Bullying

Are we putting labels on our children and limiting their potential? Possibly, according to Susan Porter a Middle School teacher that discusses bullying and how the simple label is hurting them in her book, Bully Nation. She discussed with Reason TV the laws being put in place to criminalize bullying and while I'm not an advocate of bullying, I have to agree with her. Labeling children will limit their potential, it's the last thing anyone wants is to be categorized, live free or die, right?

For one that has experience with a child, I know that if I told my son he was a Pirate, he would act as a Pirate waving something around like it was a sword. He'd talk of "getting" the bad guys, I don't allow words like killing in my home, and he'd talk with that all too familiar Pirate accent. It's fun to watch as he enjoys his care free world and imagination. But what if I told him he was a bully and nothing more, whether he really was or not. It's understood throughout "school land" that bullies are bad and children should not be bullies. Imagine that he heard it every day, now I've labelled him, so whether he wants to do the right thing or not, he's already the bad guy.

If you think your child is a bully and you think it's funny then you need to see a shrink, if you're frightened that he's a bully then you need to grow-up, but overall you might want to reconsider what you think of your child. Use reward to enforce good behavior and discipline the bad. So what about those that are not bullies, which is what the whole concern is about anyhow, because you might say that not too many think their kid is a bully.

A child does many things and they have a positive outlook on all they do in life. What were to happen if I called the child a victim of bullying? Yes of course, we're all victims of one thing or another, but what does that do but label or categorize them. It's more of a target, we're not helping them at all, we make them weak by placing them in a bubble and telling them to forget what happened and dispose of their emotions.

I can say that I was bullied in school, but I found my own way to deal with it, I was also never singled out and felt sorry for my being a victim. Of course the bully was never disciplined and it made me hate school, but I still went to college later in life.

What's the problem, really? We need to let our kids be themselves, they have never changed, they are fun-loving, excited about life and the most important part, free. There is no worry whether the bills will be paid or the impending wars here and there. It's the only time in life that they get to experience this form of freedom. Yes they are naive, but why shouldn't they be? One thing we shouldn't be doing is placing them in a box before they know who they really are. Let them live and be who they want to be, not who you tell them they are.