School bullying has always been and always will be an issue. The thing is, however, that it is not the same as it was when most of us were in school. Adults are always saying things like "I had bullies in school when I was growing up. I turned out fine. This generation is too soft." The problem is that this generation is not our generation and modern bullying is not the schoolyard name calling of the old days. What kids deal with now should not even be called bullying because in reality it is psychological torment and abuse to a level beyond anything we experienced as kids.
What's changed? Simply put: Everything. When I was in grade school the tide was beginning to turn, but it had not achieved close to the level of nonsense of today. As a child, I repeatedly found myself in trouble for fighting back. I was told that I should not hit back but tell a teacher instead. The problem was that when I told a teacher I would also be punished while the bully kids could do as they please. This was a bad situation but it was just the beginning of what the system would become.
Now we have a school system that removes children from the classroom for pointing finger guns at each other during recess while a troubled teen who tells people that he wants to shoot up the school gets ignored. We have a system that either goes 100% zero tolerance and utilizes no logic, or ignores the ugly realities of life for kids growing up these days. The bullying issue is discussed all over the place with public service announcements and posters designed to make us feel better. It is a fashionable topic that people like to talk about, but while all the talk goes on, there are still 12-year-olds hanging themselves because no one would listen and no one would help.
The thing that many adults fail to understand is that school bullying is no longer limited to school. It is not Monday through Friday. It is year-round 24-7 abuse and torment. Sure when we were kids we had that one kid that picked on us at school, but we also had a home away from them. Kids now have phones, apps and websites which ensure that their abusers can harass them at all times. Instead of one asshole kid telling a kid at school that she's ugly and should kill herself, there is a whole social network of asshole kids posting and sending constant messages telling one kid that she's ugly and should kill herself. How can we expect young people to take nonstop abuse and not develop issues like anger, depression, anxiety, etc.?
Think about it like this, if you drink water every day, your body is nourished and healthy. If you drink whiskey every day, your body will be damaged over time. If you breath in fresh air, your lungs will be happy and healthy. If you smoke your lungs will suffer. What we put into our mind works the same way as what we put into our body. If negativity is planted then negativity will grow. Young people today are faced with negativity and abuse at every turn. We live in a culture that pretends to care a lot about a lot of things. Unfortunately, our culture thrives on bullying and abuse while pretending to speak against it. Bullies are not a small group, nor are they solely a school issue. Turn on the news and you see liberals and conservatives engaging in the same name calling and verbal abuse as high school students. Go to Youtube and watch virtually any video. read the comments and you will find people threatening each other and mocking each other's religious and political beliefs. Bullying is something ingrained in our culture. It is a part of business, entertainment, politics, religion, and it finds its way into pretty much all aspects of American society. We cannot address the issue of bullying in schools until we accept that it is prevalent in all corners of our society and we all have a responsibility to change the culture of hate. We must recognize our role in the problem and then we can define our role in the solution.
What's changed? Simply put: Everything. When I was in grade school the tide was beginning to turn, but it had not achieved close to the level of nonsense of today. As a child, I repeatedly found myself in trouble for fighting back. I was told that I should not hit back but tell a teacher instead. The problem was that when I told a teacher I would also be punished while the bully kids could do as they please. This was a bad situation but it was just the beginning of what the system would become.
Now we have a school system that removes children from the classroom for pointing finger guns at each other during recess while a troubled teen who tells people that he wants to shoot up the school gets ignored. We have a system that either goes 100% zero tolerance and utilizes no logic, or ignores the ugly realities of life for kids growing up these days. The bullying issue is discussed all over the place with public service announcements and posters designed to make us feel better. It is a fashionable topic that people like to talk about, but while all the talk goes on, there are still 12-year-olds hanging themselves because no one would listen and no one would help.
The thing that many adults fail to understand is that school bullying is no longer limited to school. It is not Monday through Friday. It is year-round 24-7 abuse and torment. Sure when we were kids we had that one kid that picked on us at school, but we also had a home away from them. Kids now have phones, apps and websites which ensure that their abusers can harass them at all times. Instead of one asshole kid telling a kid at school that she's ugly and should kill herself, there is a whole social network of asshole kids posting and sending constant messages telling one kid that she's ugly and should kill herself. How can we expect young people to take nonstop abuse and not develop issues like anger, depression, anxiety, etc.?
Think about it like this, if you drink water every day, your body is nourished and healthy. If you drink whiskey every day, your body will be damaged over time. If you breath in fresh air, your lungs will be happy and healthy. If you smoke your lungs will suffer. What we put into our mind works the same way as what we put into our body. If negativity is planted then negativity will grow. Young people today are faced with negativity and abuse at every turn. We live in a culture that pretends to care a lot about a lot of things. Unfortunately, our culture thrives on bullying and abuse while pretending to speak against it. Bullies are not a small group, nor are they solely a school issue. Turn on the news and you see liberals and conservatives engaging in the same name calling and verbal abuse as high school students. Go to Youtube and watch virtually any video. read the comments and you will find people threatening each other and mocking each other's religious and political beliefs. Bullying is something ingrained in our culture. It is a part of business, entertainment, politics, religion, and it finds its way into pretty much all aspects of American society. We cannot address the issue of bullying in schools until we accept that it is prevalent in all corners of our society and we all have a responsibility to change the culture of hate. We must recognize our role in the problem and then we can define our role in the solution.
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