakeholders in developing guidelines and code of conduct so that they are more likely to support the end agreement. Working together will also help them understand each other’s assumptions and opinions which will further promote more tolerant attitude towards each other. Each stakeholder party will choose a representative who will be given copy of the final agreement and code of conduct so he/she may communicate them to his/her fellow stakeholders. Each representative will be required to sign the official agreement before they are given a copy. The official documents will be kept with the school board. This will apply to all the four schools in the district. I want to adopt the same policies in all the schools so no stakeholder from any school may claim discriminatory treatment. This will also give me and the board a better control over the management of the schools in the district.

As conflicts may arise, they will be bought before the school board who will hear each party’s claims and issue judgment through members voting process. In situations where a deadlock may occur, the vote of the board President will decide the outcome of the conflict.

References

Edmondson, S. (n.d.). One Legend of the Origin of Swing. Retrieved January 28, 2011, from http://daffy.uah.edu/lindy/origins.html

Kranz, C. (May 29, 2001). Adults freak over teens’ dancing. Retrieved January 28, 2011, from Enquirer: http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/05/29/loc_adults_freak_over.html

Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). 1923 – Charleston Dance Becomes Popular. Retrieved January 28, 2011, from About.com: http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/qt/charleston.htm