I was talking with a young friend and mother about bullying the other day and learned that her young son has had some trouble with it in pre-school or day-care, I’m not sure which. What really surprised me, though, was that when she talked with the person in charge, the wife of an eminent educator in the Valley, she was told, “Oh yes, in our family it’s ‘hit first and hardest.’”
What does a child learn from that? 1) It’s okay to hurt people. 2) People want to hurt you. 3) You are never safe, not even at home. 4) Violence is the name of every game.
Are fear and paranoia what we want for our children? for our nation? Is kindness only for “sissies”? My heart goes out to the parents in such a family because of what they must have endured in their lives. May life somehow save their children from the same fate!
Mary Fahnestock-Thomas
Hamilton