Violence in schools: Rage against a broken world

Violence in schools is a grave issue that is often analyzed in terms of individuals' tendencies toward destructive behavior. While this path of analysis is important, in this article, the author contextualizes violence within a cultural milieu that alienates students from their fundamental yearning for significance. It is argued that violence is a failed epiphany, that is, a heightened moment of awareness emerging out of the everyday flow of experience that seeks to overcome alienation. Violence fails because it cannot create a world of sustainable meaning. The nature of productive epiphanies and the worlds of sustainable meaning that they evoke are discussed in terms of their implication for education and overcoming violence in schools.