The research by Rosenthal & Wilson is particularly valuable in this respect because it suggests that negative experiences are not directly responsible for poor school performance, but rather that the continued psychological distress resulting from negative experiences is responsible for school discontinuation among students. Thus one can blame the failure of the schooling system not on the surrounding environment, but on the students lack of resilience. This might at first seem to be a sort of conservative ploy, aimed at blaming the victim of social disaster for failing to rise above it rather than considering ways to prevent such disasters. However, if one can escape the negative implications of "blame" and "causation," it is possible to see some potential in this theory of causation. If the cause of school failure and discontinuation is the psychological distress of the student who has survived violence, then it is possible that by ameliorating this distress students who might otherwise drop out of school may be encouraged to persist in their education.
Rosenthal and Wilson do not directly address the issue of preventive efforts aimed at minimizing the effects of violence on children, nor do they specifically deal with issues of intervention aimed at easing the psychological distress of students who have survived violence. There is very little in their work dealing with the...
However, a keen reader could extrapolate possible uses of this information in intervention and prevention attempts. For example, high school in urban areas might benefit their students by having support groups for victims of crime, and by teaching grief, stress, and fear management techniques openly in the classroom. Colleges, likewise, might do well to open more lines of communication and counseling with students from crime-ridden urban areas and offer a wider range of services to aid with the transition into school and aid the healing of their psychological distress.
The fact that there was not a direct link between being victimized or involved in violence and dropping out of school or receiving poor grades proves that these experiences can be overcome -- the fact that there is a direct link between psychological distress and school discontinuation shows that schools are not doing enough to help distressed students remain in school. Obviously students are willing to admit their distress when asked openly (otherwise Rosenthal and Wilson would not have had reports from students regarding their distress levels!), and this tends to indicate a willingness to discuss problems and seek solutions. This research cries out to be followed by in-depth research on intervention at the university…
