St Crispin’s Day Open thread
I’m buried here at work (Blame the Bureau of Industry and Security) so here’s an open thread for you to talk bad about me and my lack of participation over the last few days.
Since it’s Saint Crispin’s Day;
Category: Open thread
Part of the bullying problem is that the laws of the playground died at the hand of zero tolerance. When I was a kid, if someone picked on me who was bigger than me (which was most people) and I couldn’t handle it (which I usually did), my brother did. What he couldn’t handle – the neighbor did – no one was allowed to pick on his first grader but him. Now with zero tolerance, bullies don’t have to worry about retribution.
For example, when the boyfriend’s youngest was in the first grade, a small sixth grader was picking on his small first grader friend. The boyfriend’s kid was BIG for a first grader and got between them. When the sixth grader pushed him, he pushed back. The sixth grader landed hard on his ass. I got a call from the principal’s office because the first grader told him I was the disciplanarian in the family (and they couldn’t reach his parents). When they told me the story, I said “and the problem is?” They started their zero tolerance crap which I interrupted by pointing out that we were not raising the kid to be a wimp. He came from a military background and defending the weak was in his DNA. I would not punish him, nor would I allow punishment for what he did. Because it was a Jewish school, I also pointed out that nothing good ever came to the Jews from hoping someone else would defend them. That stopped the guy in his tracks.
I did give the kid a bit of a talk about using the minimal force necessary to do the job (and not get caught) and not ever being the bully because he was big and could. His liberal mother wasn’t happy (violence is never the answer – except when it is!), but she got over it when the other first grader’s mother called to thank her for raising the kid to defend others.
Speaking of bullying and St Crispian’s Day, did y’all hear that it isn’t being celebrated in England because the minority bullied the Citizenry into believing it was offensive to Muslims?
Sad day indeed.
#9 Fen, I’m a member of the Silver Eagle Group range in Ashburn-reasonable rates, great facilities, great attitudes and I’ve always been told they can do up to .50BMG, though I don’t think it’s tested too often.
http://www.silvereaglegroup.com
I got bullied a few times growing up and not having a father who cared enough to stay around and a mother that work her ass off to keep a roof over our heads, I didn’s have anyone that taught what I was supposed to do or how to handle it, so I remained scared shitless.
The worst time in the 7th grade lasted a couple months and on a field trip, sure enough he started pushing me and lightly smacking my face in front of the class after the teacher left the bus. I was humiliated, scared to death and had no idea of what to do. Again. And he lightly smacked my face again and something……snapped in me. Apparently, I cocked back and hit him so hard in the face that he dropped to the floor, curled up and crying like a baby and I ran out of the bus thinking now he’s really gonna beat my ass and I’m the one who’s going to get in trouble. However, as I’m sure the teacher knew what was going onon some level and was a good one, nothing ever happened to me a this kid never even looked me cross again…my first lesson on that.
I tell my daughters that they should not start a fight, but if they are left with no other choice, pound them into the feaking dirt. And when they get in trouble for it at school (and they will these days), Daddy is going to take them out for ice cream.
@10 Smitty–I’m kind of the mind of Uncle Argyle in Braveheart when it comes to the kids; “First, learn to use this (tapping his head), then I’ll teach you to use this.”
The implication being that being strong and tough without being smart about the application or use of that force tend to turn one into (altogether now!) a bully.
I think that’s what Master Chief was also trying to impart. We’re teaching our kids that because of “zero tolerance”, et al, we’re creating a “neck down” generation that doesn’t know HOW to use their heads, and because they don’t, or can’t work their way through, they lash out violently eventually, either at themselves (suicide) or others.
love the story susan, at least someone still teaches their kids not to be weaklings. Zero tolerance is just an excuse to justify turning the next generation into weaklings.
When I was growing up, we played by “playground rules” disputes were handled by the eldest of a clan. I am one of seven. So the four older boys (I am 3rd of 7) we took some lumps. But our younger siblings were never bullied.
So I have one and only one son, he will have to tough it out and be a good leader like his dad and uncles.
@52 TN, I looked for info on what you said. It is not St. Crispin’s day that you are talking about.
It is the St. George’s flag, which some dipstick on the council of the village of Radstock thought might be offsensive to Muslims because it has vagues links to the Crusades. The town council caught a good deal of flack over that decision, although the actual vote involved getting a flag for Armistice Day, and they didn’t have a UK Union Jack flag to use.
So, let me see if I have this straight. A child is on school grounds and is attacked physically by another student. If the victim fails to run off or just take his beating, he is subject to disciplinary action. And just where in the wide wide world of sports is this practiced elsewhere in the world? A parent who didn’t tell his child to hit the aggressor until he is knocked out or begs for you to stop would be negligent, at least in my book.
No Smitty, the bullying did not make me ‘stronger’, it made me both more violent and brutal, not ‘stronger’, there’s a significant difference. And a childhood minus the bullies does not automatically equate to a ‘soft and cushy’ upbringing. There are pleanty of challenges to rise to with out having to also put up with that crap. People being ‘mean’ to you isn’t criminal, never said it was, I also don’t see simply being mean to someone as ‘bullying’. ‘Online bullying’, that’s a bunch of crap as well. Turn the computer off and/or learn to ignore people. Tripping people as they’re walking so they fall and get hurt, stuffing someone’s head in the toilet at school, physically beating someone just to establish a pecking order, These things Are criminal, they’re known as assault, and if you don’t stop it or try to correct it at an early age you frequently wind up with adults who do the same thing who then prey on their contemporaries in a far more dangerous manner. Many of the other examples of dust ups that are being dicussed here are not true examples of sytematic bullying of a target, they are examples of shaking out the kinks in growing up, there’s a difference there as well. Two kids on the playground have a dispute over something and duke it out? Fine, get out of their way and let them have at it, unless one of them starts to show that he doesn’t know how to stop once he’s beaten his opponent, and unfortunately that’s entirely too common today as well. So is not admitting defeat when you should, something the ‘strong’ do, right? First blood used to be an end all, but these days, especially at the HS level, those fights will go till someone is seriously hospitalized or dead, all while being caught on phone video for later dissemination on You Tube. Some punk enjoys slamming the bookish nerd into the hall wall everyday as they pass? That’s Unacceptable, and there is NO excuse for the powers to be to allow it to continue.… Read more »
PH: You’re right. It’s Saint George’s Day. My memory failed me. http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/18/pathetic-british-too-nervous-to-celebrate-their-national-saints-day-over-fears-minorities-will-think-its-racist/
@TN, yeah, I thought that was a bit off, because St. Crispin and St. Crispinian were executed in or around 286AD, the Roman era, so I went looking for what the wimpy PC libs in the UK were up to.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? That end of the political spectrum is so worried about offending anyone that they’ll end up doing the same appeasement crap that Chamberlain engaged in, just to avoid a conflict of any kind. And, yes, I can see that asinine stuff happening here.
And I used to be such a nice person….
Chamberlain sought to avoid an engagement, but how many lives did it end up costing the Brits and the other allies in the end?
Yes, Sparky, and while Chamberlain was having his afternoon tea, Hitler’s engineers were building buzz bombs for later use.
Yes, PH, it goes right along with the conversation. When we bow to those bullies, they too push for more.
Hitler never intended to stop with the Sudetenland.
For us Cav dorks: Today in History- The Battle of Balaclava; where a light brigade of British Cavalry charged into Russian Artillery. This is better remembered in the short poem The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Lord Alfred Tennyson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade#The_Charge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade_(poem)