RE: Mindful Monday - Helping Our Children
It is completely abhorrent what children are put through these days. You're absolutely correct in that bullying has always existed, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't stop or be educated against. Wrong is still wrong.
I think compounding the issue with children is the intense amount of pressure that we put on them from such an early age. By grade 8 - 13 and 14 years olds! - we're expecting them to "know what they want to do" and begin to plan out the rest of their lives, where they're going to go to college, what they want to study, go to two or three or more activities in a week and so forth. It's crazy. They're kids! They should be outside playing.
I levelled a complained against my boy's school once with the US Dept of Education; I completely bypassed the State because of the love affair the school at the State dept have with each other. That was when I finally got results. School's need to be held accountable too (flip side, they also need to be resourced correctly).
I wish there were an easy solution. In @jayna's post I remember suggesting that the only thing I can think of is to re-invest in education from a community standpoint, and I still think that's key. It's not short term by any stretch, and it will only work if we as a society can have faith in an education system, which may be an issue in and of itself.
You're are absolutely correct. Bullying does need to be fought. So many don't understand the extent of bullying and it's consequences. As we are seeing it has far reaching detrimental effects if someone is not given the tools or support needed to combat it. Using the old 'Sticks and Stones' phrasing is the worst way to confront this too. Words hurt. Words do more damage. A broken bone heals. Yes the bone is 'scarred' but it usually is a bit stronger as a result. Word work their way in to the small recesses of your mind and take root. Whether you blow them off or not, you can't unhear it. The second it enters your mind it's there. With a broken bone we learn not to do something that can cause it.
I agree we need to let our kids be kids. Enjoy that time while its there, it's too short of a time in our live not to allow our children to have. Be creative and crazy. Go play in the mud. Go ride their bikes, skateboard, play sports.They may even figure out what they might want to do with their future if they did all of this.
That sucks you had to go to those lengths to get results. I don't understand why schools, and local school districts seem to be pretty apathetic towards a lot of this.