Thinking about the prompt given to me, and reflecting upon my friends during Middle School, I realize that academically, I was basically on my own. To my friends, I was just a source of information, and my friends were pretty much emotional support. So many bad things (that don’t seems as bad looking back on them) would happen, and they would help me assure myself that everything would in fact, be ok. But academically? No, not really. There were several incidents where one of the kids that followed one particular friend around, would ask to copy my homework. I would always say no, and I always offered to help them, but I’d never let them copy. Well, let’s just say that made him mad… I had to be careful about what I said, and where I put my homework, because after me saying no once, my homework was stolen off my desk and copied. I got in trouble for this, and the other kid got away clean (I may be confusing two incidents here, the homework stolen may have been 7th grade). But basically, the idea is the same. After a couple of months the kid gave up (thankfully).
Overall, I wouldn’t say that I was supported by my friends when it came to academics (though they tried to help when I asked for it), more like I supported them, mainly, I helped in science a lot, some of the people who talked to me were complete strangers… somehow, I gained a reputation for being the one who can help you with your science homework. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, and I’m not trying to brag, I simply love science, and math, and social studies, and literature, but I have a real good memory when it comes to science, so consequently (to end my rambling) I became the “go-to-girl” for help on science homework.
Now of course, I have to learn this skill, otherwise I won’t survive a year at ASTI. There is only one friend of mine who made it in, and a few acquaintances, so I’m going to have to learn to make good friends fast. From the students I’ve met at ASTI so far, I think that most of them understand me a lot better than the kids at Wood did, and I think they’re going to be great people to talk to. Heck, my dad says he met a couple of kids at ASTI and thought that they were better behaved and more mature than some adults he knows. That’s saying something, dad isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, and for the truth to be flattering is rare.
You want the truth? I am writing this last essay the night before orientation, after a slow start earlier in the summer. And honestly, I am completely terrified of going to school tomorrow, completely afraid of making the wrong first impression, and worried that I won’t do well. And you know who my best friends are? Aiyana, a girl I’ve known since I first moved here, 7 or 8 years ago, and Keli, my cousin who lives in Colorado. They are (at the moment) the only two people my own age who aren’t afraid to tell me something is wrong, that a paper needs to be rewritten, or that something I said is completely wrong. It’s funny, Neither of them are my “middle school friends” and they’re only being mentioned in passing, but they are my academic support, and the only two friends who have stuck around while things started to go bad. The prompt asked about my middle school friends being academically supportive, but I find that people who don’t know the entire truth about the school I went to, both the ups and downs, provide the best support. My middle school friends, though still good people and good friends (for the most part) just liked to complain a lot. Huh, I guess I did too. But looking back, and evaluating middle school life, my friends just can’t compare to people I think of as family.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Best School
I can’t really say what the best school is. One where you learn I guess. It all depends on a point of view. Do you go by the popular stats? By what you want to learn? By what schools your parent(s) went to?
This excerpt actually makes it difficult to determine what a good school is. The author claims that the stats are fake, and that there’s some conspiracy behind it all, and that the schools with the most money end up being the top schools. Truthfully, the way they describe the algorithm used to determine the best schools, makes it sound like the whole system is askew. So that makes stats void, so people shouldn’t choose that way.
So the next criterion is what you want to learn. Do you want to learn math? Then MIT or other schools that focus mainly on math are what you want. Or is art your chosen subject? Then you can come to San Francisco, with all these art schools to go along with our large movie industry. There are so many different options to consider when choosing a school.
And our last criterion is what school(s) your parent(s) went to. They turned out alright; maybe you want to go to the same school they went to. If this is the case, talk to your mom or dad and ask what the up and downs are, what made them like or dislike the school? Do they have special programs for kids of their alumni? What subjects do they offer? That last one is important. They might have attended and liked the school, but that doesn’t mean you will. Perhaps they don’t offer degrees in what you want to learn… at that point, I’d suggest going back to the drawing board.
Even though I said earlier that the system is skewed, the stats on the best schools aren’t necessarily useless. You can use them as a loose guide, considering other factors as well. Research is your best friend when it comes to picking a college. You can ask around, see if your friends or family know anyone who attended the schools you’re looking at. Then talk to them about the school. Of course, personal experience tops all resources you can imagine. You can always transfer out of a school after you decide it’s not right for you. That’s the beauty of transferrable credits.
Local universities are also great for the first year or so of college. You don’t necessarily need to go off to a different town for school right away. Most kids aren’t actually ready to leave home at 18.
Overall, picking a school is all about research into stats and recommendations, and eventually it all comes down to what schools accept you. Even then, you don’t have to go to the biggest school on the list. Take my dad for example, he was accepted into UCLA and Stanford, but instead he chose to attend UC Santa Cruz for their film and computer science programs. I’ve said this a few times, but it all boils down to what you think you’re capable of, how far you want to move, what you want to study, and what you think is the best environment for you.
You can’t always trust what the media says, because no source is completely reliable, there’s almost always a misconception or error, because being human means being imperfect. The data isn’t always reliable. So unless you know all the facts, don’t go off into a situation where you are unsure what to do with.
This excerpt actually makes it difficult to determine what a good school is. The author claims that the stats are fake, and that there’s some conspiracy behind it all, and that the schools with the most money end up being the top schools. Truthfully, the way they describe the algorithm used to determine the best schools, makes it sound like the whole system is askew. So that makes stats void, so people shouldn’t choose that way.
So the next criterion is what you want to learn. Do you want to learn math? Then MIT or other schools that focus mainly on math are what you want. Or is art your chosen subject? Then you can come to San Francisco, with all these art schools to go along with our large movie industry. There are so many different options to consider when choosing a school.
And our last criterion is what school(s) your parent(s) went to. They turned out alright; maybe you want to go to the same school they went to. If this is the case, talk to your mom or dad and ask what the up and downs are, what made them like or dislike the school? Do they have special programs for kids of their alumni? What subjects do they offer? That last one is important. They might have attended and liked the school, but that doesn’t mean you will. Perhaps they don’t offer degrees in what you want to learn… at that point, I’d suggest going back to the drawing board.
Even though I said earlier that the system is skewed, the stats on the best schools aren’t necessarily useless. You can use them as a loose guide, considering other factors as well. Research is your best friend when it comes to picking a college. You can ask around, see if your friends or family know anyone who attended the schools you’re looking at. Then talk to them about the school. Of course, personal experience tops all resources you can imagine. You can always transfer out of a school after you decide it’s not right for you. That’s the beauty of transferrable credits.
Local universities are also great for the first year or so of college. You don’t necessarily need to go off to a different town for school right away. Most kids aren’t actually ready to leave home at 18.
Overall, picking a school is all about research into stats and recommendations, and eventually it all comes down to what schools accept you. Even then, you don’t have to go to the biggest school on the list. Take my dad for example, he was accepted into UCLA and Stanford, but instead he chose to attend UC Santa Cruz for their film and computer science programs. I’ve said this a few times, but it all boils down to what you think you’re capable of, how far you want to move, what you want to study, and what you think is the best environment for you.
You can’t always trust what the media says, because no source is completely reliable, there’s almost always a misconception or error, because being human means being imperfect. The data isn’t always reliable. So unless you know all the facts, don’t go off into a situation where you are unsure what to do with.
The Extinction of Dinosaurs
In his essay, Gould proposes three possibilities as to why dinosaurs are extinct; a rise in temperature causing males to become sterile, hallucinogenic plants, and the age-old asteroid-hit-the-earth theory. Almost immediately, he can disprove the first two theories. The first one, though based solidly in the study of modern alligators, cannot be applied to ancient dinosaurs, seeing as fossils do not include genitals. Plus, most dinosaur bones are determined to be male or female either through DNA testing or by the shape of the pelvis (if intact). The second hypothesis he proposes is not based in testable fact and is pure speculation, seeing as flowering plants that included hallucinogens developed a few million years before the dinosaurs went extinct, plus, there is no way to tell if their liver could (or couldn’t) detoxify the plants. It also doesn’t explain why the marine life or the carnivores died out, seeing as the marine life created their own food, and the carnivores didn’t eat the plants.
Gould also discusses the importance of evidence that supports or disproves a hypothesis. Evidence is important because without it, everything would be useless speculation. Let’s use color as an example. There are the three primary colors that make up all other colors, red, yellow, and blue. You could claim that blue and yellow make purple, but without evidence, no one could say if it was true or not. Of course, if you were to try to prove this hypothesis, you’d mix blue and yellow and get green, not purple.
The media comes up with many speculations, and though no one is able to prove them, the common populace is inclined to believe them. Why? Because people want to believe that there’s a reason for everything. That’s the same reason that the Greeks created the gods like Zeus, Athena, and Ares, and the Romans after them, simply re-naming the same gods. It’s also the reason we have science today. As humans evolved, some wanted more earthly reasons for why things happen, so they developed tools like the microscope and the telescope to study the world around them. And as we learned how things worked, we put it to different uses, like electricity, computers, etc.
Dinosaurs never searched for the answers to the world, all they saw was life and death, food and danger. That may be one reason they went extinct. When the asteroid hit, they didn’t know how to adapt. So they all died and we’re left with the remnants of those one great giant lizards. But then again, that’s all just useless speculation, and I was just saying how useless speculation that cannot be either proved or disproved is, well, useless. There’s no point to it.
Though humans think we’re the strongest intellectually, we don’t know everything, and probably never will, but we as a race will certainly try our best to learn everything before we inevitably go extinct, even if it’s millions of years in the future.
Humans want to believe that we will be around for forever, but if you look at the past, and the five incidents of mass extinction (usually killing off the dominant race and allowing a new race to evolve and take over) that Gould mentions, you realize that there is a very small chance that humans will actually survive that long. We may survive a few more million years, but some day our time on the earth will be up, and a new race will take over. It’s a fascinating realization that someday perhaps a new intelligent race will be studying our fossils and trying to decide how we went extinct.
Gould also discusses the importance of evidence that supports or disproves a hypothesis. Evidence is important because without it, everything would be useless speculation. Let’s use color as an example. There are the three primary colors that make up all other colors, red, yellow, and blue. You could claim that blue and yellow make purple, but without evidence, no one could say if it was true or not. Of course, if you were to try to prove this hypothesis, you’d mix blue and yellow and get green, not purple.
The media comes up with many speculations, and though no one is able to prove them, the common populace is inclined to believe them. Why? Because people want to believe that there’s a reason for everything. That’s the same reason that the Greeks created the gods like Zeus, Athena, and Ares, and the Romans after them, simply re-naming the same gods. It’s also the reason we have science today. As humans evolved, some wanted more earthly reasons for why things happen, so they developed tools like the microscope and the telescope to study the world around them. And as we learned how things worked, we put it to different uses, like electricity, computers, etc.
Dinosaurs never searched for the answers to the world, all they saw was life and death, food and danger. That may be one reason they went extinct. When the asteroid hit, they didn’t know how to adapt. So they all died and we’re left with the remnants of those one great giant lizards. But then again, that’s all just useless speculation, and I was just saying how useless speculation that cannot be either proved or disproved is, well, useless. There’s no point to it.
Though humans think we’re the strongest intellectually, we don’t know everything, and probably never will, but we as a race will certainly try our best to learn everything before we inevitably go extinct, even if it’s millions of years in the future.
Humans want to believe that we will be around for forever, but if you look at the past, and the five incidents of mass extinction (usually killing off the dominant race and allowing a new race to evolve and take over) that Gould mentions, you realize that there is a very small chance that humans will actually survive that long. We may survive a few more million years, but some day our time on the earth will be up, and a new race will take over. It’s a fascinating realization that someday perhaps a new intelligent race will be studying our fossils and trying to decide how we went extinct.
The Face of a Spider
Differences. They are what make us stand out, what make us unique, what define us. But can we honestly say that we don’t resent others for being different? As the author of Face of a Spider: Eyeball to Eyeball with the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly pointed out, the human countenance is only one accidental combination among many possibilities. Under different circumstances, who knows what we could have looked like? We could be like the spider, which so many people despise, with eight or more eyes. We could be like the legendary Cyclops, with just one eye, we could have two heads. There are an infinite number of possibilities.
Stop and think. How do you react to a person with say, a birth defect? You automatically find them unpleasant and do your best to avoid them. I’ve seen many a friend shy away from that one kid in a wheelchair, or that kid who isn’t quite right in the head. If you take a chance and be nice to them, you’d be surprised at what you find. Though of course, in some cases you were right to shy away in the first place.
Another great example is the enslavement of the blacks, way back then. They were different from the “all powerful” people of England, so they were to be immediately despised and it was assumed that they were an inferior race. Speaking of race, racism is an illusion. It’s a theory, an idea, that states that because you are unique, because where you were born (or where your family is from) created certain characteristics that a race needed to survive (the darker skin color of Africans, the distinctive facial structure of Asians, etc.) made you completely different. Which basically means you can’t be trusted. As the various races are uniting, we as a species are trying to get over our bias for similarity and start appreciating the differences that make individuals stand out. There will always be people who still believe in the medieval idea that the white race is the ultimate power, but they will become few and far between if we keep teaching younger generations that being different is ok.
Other humans aren’t the only things whose differences frighten us. Animals are just as scary. Compared to many of the animals out there, humans are small and weak, better only in intelligence. That’s the key. We are afraid of animals like lions because they possess a different kind of intelligence, one that we can not easily understand. Part of that fear is also the fact that they are bigger, faster, possess keener senses, and they have claws. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill you to feed their young.
However, we bask in the attention and love of their smaller counterparts, the common household cat. Being much smaller, and more disposed towards laziness, we are completely unafraid of them, instead providing them with food and shelter. I bring this up because of the cat sitting on my feet as I write this. The cat in question, Keats, is more inclined to lick you to death than claw your eyes out.
The same basic principle applies to dogs, their close cousins being feared for their “savagery”. Birds also provide an excellent example, though they take a bit of training, birds don’t usually “bite the hand that feeds them”.
Overall, differences are both a good and a bad thing. They can be used as a weapon to alienate certain groups of people, or as a defining feature that lets you tell one person from another. Certain characteristics tell you what animals or people to avoid because they are dangerous, others will tell you that the animal or person in question is alright to be around. Differences and our reactions to them define us as a species.
Stop and think. How do you react to a person with say, a birth defect? You automatically find them unpleasant and do your best to avoid them. I’ve seen many a friend shy away from that one kid in a wheelchair, or that kid who isn’t quite right in the head. If you take a chance and be nice to them, you’d be surprised at what you find. Though of course, in some cases you were right to shy away in the first place.
Another great example is the enslavement of the blacks, way back then. They were different from the “all powerful” people of England, so they were to be immediately despised and it was assumed that they were an inferior race. Speaking of race, racism is an illusion. It’s a theory, an idea, that states that because you are unique, because where you were born (or where your family is from) created certain characteristics that a race needed to survive (the darker skin color of Africans, the distinctive facial structure of Asians, etc.) made you completely different. Which basically means you can’t be trusted. As the various races are uniting, we as a species are trying to get over our bias for similarity and start appreciating the differences that make individuals stand out. There will always be people who still believe in the medieval idea that the white race is the ultimate power, but they will become few and far between if we keep teaching younger generations that being different is ok.
Other humans aren’t the only things whose differences frighten us. Animals are just as scary. Compared to many of the animals out there, humans are small and weak, better only in intelligence. That’s the key. We are afraid of animals like lions because they possess a different kind of intelligence, one that we can not easily understand. Part of that fear is also the fact that they are bigger, faster, possess keener senses, and they have claws. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill you to feed their young.
However, we bask in the attention and love of their smaller counterparts, the common household cat. Being much smaller, and more disposed towards laziness, we are completely unafraid of them, instead providing them with food and shelter. I bring this up because of the cat sitting on my feet as I write this. The cat in question, Keats, is more inclined to lick you to death than claw your eyes out.
The same basic principle applies to dogs, their close cousins being feared for their “savagery”. Birds also provide an excellent example, though they take a bit of training, birds don’t usually “bite the hand that feeds them”.
Overall, differences are both a good and a bad thing. They can be used as a weapon to alienate certain groups of people, or as a defining feature that lets you tell one person from another. Certain characteristics tell you what animals or people to avoid because they are dangerous, others will tell you that the animal or person in question is alright to be around. Differences and our reactions to them define us as a species.
The Outliers
“Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard…”
~ Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
~ Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
How much of success comes from ability, and how much of it comes from attitude? Of course, some tasks require ability more than attitude, but not many. In fact, I can’t even come up with an example where ability was more important than attitude.
I agree with Gladwell, attitude is a big part of succeeding. Of course there are so many things that you really don’t want to do (homework, for instance) but you have to anyways. So you force yourself to start. But after a while you relax, and might even begin to have fun. Perhaps if students were to get rid of their negativity towards homework (myself included), you’d get a lot more children getting good grade and doing well in life.
Try telling that to my sister. At age eight, she already struggles with getting homework done. It’s not that she’s dumb. She just hates sitting still long enough to get anything done. She even aces all her tests. We always joke that I’m the brains and she’s the brawn (I doubt you’ll ever meet an 8 year old as fearless as her. Just don’t tell her I said that). But honestly, she’s really smart. She had to start school a year late because of a problem learning to speak. She kept at it and learned how to speak, though it was later than most kids. And then in first grade, she had a hard time learning to read, she kept at that too, and one day it just clicked and she could read. I may really hate her sometimes, but I admire her persistence in well, everything. She was so sick as a baby, we nearly lost her, but she pulled through, and now I have the Queen of the Underworld living in the same house as me. I should mention that one of the first things she learned to spell was her name, which is no mean feat. She’s named after the Greek goddess of spring, who is also the queen of the underworld, Persephone. You would not believe how proud she is of that.
I’m not sure if this counts as persistence or doggedness or if it’s just dumb luck, but my family seems to be a magnet for trouble. There have been two cases where the company my dad works for crashes and burns, plenty of incidents where he gets laid off, and plenty more where health benefits are dropped or cancelled right when we need them. But mom and dad always find a way through it, they always make money stretch just a bit further, find ways to eat at home instead of going out. They are my inspiration. They may not always be cheerful about it, but they push till they can’t push anymore, and them they’ll find a new way to push through the problem. Our family is very close, we may fight a lot, but I don’t know what I’d do without any of them. Dad and his stories from before he had kids, mom and her seemingly infinite wisdom, and my sister with her pure little-sister evil.
Most, if not all of success comes from attitude and not ability, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If I tried harder, if I put forward a more positive attitude, I could reach that goal of a 4.0 GPA so I could take auto shop, I could learn Spanish so dad would let me learn Russian, I could do almost anything.
Why don’t I? Honestly, I have no idea. I guess I better start taking my own advice.
Yali's Question
“History followed different courses because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves”
- Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
- Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
This statement made me think. It made me think of the many people I’ve met over the years that feel they are superior (or inferior) because of an inherent belief that they are of the “better” or “worse” race. And then it made me think of the people I’ve met that are touchy about their race, even when used as a describing factor. For example, you could say, “Jimmy is the Asian kid in the black shirt over there” and they would take that as an offense to them or to their race. And finally it made me think of the people I’ve met who don’t care what race you are, they treat everyone the same way. The illusion of racism was born of the Europeans taking over most of the world. Of course, back then it was real. The Europeans really did think they were superior. But as the world shaped itself into what it is today, and everyone became equal, racism became something of an illusion, and by illusion I mean that these days race is a descriptive characteristic, it’s mainly only used to describe a person, like Jimmy the Asian kid, or Joe the White kid. If you’re searching for someone or are new to a school and someone says “Talk to Jimmy, he knows the most about this school” and you ask who Jimmy is, the person will most likely use race to help point out the person to you.
Who would agree with this statement? Honestly, I’m not so sure. Many people who have friends of all races would most likely say that this statement is true. People who were still using stone tools as recently as 200 years ago aren’t necessarily dumber or more intelligent; instead they possess a different kind of intelligence. A type of intelligence necessary for their survival. We could use the example of Africa, which is supposedly an “undeveloped” continent, vs. The U.S. supposedly one of the most “advanced” countries there is. Ok, imagine an African who had never been exposed to the U.S. lifestyle coming to live here, they would adapt quickly, learn the dangers of their environment, and find a way to survive. Now imagine an American who had never seen any hardship like the ones faced daily in Africa. Imagine them going to live in Africa. It would take them much longer to adapt because of the easy lifestyle they lived in the U.S. Where most people live there isn’t the danger of poisonous snakes being in the house, or the danger of Malaria, or the danger of parasites in the water. If you think about it, without help, that American would most likely be dead within a month.
Now think of why this might happen. This would most likely be caused by the change in environment, the American isn’t any “dumber” then the African, but he was brought up in an entirely different environment, and was therefore unprepared for the dangers of another person’s home.
This isn’t always true, and just about everyone possesses a different kind of intelligence then everyone else… that’s why teachers ask if you’re more of a “book learner” or a “hands on learner” etc. It’s because the environments different kids grow up in causes them to think and learn a certain way
I’m not sure I explained this too well, but I hope you get my point.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Aggression
Over the summer, we were given a booklet of excerpts to read... one of which being a study of Aggression in girls. Here's my Response:
I found this excerpt very interesting, especially since the study was conducted in Mississippi. I find that the way aggression works is determined in part by the environment. While these girls' aggression was channeled indirectly, I found that many girls at Wood preferred to carry out their vendettas directly, often resulting in “cat fights” which then had to be handled by the administration through detentions and suspension. These girls were (and are) completely unafraid of consequences. I remember clearly an incident where I nearly walked right into one of these fights on my way to science; they were fighting right out in the middle of everything, and had to be torn apart by teachers, who they tried to beat on as well.
Though that wasn’t always the case… every now and then, an alliance was formed, and being “unpopular” my friends and I were usually the ones being harassed. Truthfully, I didn’t much care, if they wanted to confront me; they needed to do it themselves, to my face. Otherwise, all their effort was for nothing… after a while, the other “targets” picked up on the same tactic, and eventually the harassers left us alone, if we weren’t gonna react, they wouldn’t bother. Tough sometimes this wasn’t as good an idea as it seemed… sometimes the “bullies” would react poorly, resorting to treats of beatings if we didn’t do as they wanted. It was at that point we brought our problem to the administration.
Why do people bully? I’m not quite sure, but I have theories… one possibility is that they’re cowards, and just trying to give the impression of strength, another possibility is that they want to seem “cool” by picking on new or younger students, or in the case of boys, a few might want to have the whole “bad boy” persona, in the hopes that the girls would like them more (or less, as the case may be). Though in some cases, I believe that it’s just in the kid’s nature to pick on others. I have quite a few other conceivable ideas and reasons for people to bully, traumatic experiences, not-so-great living conditions, etc.
It’s not always girls. I’ve seen this behavior in boys too… specifically an incident in 6th grade where I was nicknamed “Dorky Dora” because of a haircut I had. There were two boys who ganged up and formed an alliance, eventually nicknaming my friends various things from the “Dora the Explorer” TV show. This is where I learned the valuable lesson in not reacting. Near the middle of the year I stopped asking them to stop, and instead completely ignored the two. As their alliances melted away, one of them stopped, and began acting like any other student. The other one built up his resentment, and redoubled his attacks.
I’m not sure who was the first to think that bullying others would make themselves feel better, but I do know they were completely wrong. Bullying won’t help you later in life, nor will it help solve whatever problem is making you angry. If you were to calmly ask for help, or talk to someone about whatever it is, you’d get a much quicker solution.
Who am I kidding? The likelihood of a teen to calmly do anything is fairly low, many think that there’s now way an adult could understand how they feel, and that they’re unique. When the truth is, they aren’t, at least in that aspect. If you can find an adult willing to listen, I’m sure they’d understand perfectly, even if their questions annoy you to no end.
I found this excerpt very interesting, especially since the study was conducted in Mississippi. I find that the way aggression works is determined in part by the environment. While these girls' aggression was channeled indirectly, I found that many girls at Wood preferred to carry out their vendettas directly, often resulting in “cat fights” which then had to be handled by the administration through detentions and suspension. These girls were (and are) completely unafraid of consequences. I remember clearly an incident where I nearly walked right into one of these fights on my way to science; they were fighting right out in the middle of everything, and had to be torn apart by teachers, who they tried to beat on as well.
Though that wasn’t always the case… every now and then, an alliance was formed, and being “unpopular” my friends and I were usually the ones being harassed. Truthfully, I didn’t much care, if they wanted to confront me; they needed to do it themselves, to my face. Otherwise, all their effort was for nothing… after a while, the other “targets” picked up on the same tactic, and eventually the harassers left us alone, if we weren’t gonna react, they wouldn’t bother. Tough sometimes this wasn’t as good an idea as it seemed… sometimes the “bullies” would react poorly, resorting to treats of beatings if we didn’t do as they wanted. It was at that point we brought our problem to the administration.
Why do people bully? I’m not quite sure, but I have theories… one possibility is that they’re cowards, and just trying to give the impression of strength, another possibility is that they want to seem “cool” by picking on new or younger students, or in the case of boys, a few might want to have the whole “bad boy” persona, in the hopes that the girls would like them more (or less, as the case may be). Though in some cases, I believe that it’s just in the kid’s nature to pick on others. I have quite a few other conceivable ideas and reasons for people to bully, traumatic experiences, not-so-great living conditions, etc.
It’s not always girls. I’ve seen this behavior in boys too… specifically an incident in 6th grade where I was nicknamed “Dorky Dora” because of a haircut I had. There were two boys who ganged up and formed an alliance, eventually nicknaming my friends various things from the “Dora the Explorer” TV show. This is where I learned the valuable lesson in not reacting. Near the middle of the year I stopped asking them to stop, and instead completely ignored the two. As their alliances melted away, one of them stopped, and began acting like any other student. The other one built up his resentment, and redoubled his attacks.
I’m not sure who was the first to think that bullying others would make themselves feel better, but I do know they were completely wrong. Bullying won’t help you later in life, nor will it help solve whatever problem is making you angry. If you were to calmly ask for help, or talk to someone about whatever it is, you’d get a much quicker solution.
Who am I kidding? The likelihood of a teen to calmly do anything is fairly low, many think that there’s now way an adult could understand how they feel, and that they’re unique. When the truth is, they aren’t, at least in that aspect. If you can find an adult willing to listen, I’m sure they’d understand perfectly, even if their questions annoy you to no end.
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