This is part of our neglect of both mental health issues and of the support of bullying. The schools do very little to discipline those kids who attack others, then the same kids grow up to brutalize their way to the top of our Corporations and Government. The focus is power, might makes right over service and morals.
This is part of our neglect of both mental health issues and of the support of bullying. The schools do very little to discipline those kids who attack others, then the same kids grow up to brutalize their way to the top of our Corporations and Government. The focus is power, might makes right over service and morals.
You are right about the focus being power and might makes right over service and morals. However, the ancient canard about disciplining students and “mental health issues” is precisely how we got to this pathetic state of affairs. Discipline is absolutely essential. However, the application of “power” and the principle of “might makes right”, as in what the teacher says goes and authority is in place to enforce proper conduct is bass-ackwards and 180 degrees off the mark. The lesson of a top-down, authority-based paradigm is that bullying is okay as long as the bullies are smarter and superior and the whole enterprise is about sorting out those who are good and better from those who don’t quite measure up – and then administering negative consequences to the lesser individuals. Meanwhile, teachers and authorities are too preoccupied with their appointed and anointed duties and roles to notice that one-third of the class is not up to snuff and that some kids are receding into the background, while others are asserting their superior status. Even if they do notice and care, their hands are tied and there are other priorities upon which their very survival in the field depend. When school is about behavior modification and “education” mental health or other actual social services and compassionate attention are too complicated and insignificant to matter. The lives of children will never matter as long as the laws are in place which specifically establish their insignificance and subservience.
This is part of our neglect of both mental health issues and of the support of bullying. The schools do very little to discipline those kids who attack others, then the same kids grow up to brutalize their way to the top of our Corporations and Government. The focus is power, might makes right over service and morals.
You are right about the focus being power and might makes right over service and morals. However, the ancient canard about disciplining students and “mental health issues” is precisely how we got to this pathetic state of affairs. Discipline is absolutely essential. However, the application of “power” and the principle of “might makes right”, as in what the teacher says goes and authority is in place to enforce proper conduct is bass-ackwards and 180 degrees off the mark. The lesson of a top-down, authority-based paradigm is that bullying is okay as long as the bullies are smarter and superior and the whole enterprise is about sorting out those who are good and better from those who don’t quite measure up – and then administering negative consequences to the lesser individuals. Meanwhile, teachers and authorities are too preoccupied with their appointed and anointed duties and roles to notice that one-third of the class is not up to snuff and that some kids are receding into the background, while others are asserting their superior status. Even if they do notice and care, their hands are tied and there are other priorities upon which their very survival in the field depend. When school is about behavior modification and “education” mental health or other actual social services and compassionate attention are too complicated and insignificant to matter. The lives of children will never matter as long as the laws are in place which specifically establish their insignificance and subservience.