THE DARK ORIGINS OF VALENTINES DAY

Valentine's Day is a time to celebrate romance and love and kissy-face fealty. But the origins of this festival of candy and cupids are actually dark, bloody — and a bit muddled.

A drawing depicts the death of St. Valentine — one of them, anyway. The Romans executed two men by that name on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D.i

A drawing depicts the death of St. Valentine — one of them, anyway. The Romans executed two men by that name on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Though no one has pinpointed the exact origin of the holiday, one good place to start is ancient Rome, where men hit on women by, well, hitting them.

Those Wild And Crazy Romans

From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.

The Roman romantics "were drunk. They were naked," says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile.

The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be, um, coupled up for the duration of the festival — or longer, if the match was right.

The ancient Romans may also be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.

Later, Pope Gelasius I muddled things in the 5th century by combining St. Valentine's Day with Lupercalia to expel the pagan rituals. But the festival was more of a theatrical interpretation of what it had once been. Lenski adds, "It was a little more of a drunken revel, but the Christians put clothes back on it. That didn't stop it from being a day of fertility and love."

Around the same time, the Normans celebrated Galatin's Day. Galatin meant "lover of women." That was likely confused with St. Valentine's Day at some point, in part because they sound alike.

Sourse:

Seipel, A. (13 de febrary de 2011). Nacional Public Radio: News and analysis, world, US, Music and Arts. Obtenido de http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day

THE LEGEND OF ST. VALENTINE

The history of Valentine’s Day–and the story of its patron saint–is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

 The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

 Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl–possibly his jailor’s daughter–who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and–most importantly–romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

Source:

History.com Staff. (2009). History.com. Retrived:  History of Valentine`s day : http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day

Bibliography:
O`Brians, D (21 may, 2016)

Truancy: Consequences and Causes

Consequences of Truancy

• Dropping out of school. Students who are chronically truant typically fall behind in grade level and drop out of school.
• Delinquency. Students who are chronically truant are also at-risk for other behaviors, such as alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and delinquency.
• Negative effect upon other students. Students who are chronically truant require extra time from teachers; teachers have less time to spend with the regularly-attending students in the classroom when they must create make-up work for truants.

Causes of Truancy

What influences truancy? In early research, depending upon the perspective of the researcher, truancy was said to be caused by the student, the student’s family, or the school. More recently, it is understood that a combination of all three factors usually affect truancy:

Characteristics of the Student:

• low grades in reading and mathematics
• neurological factors, such as dyslexia
• inability to make friends with mainstream students or teachers
• negative attitudes toward school or teachers

Characteristics of the Student’s Family:
• parent(s) who do not value education
• parent(s) who did not complete school, were truant themselves
• poor parenting skills
• low socio-economic status
• physical or mental health problems of parents
• family history of delinquency
• single parent families
• many children in the family

Characteristics of the School:
• weak or no monitoring of daily attendance
• inconsistent attendance policies
• lack of parent involvement in the school
• lack of personalized attention to students
• lack of teacher expectations for high student achievement 

Bibliography 

truancy. (s.f.). Truancy Prevention . Obtenido de http://www.truancyprevention.org/

CATEGORIES OF TRUANCY

Correlates of Truancy

Preliminary findings from OJJDP's evalua-tion of TRDP confirm previous findings that, in general, the correlates of truancy fall into four broad categories:

• Family factors. These include lack of guidance or parental supervision, domestic violence, poverty, drug or alcohol abuse in the home, lack of awareness of attendance laws, and differing attitudes toward education.

• School factors. These include school climate issuessuch as school size and attitudes of teachers, other students, and administratorsand inflexibility in meeting the diverse cultural and learn-ing styles of the students. Schools often have inconsistent procedures in place for dealing with chronic absenteeism and may not have meaningful conse-quences available for truant youth (e.g., out-of-school suspension).

• Economic influences. These include employed students, single-parent homes, high mobility rates, parents who hold multiple jobs, and a lack of affordable transportation and childcare.

• Student variables. These include drug and alcohol abuse, lack of understand-ing of attendance laws, lack of social competence, mental health difficulties, and poor physical health.

SOURCE:

 

Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N., & Nugent, M. E. (2001). Truancy Reduction: Keeping Students in School. Juvenile Justice Bulletin.

TRUANCY

Truancy Reduction: Keeping Students in School. Juvenile Justice Bulletin.

Each school day, hundreds of thousands of students are missing from their classrooms--many without a bona fide excuse. Left unchecked, truancy is a risk factor for serious juvenile delinquency. Truancy's impact also extends into the adult years where it has been linked to numerous negative outcomes. Consequently, it is critical to identify strategies that intervene effectively with youth who are chronically truant and that interrupt their progress to delinquency and other negative behaviors by addressing the underlying reasons behind their absence from school. This bulletin provides an overview of the problem of truancy; describes the correlations of family, school, economic, and student factors with truancy; notes truancy's role as a predictor of delinquency, including juvenile daytime crime; and tallies truancy's social and financial impacts. Two projects funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention are featured: the ACT Now program operated by the Pima County Attorney's Office in Arizona and the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program, a partnership with the Executive Office for Weed and Seed and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program. Truancy is an early warning sign for future problems and should not be ignored. 

SOURCE:

Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N., & Nugent, M. E. (2001). Truancy Reduction: Keeping Students in School. Juvenile Justice Bulletin.

Helen Dalby-NEC,(24 May 2013)

Implications of truancy
Each school day, hundreds of thousands of students are missing from their classrooms--many without a bona fide excuse. Left unchecked, truancy is a risk factor for serious juvenile delinquency. Truancy's impact also extends into the adult years where it has been linked to numerous negative outcomes. Consequently, it is critical to identify strategies that intervene effectively with youth who are chronically truant and that interrupt their progress to delinquency and other negative behaviors by addressing the underlying reasons behind their absence from school. This bulletin provides an overview of the problem of truancy; describes the correlations of family, school, economic, and student factors with truancy; notes truancy's role as a predictor of delinquency, including juvenile daytime crime; and tallies truancy's social and financial impacts. Two projects funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention are featured: the ACT Now program operated by the Pima County Attorney's Office in Arizona and the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program, a partnership with the Executive Office for Weed and Seed and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program. Truancy is an early warning sign for future problems and should not be ignored.

Source:  http://eric.ed.gov
        Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.