It is true, our small school atmosphere will present us with challenges to our personal privacy at times AND offer us a wealth of opportunity for meaningful personal contact and relationship that should lead to stronger feelings of safety.
Strong schools and communities, if you ask me, ought to be a place that we feel safe and secure first of all. When we feel safe and secure we can then become curious to learn more about ourselves and other people around us. I think its fair to say, we each really want to discover our potential and become wildly successful people - whatever that may mean to us. I believe that its also true that often others around us can see our best and unique potential far more clearly than we may see it for ourselves.
So, while we do need and in fact deserve some space for our personal privacy, at some level, I imagine that we each also long to have our own life experience valued and to be understood and respected for the person that we are...and the person that we are becoming? Genuine understanding and recognition from others is a powerful and comforting thing to experience. When others acknowledge us and take the time to recognize our feelings and potential contributions we begin to feel like we matter...that we have some meaning or purpose in our life. When others don't recognize this or dismiss our value, it can hurt...it can hurt alot!
So if we want our community to be great and we do not want people to be hurting, what can we do? Does this kind of community just happen? Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit." Perhaps, together, we can identify the healthy habits and attitudes that will help us be great for one another. As we develop positive habits and attitudes about what makes us feel safe and secure enough to take risks, we might ask ourselves what we should do when we are made to feel unsafe and not valued by others. How can we hold each other accountable to the very best behavior that is necessary in any safe, successful, and healthy community? What do you think...
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7 comments:
i agree
I think in order to reduce people's complain about bullying and stuff, we need strong rules and punishment systems. Why do you think the laws are exist? The thing we have been talking is to ideal for me. I think it's not going to make a big difference. I trust people in our school and I know they are nice. However, sometimes, I feel like some of them are good at disguising their emotion and stuff, which means they are sort of quiet and prefer to have their own time. They don't speak things out loud. I think they need to speak their thoughts and express their feelings, but they are not used to it. To protect their rights and our rights, I think we need to make stronger rules and punishment system.
Sometimes, I think the language problem may cause the uncomfortableness of school life. The majority of our school is Chinese. They speak Chinese. however, minority of the school cannot understand or speak Chinese. They may feel excluded when people speak Chinese in front of them. People tend to follow the majority. They don't really care about the minority. Imagine, people are speaking Chinese right in front of you and you don't understand, in addition, in the middle of the conversation, you hear your name, nationality and some bad words. That's totally wrong. I can see people try not to use their first language, however, it's still the major problem of our school and it is going to bring some other issues, such as bullying and uncomfortableness.
Someone said the school should be the safe and comfortable place for everybody. I do agree with that. I strongly believe that from now on, we need stronger rules for our school.
Just like in any other place, our school will never be entirely safe. There are different kinds of people with different opinions, personalities and backgrounds... there will always be conflict and people will inevitably get hurt. It's not necessarily a bad thing; there are bumps across the road we travel, and they will keep on appearing for the rest of our lives. I don't believe in making utopias where everybody is happy and feel a false sense of security.
Rules... okay, where do I start?
Every system needs rules, but I wouldn't like to rely on rules too much. Sure, we don't want people to hurt others, but we also don't want them to stop doing that solely to avoid punishment. How would that change their attitudes? In other words, we would be encouraging people to do something for the wrong reasons.
I think what's important is to teach people how to stand up for themselves, and also give others the courage and support when their safety and privacy is being threatened. On so many levels, the power of peers can be greater than the power of law and authority.
Changes of habits and attitudes come from the change of people and change of hearts... nothing will change if the bad habits and attitudes are temporarily suppressed by rules.
I do agree that people need to stand up for themselves. This is an important lesson for everyone. However, RESPECT another human being is even more important. Chances should be given, but how many? Where is the bottom line? It's hard to make one rule that suit for each single person. No matter what decision is made for any issue, there will always be some people who disagree with it. Things happen for a reason. We will just have to respect it, accept it and go on.
I think that Roxanne has really pinned down the problem. No school will ever be completely secure, it is realistically impossible to create any environment where everybody feels completely at ease. It is also tremendously important to bear in mind that without some degree of pressure, there is no motivation to develop as a person. The phrase "No pain, no gain" does contain some truth. If we succeed in creating an environment (or, if you prefer, community) where everybody feels completely secure and all traces of teasing and bullying are eradicated, I believe it will have a negative long-term impact on the student body. The simple fact is that the "real world" is not perfect, almost nobody cares for you. School is not merely a place designed to stimulate intellectual development, it is a place where one experiments socially, where people undergo emotional conditioning and development. School is not supposed to be perfect, we can even take a Darwinian approach to the matter; if there is no pressure to change, change will not occur. If we eliminate all pressure to grow and develop socially and emotionally, we will not grow, we will remain (I cannot think of a better word) oblivious of the types of external social pressure that will eventually catch up with us when we get to college. I think that we should draw the line at violence, when physical violence occurs, it will be considered bullying. Teasing is (cold and cliched as it may sound) character building. With no pressure, we will not grow.
School is supposed to prepare you for the "Real WOrld" so without the pressures that come along with school we would most definantly not be prepared for the "Real World" when we graduate and move on to college.
I agree people should stand up for themselves, but at the same time there are many people who need to learn to brush things off. People take offense that is natural, but at the same time the offense you take needs to be reasonable. Holding grudges is as useless as having a Koran at a Synagogue.
Yes, we all have a right to be safe and to be secure, not to mention a right to defend ourselves as necessary, there will never be a completly safe and secure school enviroment(community). How can we make our school completly safe? Put a security guard in every room? I believe that would acctually take away from the sense of security.
I think the school should have a tough love approach to things, it better prepares people for society. In the "Real World" there are no safe heavens for everyone to run to when they feel threatened or are made fun of. I think its time people began to suck things up and learn from this, and that will make you grow and change, much better then running to a safe heaven I might add.
So the bottom line is, grow up. The world is tough, deal with it.
I agree. This time, however, with Roxanne and whoever posted the last 2 entries. We cannot mother these kids their entire life. They'll leave the school unprepared for life and with the assumption that the world will treat them the same way they were treated in school.
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