"The Internet has become a weapon. Our schools have become a battleground."
It's true—the Internet is a weapon, and schools are a battleground, but if there was something we could have done to change these trends, we would have thought of it by now. Schools have started to implement diversity training, but through personal experience and hearing others talk about their experience doing it, it was a "waste of time."
I distinctly remember a moment in junior high school, where the teachers implemented a bullying prevention class during study hall. As someone who was bullied throughout pretty much my entire tenure in any educational institution, hearing someone next to me say "this doesn't happen" simply made me so angry. It may be one of the most silent wars being fought out there.
I was talking with someone on Saturday about my disappointment with how people acted, but I keep saying that if I didn't face that, I wouldn't have the character I possess today. Perhaps this blemish on society exists for that express reason. She told me "just remember, those people amount to nothing."
What Livingston says at the end of this video holds a lot of value. We shouldn't let what people say about us determine our value.
The problem with the concept of bullying is that is an insurmountable obstacle. I have read more than enough peer-reviewed journal articles in communication and biology journals about the issue. On one hand, we can continue to implement this diversity training, and teach our teachers and professors to take action, but no matter what action we take, it doesn't stop.
Bullies can come from varied living conditions, and most of that contributes to their behavior. They can be rich kids with a skewed perception of peoples' worth. They can be abused children that need a release. They can be the product of bad living conditions and temptations. Whatever the case may be, the consequences that the school systems dole out do absolutely nothing.
Detentions and suspensions give the student what they want. You tell me what student wouldn't enjoy missing class. You tell me what student wouldn't want to sit with his fellow troublemakers in the same room. Keeping them away from everything teaches them nothing. I'm not one to condone violence like old Catholic schools in the 50s would do, but that seemed to be the only deterrent.
Maybe having your mouth washed out with soap would be the only way to never do it again.
Maybe bullying has to exist, or else people can't develop into grown adults that can earn the character they live with.
Maybe that's just the way it is...maybe growing up is meant to be a battlefield in which nobody wins.
