Creating a Witch Hunt

November 30 --We spent the day today at our high school jumping through scheduling hoops to make sure the Names Can Really Hurt Us campaign was carried out for the junior and sophomore classes.  All day long the kids were not in their regularly scheduled classes so that they could hear about the "art" of bullying, testimonials about being bullied and apologies from kids who bullied others.  It was quite emotional and very, very long.  Half of the kids who stood up and spoke did so because they just wanted to be up in front of a captive audience.

Overall, I thought it was really sad.  It was sad hearing the stories.  It was equally sad hearing the kids make up things to talk about, to overdramatize their life experiences to project themselves as the ultimate victims.  One kid stood up and said, "So...I am Jewish.  And um.... uh....yeah."  He then went on to offer his support to anyone who needed it.  But I kept coming back to his opening comment.  What was he doing?  What was he trying to accuse people of doing?  Is it bad to call someone Jewish?  Is it a bad thing to be Jewish?  I have no idea ...

So I was thinking that what we did today was create a modern day witch hunt.  The kids are soooo jazzed about bullies and allies and perpetrators  (the lingo was hammered into them),  I truly feel that if I walked down the hallway and uttered the word "gay" I would be reported to the anti-bullying police.  It's the Salem witch trials all over again with the kids pointing their accusatory fingers at each other.   What bothers me is that I feel like the kids are missing out on a lot of great curriculum that we are prepared to share with them.  Instead of training in reading and writing and math and science,  they are getting hours of  training about stuff they already know.  When the day is done, I believe that teaching kids how to be nice is a parent's responsibility.  Of course the teachers should enforce it.  But the primary morality instructor should be the parent.   Parents who don't teach their kids to be nice and respectful are losers and they shouldn't be parents in the first place.  Ahhhhhh.  I better be careful.  I sound like a bully.