When We Love Others~Fighting the Bully Inside
~When we show love or care toward someone else whether they are a stranger or friend we do two huge things~We feel a sense of pride in making another smile as well as making that person and ourselves feel that they have a connection to another in this sometimes lonely world. We will never ever feel bad about ourselves when we have worked at making another human feel good. It is with that idea and theory that I think that things such as bullying could be snuffed out entirely.
~When we went to school and now our kids follow, we went through many class lessons. Every lesson from math to science, health class and gym....Yet where were the class teaching us, at a young, impressionable age,how to treat others? Lets think about this for a moment....Imagine a class where we really learn to bond with our classmates; a place where cliques and social are not allowed and a person who kids truly admire helps kids to find beauty and good in each other. Imagine a school where each kid doesn't have to feel alone and against the very person they sit next to but there is real school spirit coupled with a sense of human bonding.Imagine it being like a pep rally all the time.
~It wasn't until 9th grade when I auditioned for "Romeo And Juliet" that I learned to be the real me. Being part of the play we all became part of a true group.It took time as I was used to feeling that I had to push down the real me and hide everything inside but with that time I did find a voice and some pride in myself and the group I joined. I learned how important it was to lean on others and really let down my own guard in order to learn about myself and the character I was portraying. Forget our lines or "blocking" a scene, the Shakespeare actresses/directors(they were from the well-known Shakespeare and Company in our area) taught us things that at that time I didn't know I would bring so far into life. There was many exercises where we had to trust another person, falling into their arms from a standing position and hoping they would catch me, times we would all stand in lines and scream out into the vacant audience what our biggest fears were....It was in the 9th grade at an exercise we were doing that I let out to all who were there that at age 7 I had been molested. Standing at the middle of the stage looking down into the faces of classmates and the directors I just let it out and what came of it I never could have expected. I was patted on the back, told how honest and brave that they saw me to be, hugged and cried for...Not pitied, but loved. If we had done this early on, in Elementary school with our classmates after some real time learning how to be open to each other and how to not put down differences but instead to embrace them, I think each of us would have been a class of friends, a real and true group of friends. When in 7th grade we graduated into another school where kids from other towns intermingled with us, we would not have been so easily divided. We would have welcomed our new friends and taught them, too, how to love each other, not judge.Sadly, I only felt that feeling of belonging in that group after school...It didn't spill out into the school day or even into other after school plays (I did 3 a year for 4 years). I did bring what I could with me but for the bond to work all students needed to be part of this lesson, not just a handful of us. As with most schools it was sports first, education second and plays and writing on the bottom....Our school was so sport-oriented that very few noticed in 11th and 12th grade when I was the first person ever to be published several times for my poetry. While the game scores were readily available and read over the loud speaker, the people who had succeeded in other avenues of the school were ignored.(PLEASE TEACHERS! DON"T MAKE THIS MISTAKE...Whether a student succeeds at sports, high grades, drama or anything, everyone should have a place in the boasting you make over the loud speakers, in the flyers, newspapers and beyond.)
~Yet I am a dreamer....I live in hope that kids can live together loving and accepting each other and not hating and dividing themselves based on economical, social and other cliques. I believe that if teachers first taught to trust and care for each other the rest of kids careers at their schools would be less scary, less complicated and as kids they could worry more about their grades and less about what we are wearing, how much it cost and if we are liked. No kid should ever have to fear being bullied and will we be bullied...It figures that it had to become a law in our country not to bully others in order for schools to start taking bullying seriously. How many kids have to get hurt, killed or commit suicide before the school administrations start taking bullying seriously??? We aren't talking about running an unknown, misunderstood company or process when we talk about running a school... We are all familiar with school life, social circles and wanting to belong ...We have ALL gone to school, we have all been either bullied, have bullied or have seen it. Call me a dreamer but I think schools and parents need to first teach love and second teach writing....
Stacy J Roosa
11/5/2010
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. "
~Maya Angelou, Poet
~When we went to school and now our kids follow, we went through many class lessons. Every lesson from math to science, health class and gym....Yet where were the class teaching us, at a young, impressionable age,how to treat others? Lets think about this for a moment....Imagine a class where we really learn to bond with our classmates; a place where cliques and social are not allowed and a person who kids truly admire helps kids to find beauty and good in each other. Imagine a school where each kid doesn't have to feel alone and against the very person they sit next to but there is real school spirit coupled with a sense of human bonding.Imagine it being like a pep rally all the time.
~It wasn't until 9th grade when I auditioned for "Romeo And Juliet" that I learned to be the real me. Being part of the play we all became part of a true group.It took time as I was used to feeling that I had to push down the real me and hide everything inside but with that time I did find a voice and some pride in myself and the group I joined. I learned how important it was to lean on others and really let down my own guard in order to learn about myself and the character I was portraying. Forget our lines or "blocking" a scene, the Shakespeare actresses/directors(they were from the well-known Shakespeare and Company in our area) taught us things that at that time I didn't know I would bring so far into life. There was many exercises where we had to trust another person, falling into their arms from a standing position and hoping they would catch me, times we would all stand in lines and scream out into the vacant audience what our biggest fears were....It was in the 9th grade at an exercise we were doing that I let out to all who were there that at age 7 I had been molested. Standing at the middle of the stage looking down into the faces of classmates and the directors I just let it out and what came of it I never could have expected. I was patted on the back, told how honest and brave that they saw me to be, hugged and cried for...Not pitied, but loved. If we had done this early on, in Elementary school with our classmates after some real time learning how to be open to each other and how to not put down differences but instead to embrace them, I think each of us would have been a class of friends, a real and true group of friends. When in 7th grade we graduated into another school where kids from other towns intermingled with us, we would not have been so easily divided. We would have welcomed our new friends and taught them, too, how to love each other, not judge.Sadly, I only felt that feeling of belonging in that group after school...It didn't spill out into the school day or even into other after school plays (I did 3 a year for 4 years). I did bring what I could with me but for the bond to work all students needed to be part of this lesson, not just a handful of us. As with most schools it was sports first, education second and plays and writing on the bottom....Our school was so sport-oriented that very few noticed in 11th and 12th grade when I was the first person ever to be published several times for my poetry. While the game scores were readily available and read over the loud speaker, the people who had succeeded in other avenues of the school were ignored.(PLEASE TEACHERS! DON"T MAKE THIS MISTAKE...Whether a student succeeds at sports, high grades, drama or anything, everyone should have a place in the boasting you make over the loud speakers, in the flyers, newspapers and beyond.)
~Yet I am a dreamer....I live in hope that kids can live together loving and accepting each other and not hating and dividing themselves based on economical, social and other cliques. I believe that if teachers first taught to trust and care for each other the rest of kids careers at their schools would be less scary, less complicated and as kids they could worry more about their grades and less about what we are wearing, how much it cost and if we are liked. No kid should ever have to fear being bullied and will we be bullied...It figures that it had to become a law in our country not to bully others in order for schools to start taking bullying seriously. How many kids have to get hurt, killed or commit suicide before the school administrations start taking bullying seriously??? We aren't talking about running an unknown, misunderstood company or process when we talk about running a school... We are all familiar with school life, social circles and wanting to belong ...We have ALL gone to school, we have all been either bullied, have bullied or have seen it. Call me a dreamer but I think schools and parents need to first teach love and second teach writing....
Stacy J Roosa
11/5/2010
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. "
~Maya Angelou, Poet
Comments
Post a Comment
Have something to add?