Thursday
11/03/03
Kids And Laws
Very often, I find that I’m the last to find out about things. I was, for instance, mortified after showing up to a Halloween party as J. Lo with an extra Ben Aflek head stuck to my neck (a la Ray Milland and Rosie Greer) only to be told that they’ve broken up. Damn.
It does also seem, however, that I’m the last one to find out that enforceable anti-bullying laws have not only long been in place in schools, but are very common. Who knew? In general, the notion of trying modify society by legislating away bad behavior seems at least futile, if not actually self-defeating. It seems to me, after all, that it would be counterproductive to quash all bullying, even if you could, simply because you’d be leaving kids entirely unprepared to deal with bullying that goes on later in life.
The first analogy that comes to mind involves the Japanese, who, as with so many other things, are fanatical about dust, germs, and cleanliness in general, especially with their infants. Sounds sensible enough, but guess which nation has far and away the highest rate of childhood asthma and related conditions… Seems pretty clear that your body needs to learn about dust and germs before it gets into a situation it can’t handle.
…Which brings to mind something I hadn’t thought about in a very long time: It was around fifth grade or so when some kid decided I was going to be his target to bully. This went on a little here and there for a couple of weeks until I found myself outside with him. Even though I was pretty scared and didn’t really know what to do, we swung at each other a little bit until I popped him in the face. It was really pretty light, I think, but his look of shock and surprise was priceless. Anyway, he never came near me again, so it turned out to be textbook ‘stand up to the bully and he’ll leave you alone.’ And, most importantly, in the end the both of us learned a much more valuable lesson about people and life than if I had just run home to mommy and had her sue his parents.
Another reason that this sort of legislative wishful thinking is counterproductive is that, as with too many things in life, it can be turned upside-down and abused by those that the laws are designed to stop. Although I have no idea how common such abuses are, I do know of one fine person that’s been named in a suit brought against a school district by the disturbed parents of a disturbed bully for no other reason than they are, well, disturbed.
But now is when you stop and say, "Hang on a minute, sometimes it is necessary to legislate social change. Look at the Civil Rights Act, created a century after blacks were emancipated, and only then because it was painfully clear that white folks would have to be legally required to behave themselves. How about that, huh?" And my reply to that is: "Aw jeez, I dunno. Go hug your kids."
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Kids And Laws
Very often, I find that I’m the last to find out about things. I was, for instance, mortified after showing up to a Halloween party as J. Lo with an extra Ben Aflek head stuck to my neck (a la Ray Milland and Rosie Greer) only to be told that they’ve broken up. Damn.
It does also seem, however, that I’m the last one to find out that enforceable anti-bullying laws have not only long been in place in schools, but are very common. Who knew? In general, the notion of trying modify society by legislating away bad behavior seems at least futile, if not actually self-defeating. It seems to me, after all, that it would be counterproductive to quash all bullying, even if you could, simply because you’d be leaving kids entirely unprepared to deal with bullying that goes on later in life.
The first analogy that comes to mind involves the Japanese, who, as with so many other things, are fanatical about dust, germs, and cleanliness in general, especially with their infants. Sounds sensible enough, but guess which nation has far and away the highest rate of childhood asthma and related conditions… Seems pretty clear that your body needs to learn about dust and germs before it gets into a situation it can’t handle.
…Which brings to mind something I hadn’t thought about in a very long time: It was around fifth grade or so when some kid decided I was going to be his target to bully. This went on a little here and there for a couple of weeks until I found myself outside with him. Even though I was pretty scared and didn’t really know what to do, we swung at each other a little bit until I popped him in the face. It was really pretty light, I think, but his look of shock and surprise was priceless. Anyway, he never came near me again, so it turned out to be textbook ‘stand up to the bully and he’ll leave you alone.’ And, most importantly, in the end the both of us learned a much more valuable lesson about people and life than if I had just run home to mommy and had her sue his parents.
Another reason that this sort of legislative wishful thinking is counterproductive is that, as with too many things in life, it can be turned upside-down and abused by those that the laws are designed to stop. Although I have no idea how common such abuses are, I do know of one fine person that’s been named in a suit brought against a school district by the disturbed parents of a disturbed bully for no other reason than they are, well, disturbed.
But now is when you stop and say, "Hang on a minute, sometimes it is necessary to legislate social change. Look at the Civil Rights Act, created a century after blacks were emancipated, and only then because it was painfully clear that white folks would have to be legally required to behave themselves. How about that, huh?" And my reply to that is: "Aw jeez, I dunno. Go hug your kids."
