THE STUDENT ROLE In general, the role of the student is to adhere to the organizational norms of the school and

to apply himself to the accomplish ment of the objectives defined for him by the school. A student must defer to the teacher as the initiator of activity and as the source of authority in the classroom. He must often, delay the satisfaction of immediate interests for the sake of long range goals. He is expected to be attentive, to follow directions, to work hard, and to follow the rules of social interaction prescribed by the teacher. The degree of the student's internalization of these role requirements affects their successful fulfillment and the consequent success of the student within the school. In discussing the students' role definition, however, it should be remembered that the schools do not always (and perhaps seldom) have the students' best interests at heart. There seems to be a growing suspicion by many behavioral scientists (including educators) that many schools operate in ways that are destructive of the students' individuality, self esteem, creativeness, happiness, and mental health. When schools miseducate instead of educate, when schools operate against the self interests of the students as individual human beings, then perhaps the most healthy response is for the students to refuse to meet their role requirements until the school makes some basic changes. The school child performs a significant range of other roles in addition to the role of the student. The ascribed roles for boys and girls, for example, define different patterns of behavior for each at various age levels. Although there are no significant differences in intelligence between boys and girls, most studies show that boys represent about 75 percent of the stutterers, 70 to 80 percent of the slow readers, and a large majority of the dropouts in later school years (Beck et al., 1968). Other roles students may play are son, daughter, brother, sister, boyfriend, girlfriend, peer group leader, and so on. These roles may or may not conflict with the role of the student at certain times. In a recent book, Jackson (1,968) developed a provocative discussion of the students' role in an elementary school after he observed individual classrooms in several different schools. The rest of this section is based upon his book. Briefly, he states that crowded conditions coupled with the necessity to accomplish many different activities in a short amount of time result in the development of capacities in students for ignoring interruptions and distractions, for delay in the fulfillment of their impulses, and for disengagement of their feelings, An additional pressure is the teacher's constant -evaluation of the students' behavior and the differences in power between the students and the teacher. Due to the lack of sufficient time to -complete many different activities, students must learn to adhere to a strict time schedule. The result is often that activities begin before the arousal of interest and terminate before its dissipation. When the bell rings, for example. students must either come in from -recess or take out their spelling books or stop working on drawings and begin reading depending upon established norms or specific instructions from the teacher. Students are required to ignore distractions and interruptions, and be able to return to their work quickly after their attention has been- drawn elsewhere momentarily. In addition, they are required tw4gmre those who are around them. For example, the teacher may*-take a small group of students off into a comer and have them read aloud while the other students work at their desks; the ability to 1~tune out" the reading group and work independently of direct teacher supervision is a prerequisite for working productively at one's desk. Students, then, must behave as if they were alone, when in fact they are not.

One of the inevitable outcomes of being in a classroom is the experiencing- of delay. ~ Students are forced to take turns,'fo-rced to work in groups -whose progress toward goals may be the speed of the slowest member, and forced to prepare for a future that is several years away. Much of students' time is spent in waitingwaiting in line for lunch, recess, dismissal, water, and the like. They also wait for the teacher to give them permission to talk, recite, get a library book, receive a grade for their work. and so forth. The denial of desire is the ultimate outcome of many of the delays occurring in the classroom. When considered by themselves, most of these denials are psychologically trivial, but when considered cumulatively their significance increases. Part of learning how to function successfully in school involves learning how to give up desire as well as how to wait for its fulfillment. If students are to face the demands of classroom life with equanimity they must learn to be patient. This means that they must be able, at least temporarily, to disengage their feelings from their actions. It also means that when conditions are appropriate they must be able to re-engage feelings and actions. They must wait patiently for their turn to come, but when it does come they must still be capable of zestful participation. When the student enters the classroom his achievements, or lack of them, become official and a semi-public record of his progress gradually accumulates. A student must learn to adapt to, the continued and pervasive spirit~ of evaluation that will dominate his school years. Evaluation is an important fact of rife in the classroom; tests are as much a part of the school environment as are pencils, paper, and textbooks. Learning how to function successfully in a classroom, furthermore, (that is, the successful adoption of the student role) involves learning how to witness and occasionally participate in the evaluation of others as well as learning how to handle situations in which one's own work or behavior are evaluated. Jackson states that, in regard to evaluation, the student has three jobs. First, heis to behave in such a way as to enhance the likelihood of praise and reduce the. probability of punishment, he must learn how the reward system works in the classroom and use that knowledge to increase the flow of rewards to himself. Second he learns to try to publicize positive evaluations and conceal negative ones. Third, be must learn to win the approval of two audiences at the same time, the teacher and his peers; that is, how to become a good student while remaining a good guy. Most students learn that rewards are granted to those who conform to the expectations of the teacher. Another feature of classroom life to which the students must become accustomed is the difference in power and authority between himself and the teacher. Among other things, this involves paying attention to the teacher. At the heart of the teacher's authority is his command over the student's attention. Students are supposed to attend to certain matters while they are in the classroom and much of the teacher's energies are spent in making sure this happens. At school the child must learn how to look and listen. The teacher, in other words, is the student's first "boss." It is expected that children will adapt to the teacher's authority by becoming. "good workers" and "model students." The ability to comply with educational authority if transferred to many out-of-school settings, such as employment organizations, is important. The crowds, the praise, and the power that combine to give a disflavor to classroom life collectively form a hidden curriculum that each-student (and teacher) must master if he is to make hi way satisfactorily through the school. These demands make up the organizational role

requirements that must be learned. The reward SV,Ztem of the school is linked to success in both the organizational and the academic curricula, indeed, many of the rewards dispensed are really more closely related to the mastery of the organizational curriculum than to the academic curriculum. For example, in many schools students are given credit (rewards) for "trying"; by "trying" is not meant academic achievement, but rather conformity, to the organizational requirements that define the "model student." In schools, as in prisons, good behavior pays off. A student, therefore, becomes "school-wise" or "teacher-wise" when lie has discovered how to respond with a minimum amount of pain and discomfort to the demands, both official and unofficial, of classroom life. Often this is focused on the organizational curriculum ; teachers express more anger about violations of role regulations and routines than about signs of intellectual deficiencies. Factors that affect the child's being able to adapt successfully to the role requirements of the school include general intelligence, personality, and cultural background children able to conform to the attitudes and values necessary for success in school make out better than those who cannot.