Submitted by Bush Tea
After listening to, and reading what seems like everyone in Barbados pontificate on the new public enemy called ‘bullying’, Bush Tea has given up all hope again that there is any level of understanding of our world and of our purpose here.
I get the distinct impression that opinions are generated nowadays by Googling or by just going straight to Wikipedia for a position, and then creatively seeking to articulate that position in one’s own words so as to avoid charges of plagiarism
Everyone now wants all bullies hanged and quartered because a young child unfortunately was killed by a vehicle while allegedly running from ‘bullies’. Indeed this was a most unfortunate and heart rending loss – as is every such loss whether it is by vehicle accident, skylarking, drowning or just ill health.
But surely, bullying is one of the most natural instincts. I believe that it is called ‘survival of the fittest…’ …animals do it; people do it at all stages of life; governments do it all the time; even churches bully their flocks – especially at collection time …. Why are we surprised that children would do this?
It seems to the Bushman that since this is a natural instinct, rather than seek to extinguish the practice of bullying in school, we should actually encourage the practice with the intent of preparing our children to face a world where it in endemic. Of course, it must be properly managed.
Bush Tea has been, and continues to be blessed with exposure to a lifetime of bullies who have helped me to become the person that I am today…. Without the bullies in my life the bushman would probably be a ‘flower boy’ today (LOL)…. Besides, where else would BT find fodder on whom to practice my own bullying instincts?
Here is how nature (as CH would say, read BBE) intended for this instinct to work;
In order to develop strong, confident adults, life must provide a variety of challenges, fears, disappointments etc to build strength of character. Bullies provide this ‘service’.
If we remove all bullies from school, it would be similar to raising animals in a protected farm, while many more will ‘survive’ to adulthood, none would ever develop the strength, cunning, and survival skills of the ‘wild’ animal.
Not having bullies thus means that we would be producing a generation of saps with no guts, no balls, no experience in facing fearful odds, no history of overcoming frightening situations – in other words, people like most Bajans are today…. rotfl
This is all fine if we are raising animals to provide ‘meat’ for some market. However when we are looking for strong, decisive, fearless leaders – where do we look?
When we seek leaders who can reject bribes where can we find them? How will we even get people who can think independently?
…maybe this is why we are such cowards.
Now this brings me to how a wise nation would deal with bullying….
Since it is a natural instinct, it should be natural a tool of the school.
The biggest school bully should be the Headmaster, followed by the teachers, ancillary staff, prefects and parents.
Children should be ‘bullied’ into doing the right thing. They should be fearful of breaking school rules…. The most scared should be the school rebels and trouble makers… but of course we have it the other way around…..
The Principals are sissies. The teachers can’t touch a fellow, and the gang leaders are calling the shots….. Brilliant strategy isn’t it??!!
As I said, bullying is natural. It CANNOT be stopped, we can either manage it to our advantage or fall victim to its influence.
….see if wanna can figure out why the bible says that if we spare the rod we WILL spoil the child (and therefore our own future…)
For GP’s benefit, the above also explains why God CREATED the devil and his agents. These are spiritual bullies and they are VITAL to the great work of molding and refining true righteous character. Like regular bullies, they create much havoc and sorrow, but their value lies in HOW the enlightened respond to their bullying tactics.
Has anyone noticed that in the good old days when education in Barbados actually worked, that the teachers were MAJOR bullies? Licks like peas….
At my great school, the prefects were the bullies (and were in my opinion, a school gang) who enforced school rules with maniacal enthusiasm. (Most of them only ever referred to rule 12 – which said that a “breech of common sense” was a breech of school rules) lol
Has anyone noticed that when crime was a minor issue in Barbados, the POLICE were the bullies? I could call names, but Bush tea is still intimidated by those REAL policemen decades later. ….LOL
I could talk about bullying at University – conducted by the likes of MME, Not saved and BAFBFP – under the name of grubbing, but the point is that this is a NATURAL instinct, so it is foolhardy to try to ‘ban’ bullying. What we need to do is re-evaluate our APPROACH to how we manage our society. Maybe the older folks were much smarter that we give them credit for in this regard.
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