(image by sateda)
There's a title for ya, huh?
Well, it's for real. Fortunately, it was only with a pencil and just a minor scratch but unfortunately, also enough for the offender to get suspended from school for it.
Did I mention that they're only eight?
Insane. The kid just grabbed my boy from behind and did the slasher move, with a pencil in his hand. Left a six-inch cut according to the incident report the teacher had to write.
Not belittling the injury to my son or anything, but I don't think The Slasher really meant any harm. Just like kids point their fingers and pretend it's a gun, they know that a bullet is not going to shoot out of their finger. I don't think the kid realized that his pencil actually WAS a weapon in his hand.
The sad thing is (insert old-timer voice here) "We didn't act that way when we were kids." And we didn't. We rode our bikes and threw old beer bottles against tree trunks. We climbed through culverts and flew on tire swings and ropes. We blazed trails through the woods and played Pac-Man and Galaga.
We did NOT go around pretending to slash each other's throats, even in fun.
I'm not sure if I should be alarmed by the violence that has obviously escalated in the play of our children, or just accept that our world works that way now, whether you and I like it or not. I know the Evil One just laughs and laughs whenever this kind of thing happens - watching our society lose it's moral compass and deteriorate bit by bit.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on it - do you think this is an isolated incident by a kid who has seen too many movies he shouldn't, or is this just they way it is now?
Beth,
ReplyDeleteYour title made my heart stop when it showed up in my inbox. I'm glad it was only a pencil slash, but am not surprised that this happened.
My thoughts are that our kids are desensitized to violence due to the constant input they receive. When we were kids, the news was as bad as it got and they barely showed anything, cetainly not the gruesome photos and war footage that pops up now.
Then there's the internet, games, cartoons and newspapers. We just weren't exposed like they are.
Yet I don't think that means kids are necessarily more violent. Not emotionally. They are simply acting out what they see, but would never follow through if they knew someone would really get hurt.
For instance, your slasher--after watching oodles of video games, etc--most likely didn't really "get" that your son could get hurt. After all, the characters on tv and in games don't.
I hear stories of how older generations had fun and some of it is not much different than what we see now. However, when they played, they knew the hurt they could inflict and so were more cautious about how they played.
And, back then, we actually had to work (physically) and play hard (ride bikes not get car rides) so we burned up our natural aggression that way. Now kids are more sedentary in all that they do and so have to channel that energy somewhere. Often it comes out in rough play.
When coupled with the desensitization and lack of full understanding about how their actions physically impact others, kids get hurt.
Of course, that doesn't excuse us parents for letting our kids watch more television and play less. If it's anyone's "fault", it is ours for being complacent about what we expose our kids to.
*climbs off soap box*
Sorry.
It always amazes me. I was in middle school when a tennis ball bomb showed up on the sidewalk. We were evacuated for half a day when another bomb was found, and then not allowed to have bookbags or lockers because they were scared of what a student may be hiding.
ReplyDeleteThere was even a day when my grandfather checked me out of school early because of all the threats that someone was going to bring a gun to school. My grandfather wasn't overreacting-- over half the students were out that day. I went because I wanted perfect attendance, but as soon as I was counted as being there a full day, my mom sent him to pick me up.
It's scary. And I don't think they kids know fully what they're doing. That's, perhaps, what is even scarier.
Beth, I just got caught up on all your posts-- I'm loving it! Also, blogger came out with a new design template last night that is awesome! I redesigned my entire blog in about 5 minutes!!