Lately everyone seems up in arms about bullying. Whether it’s schoolyard shenanigans or online bitchiness people want to see the kids protected. I for one think these people are dead wrong. Before you go and judge me let me assure you I wasn’t a kid who didn’t get bullied. I got beat up by four different bullies in my neighborhood. I went to a school where my pale Irish pallor made me a definite minority and was beat up for that. I also had this strong desire to be accepted and tried my damnedest to get people to accept me which of course resulted in rejection. In general my life sucked for a few years. I don’t mean sucked a little bit, I mean sucked like I couldn’t ride my bike on my own street without getting bullied. I was that kid. My dad didn’t go chase off the bullies, my mom didn’t call the cops, the school didn’t punish me for getting beat up and I survived. I survived because I learned to be tougher every time something happened to me until one day I had enough and got a “dad sock”, dropped in a couple or three bars of soap, tracked down the neighborhood bullies and beat the ever-loving shit out of each one of them in turn. I made my stand and was a better person for it. Now my mom wanted my dad to get involved but he told her that he wouldn’t and I needed to learn to deal with things myself. I hated him for it at the time. I hated him for it right until the day I stood up for myself and learned the lesson he wanted me to learn; I understood what he wanted that day and I loved him all the more for it.
In this day and age we have schools with zero tolerance policies that are enforced by punishing everyone involved in a physical altercation. This only amplifies the bullying. The bullies know that if they take someone’s lunch money and a physical altercation is the result then the bullied kid is punished as well. So the bullied are cowed by the rules as well as the bullies themselves. If they stand up for themselves they are punished, if they defend themselves they are punished and the only way to not get in trouble is to allow themselves to get bullied and rat the bully out and hope like hell there’s enough evidence for the bully to be punished and then hope even more that the bully cares about the punishment to begin with. We are teaching an entire generation to let anyone walk on them that wants to do so! We aren’t even teaching them real life for God’s sake! I can defend myself against a drunk in a bar but at school a child cannot defend himself against a bully! The educators and administrators have it all wrong. Zero tolerance is only hurting our children. It is no protecting them at all. If a kid goes through school under these ill-conceived policies and then steps out in to the real world they will be unprepared to deal with life. They will look for someone else to help them and no-one will be there.
And the recent outcry against online bullying is even more bullshit. I learned from a young age that sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. People talk shit. Period. Full stop. I don’t care if they are talking shit online or gossiping over backyard fences it’s going to happen. Kids are especially evil when it comes to shunning and saying mean things. The kids on the other end of these verbal assaults don’t need laws to protect them. They don’t need the government doing an end run around the First Amendment just so they don’t have to see some kid down the block say mean things about them on Facebook. What they need is parents there with them letting them know that WORDS DON’T HURT. Sure words can sting at times but they are just words and moving past them is as easy as ignoring the person speaking them. If you ignore someone who talks shit then you take away their power over you. Parents should be teaching their kids this instead of teaching them, and letting the schools teach them, that they need someone to filter other people’s bad intentions towards them. The direct assaults on the First Amendment taking the form of laws against online bullying are sickening to say the least. Teaching our children that they have a right to not be offended is taking away the tools the real world requires if they are to succeed.
In short we need to teach our children to have thicker skins and to stand up for themselves. A “dad sock” filled with bars of soap may be a little overkill but back when I was coming up parents didn’t call the cops on kids fighting. They let the kids sort it out and we did. I am actually still friends with one of the bastards that used to kick my ass. All it took was some fucking self confidence (and not this bullshit unfounded self esteem they are teaching in schools but that’s another post altogether) and I took control of my life. The current educators’ direction will saddle us with a generation that’ll be fucking lucky to feed themselves much less take care of a country.
Yeah I haven’t posted in over a month. I have been slammed at work which is not a bad thing. I keep meaning to post snippets but never seem to get around to it. I ran across this while browsing this morning and had to comment.
(Emphasis mine)
Source: WCBV Boston
lementary school students in Provincetown would be given condoms – whether their parents approve or not – under a policy approved by the town’s school committee last week.
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The board voted unanimously to approve the policy, which states that the school district will not honor requests from parents that their children not be given condoms.
I really don’t care what your stance on sex education may be this goes too damn far. These are elementary school children for God’s sake! The article points out that if they ask for condoms they have to speak with a nurse or a counselor but who cares? I know it’s also in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts and not in Texas where I live and happily homeschool my kids. This is a gross violation of parental rights. They won’t tell parents if their kid asks for condoms and they won’t honor requests from parents to not give their kid condoms. I don’t agree with this at the high school level but at least I can see the logic. To bring this policy in to grammar schools, for children ages 5-10, is just gross negligence on the part of the policy makers. At that age the parents should be completely in charge of what is given to their children. The worst part may be that’s it’s damn hard to homeschool in Mass to begin with so parents can’t easily choose to teach their children themselves.
What a complete and utter violation of parent’s rights! I am so glad we live in Texas and due to the homeschooling laws don’t have to ever deal with crap like this! I am not even opposed, on a theological level, to pre-marital sex. Sure there are great reasons not to have sex before marriage but they are all grounded in reality and not mandated by scripture (anyone who tells you different has an agenda). This has nothing to do with my views on any of that. This has to do with adults who are not the children’s parents giving them freaking condoms at age 6 (the article states that the condoms will be made available starting at first grade). Where I come from an adult giving a condom to a six year old and instructing him or her on its use might get shot for being a sexual predator. Aside from the parental rights’ issues involved this is just plain sickening.
