“Students Clean Up Their Act and ‘Dare Not To Swear!’”

“Students Clean Up Their Act and ‘Dare Not To Swear!’” Paul Lawrence

The Article Hopkins, D. (2007, March). Students clean up their act and "Dare Not To Swear!". Education World. Retrieved Mar. 23, 2007, from http://www.education- world.com/a_admin/columnists/hopkins/hopkins012.shtml The Standard Standard 2.0: Candidates who complete the program are educational leaders who have the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by promoting a positive school culture, providing an effective instructional program, applying best practice to student learning, and designing comprehensive professional growth plans for staff.

"See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s**t and it's over." “Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” President George W. Bush to Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Group of Eight summit, Monday, July 17, 2006 “Go f**k yourself” Mark Twain, a Biography Vice President Dick Cheney to Senator Patrick Leahy on the floor Of the U.S. Senate, Friday, June 25, 2004

Profanity at Your School • Is there a problem with profanity at your school? • How do administrators at your school deal with profanity?

Summary • Madonna Hanna, Fashion Marketing Teacher, Bremerton High School, WA • Surveyed students, teachers and administrators • Student generated program “Dare Not To Swear!” • “asks pledges to give up inappropriate words to expand their vocabulary and their minds” • 1,043 of 1,800 students pledged in under three hours

How They Started • Presentation to Superintendent • Purchase of wristbands for lunchtime sign-up session • Donation of money, t-shirts and candy from local businesses • Placement of “Dare Not To Swear” logo throughout school and community • Celebrity Endorsements

Feedback • Principal Aaron Leavell, "Swearing was absolutely an issue at BHS prior to the Dare Not To Swear! campaign. Inappropriate language was prevalent in hallways, commons areas, and at co-curricular events. Today, when students do swear, there are others around who remind them not to. Students have even created 'no swearing zones' around our building."

Feedback • Sara H., Student "Employers would rather have polite employees than potty-mouthed ones, not to mention that customers will appreciate it as well. When teens don't swear, it improves their community."

Analysis • Standard 2.0: “promoting a positive school culture” • Reduction of up to 20% of referrals • Proactive “grassroots” approach to unavoidable problem

Analysis • Improves overall climate • Student ownership gives the program a feeling of being “cool”, “funny” • Administrator’s role should be behind the scenes, or it will poison the program

“Dare Not To Swear!” Poetry A BAD NAME For myself NOT Swearing Changes peoples' perspective toward ME! It makes ME look like a BETTER person. It allows teachers, students And the community To give me the respect I have been looking for. I earned it! Be a Knight and do it the right way! Dare Not To Swear And You Get the respect that you have earned. -- Crystal G.

“Students Clean Up Their Act and ‘Dare Not To Swear!’”