Bullying- An Opinion

[Aelphaeis]

What I am actually trying to do here is a "letter to the editor" sort of thing. I think what may have screwed it up was that I had essay format in the back of my mind, so when I wrote it I'm thinking "intro, body, conclusion", not "short opinionated viewpoint". I didn't mean for it to be like an essay, but at the same time I wanted it to be a little more structured. As for sounding over intellectual, that may be because of two things... The fact that if someone sounds smart in a paper, occasionally a large part of the population will believe what that someone has to say, and also because when I write formal stuff it tends to be a little over done sometimes.

I thank everyone for their opinions and critiques.

How to Write A Letter To The Editor

I took a brief look at that link. I think that it can help you.

You are stating an opinion on bullying and that because of that fact it is (at least it seems to me) that argumentative style is unavoidable. I can't really see you as you just stating your opinion so that other people can know what your opinion is and respect it as I would have assumed would be the case of this had some religious background (In which case the purpose could be to inform the public); however, we know its an opinion because you implied it.

[SickbyDefinition]

What I am actually trying to do here is a "letter to the editor" sort of thing. I think what may have screwed it up was that I had essay format in the back of my mind, so when I wrote it I'm thinking "intro, body, conclusion", not "short opinionated viewpoint". I didn't mean for it to be like an essay, but at the same time I wanted it to be a little more structured. As for sounding over intellectual, that may be because of two things... The fact that if someone sounds smart in a paper, occasionally a large part of the population will believe what that someone has to say, and also because when I write formal stuff it tends to be a little over done sometimes.

I thank everyone for their opinions and critiques.

Ah okay, that makes it more clear. At least as far as the thesis and arguments are concerned.. I still suggest you try to sharpen/organize your thoughts a bit more.. Since it's simply a letter you don't need much analyzation. Sorry if I sounded negative.. I went back and read my post and it was critical. I'm harsh when it comes to writing essays and things of that nature.
But harsh is good. As a writer I've always strived to write, better. You're right that people listen to well-written, intellectual essays. But you can also over do it! Sounding forced can turn people off sometimes, especially experienced writers (like an editor), because it makes you seem.. Well, less experienced because you are still trying to develop a style.

[Arathorn136]

No worries about the criticism... it helps if anything. I am just unfamiliar this this style of writing. I've never been very good at persuasive essays, but I've always found analysis essays a snap.
I'll use this copy as a rough and use it as a basis for a good draft. I wasn't very happy with this from the start, 'cause I knew it sounded a little forced in some points, as well I was trying to communicate too much.

[Alusair]

I have also never known someone who has truly been bullied, the cliche stuff about stuffing into lockers, chasing down after school, forcing to do work, etc. does not happen. Maybe it did long time ago but it no longer does, right now if someone is in the office for bullying they have said something mean or bumped into someone rather too roughly. I am sorry if there are some real serious bullying cases out there but right now the only people that go complaining to parents or teachers are overreacting or extremely insecure and fragile.

A true bullying case in schools these days is about as common as a guy with drugs in school, it happens but its quite rare.

Perhaps that's the way of things for your community, but that's not the way it is everywhere.

In my school, drugs were quite common, and everyone either knew a dealer or someone who could find a dealer. Smoking pot was common in school during either lunch hours or wood/metal working classes or the like, and some were too dumb/lazy to even hide the smell of it afterwards, which you'd immediately notice upon getting within a few feet of them.

In my school, bullying was more than just people saying mean things or bumping into people. While it also didn't have stereotypical swirlies or the like, the bullying usually consisted of physical assault (good old fashioned "beat them up until they stop getting up", to smashing one's face into lockers/doors as hard as possible, and so on), sexual/physical harassment/abuse (mostly guy on guy, for that matter) destruction of personal property (if you have something of value, like a cd player, it was a target to get thrown to the ground and stomped under a foot), and so on. Verbal abuse was there too, but it wasn't just a "mean name" (death threats come to mind). If you think death threats are just hollow barking, consider that it wasn't unheard of in my school for kids to be arrested for having brought knives, guns, or bombs to school grounds. In some cases, it was made a game (where you get "cool points" or something) to try to drive kids into saying they want to commit suicide.

These are mostly examples from high school, though bullying was prevalent in elementary and middle school too in its own ways (and although arguably lighter in comparison, still also arguably as harmful to a child victim as later bullying was to older victims).

So, in comparison, your community sounds much more nice, and that's great, but sadly it doesn't reflect the state of all communities.

Also, I will mention, this atmosphere wasn't limited to just my own school/s- it's a theme for my entire region in general.

[Oro]

How long ago was that Alusair, that seems pretty brutal.

What I recounted from my observations was from my educational experience, I know a lot of people my age and there are very few people who are capable of the downright cruel things you mentioned. Drugs I agree are pretty common but someone getting busted is quite rare and something that usually makes the news (but in hindsight my example was pretty bad). I have noticed some physical bullying in the hallways of late but it is playing around with friends, the friend just so happens to be new and no where near as popular as the person doing the bullying of course. Big things like you mentioned get out, its easy to keep a class being mean to one kid secret but when you have something like "cool points" its only a matter of time till the secrets out. I have lived in 3 countries in my life and changed around 5-6 schools, I highly doubt that I was lucky enough to get all very good schools. I am sure real serious bullying happens but from my experiences its too rare to be as big a deal it is made out to be.

[Alusair]

How long ago was that Alusair, that seems pretty brutal.

What I recounted from my observations was from my educational experience, I know a lot of people my age and there are very few people who are capable of the downright cruel things you mentioned. Drugs I agree are pretty common but someone getting busted is quite rare and something that usually makes the news (but in hindsight my example was pretty bad). I have noticed some physical bullying in the hallways of late but it is playing around with friends, the friend just so happens to be new and no where near as popular as the person doing the bullying of course. Big things like you mentioned get out, its easy to keep a class being mean to one kid secret but when you have something like "cool points" its only a matter of time till the secrets out. I have lived in 3 countries in my life and changed around 5-6 schools, I highly doubt that I was lucky enough to get all very good schools. I am sure real serious bullying happens but from my experiences its too rare to be as big a deal it is made out to be.

I graduated from school only about 3 years ago. From what I can tell, the atmosphere hasn't changed any since then.

Stuff like that doesn't make the news out here, unless it's something "huge", but even then it usually doesn't even make it past the local newspaper. Drug use, domestic violence, robberies, vandalization, DUIs, violence in general, is just part of the day of the general area, some things more frequent than others, but none of them considered uncommon/unusual.

The nearest city to me, St. Louis, has, if I recall, one of the worst crime rates of cities in the US. The general region around here reflects it, too. Hell, I could probably point out to you at least 1 meth lab and 1 fugitive (but probably more) just within 15 minutes of walking from my house.

So no one pays any attention to "minor" things like bullying or a kid getting stoned in class. Kids getting suspended from school is nothing noteworthy- happens all the time.

I still disagree that it's rare. Regionalized maybe, but from my personal experience, the places where it does happen, it happens commonly.

[Oro]

I graduated from school only about 3 years ago. From what I can tell, the atmosphere hasn't changed any since then.

Stuff like that doesn't make the news out here, unless it's something "huge", but even then it usually doesn't even make it past the local newspaper. Drug use, domestic violence, robberies, vandalization, DUIs, violence in general, is just part of the day of the general area, some things more frequent than others, but none of them considered uncommon/unusual.

The nearest city to me, St. Louis, has, if I recall, one of the worst crime rates of cities in the US. The general region around here reflects it, too. Hell, I could probably point out to you at least 1 meth lab and 1 fugitive (but probably more) just within 15 minutes of walking from my house.

So no one pays any attention to "minor" things like bullying or a kid getting stoned in class. Kids getting suspended from school is nothing noteworthy- happens all the time.

I still disagree that it's rare. Regionalized maybe, but from my personal experience, the places where it does happen, it happens commonly.

Hmmm k, thx for sharing Alusair.

I guess it just doesn't happen in some places and where it does happen, it happens a lot, since it doesn't stand out there as much as it would in the "nice" areas. It appears we still have a long way to go before cruelty in schools is taken care of.

[Kingale]

Perhaps that's the way of things for your community, but that's not the way it is everywhere.

In my school, drugs were quite common, and everyone either knew a dealer or someone who could find a dealer. Smoking pot was common in school during either lunch hours or wood/metal working classes or the like, and some were too dumb/lazy to even hide the smell of it afterwards, which you'd immediately notice upon getting within a few feet of them.

In my school, bullying was more than just people saying mean things or bumping into people. While it also didn't have stereotypical swirlies or the like, the bullying usually consisted of physical assault (good old fashioned "beat them up until they stop getting up", to smashing one's face into lockers/doors as hard as possible, and so on), sexual/physical harassment/abuse (mostly guy on guy, for that matter) destruction of personal property (if you have something of value, like a cd player, it was a target to get thrown to the ground and stomped under a foot), and so on. Verbal abuse was there too, but it wasn't just a "mean name" (death threats come to mind). If you think death threats are just hollow barking, consider that it wasn't unheard of in my school for kids to be arrested for having brought knives, guns, or bombs to school grounds. In some cases, it was made a game (where you get "cool points" or something) to try to drive kids into saying they want to commit suicide.

These are mostly examples from high school, though bullying was prevalent in elementary and middle school too in its own ways (and although arguably lighter in comparison, still also arguably as harmful to a child victim as later bullying was to older victims).

So, in comparison, your community sounds much more nice, and that's great, but sadly it doesn't reflect the state of all communities.

Also, I will mention, this atmosphere wasn't limited to just my own school/s- it's a theme for my entire region in general.

Oh wow, I have to say, that that is really extreme, to me. Any one of those thing you have mentioned above would have had my school in an uproar even in isolated cases where only a few are involved. (Oh and on a side note I estimate that 1 in 10 student in my year group are involved in drugs, but most of them are smart enough to leave that for the weekends.)

I'm in my last year of high school and my school reflects everything Oro has said. As Seniors we get a lot of pressure from our teachers to act as role models, but with our informal relationship with these teachers, there is no acting from most of us and we generally accept this role. We get the odd battle of wills and differences but no obvious bullying. I guess another factor that leads to less bullying at my school is the lack of care we have for social ideas. I mean we have guys that you would call jocks (or sportsman) and guys you would call geeks, but no one you would really call the "cool guys" or "bad/good guys". With this we don't act as sheep, and in the end the wolves don't know how to pick there targets anymore.

[Oro]

Oh wow, I have to say, that that is really extreme, to me. Any one of those thing you have mentioned above would have had my school in an uproar even in isolated cases where only a few are involved. (Oh and on a side note I estimate that 1 in 10 student in my year group are involved in drugs, but most of them are smart enough to leave that for the weekends.)

I'm in my last year of high school and my school reflects everything Oro has said. As Seniors we get a lot of pressure from our teachers to act as role models, but with our informal relationship with these teachers, there is no acting from most of us and we generally accept this role. We get the odd battle of wills and differences but no obvious bullying. I guess another factor that leads to less bullying at my school is the lack of care we have for social ideas. I mean we have guys that you would call jocks (or sportsman) and guys you would call geeks, but no one you would really call the "cool guys" or "bad/good guys". With this we don't act as sheep, and in the end the wolves don't know how to pick there targets anymore.

Good to know that the stuff Alusair mentioned isn't as common as it was made out to be in Alusair's post. Anyway, it might have something to do with countries, I see you live in NZ from your Location. I lived there for 6 years and 3 out of my 6 schools have been from there, the people there are definitely not the bullying type, sure there are mean people but in general kiwis are pretty nice. Now I am in Canada, another country known for their politeness, it maybe that countries like America are more prone to bullying, but I may be way off since I am going by stereotypes having only visited the States a couple times for short periods of times.

I've also noticed the lack of social ideals in my high school, I went into it with a very stereotypical view of what it would be like and I was pleasantly surprised. People aren't split into groups based on their looks, opinions, physical abilities, intelligence, etc. Although you can hang around with people like you if you like you are not stuffed into something like some sort of a social hierarchy like I presumed when I walked in on the first day.

On a side note... GO ALL BLACKS !!!

[Alusair]

People aren't split into groups based on their looks, opinions, physical abilities, intelligence, etc.

Actually this happened heavily in my school too. Plenty of stereotypes and cliques. Hicks, preps, jocks, nerds, stoners, etc.

Anyway, it might have something to do with countries, I see you live in NZ from your Location. I lived there for 6 years and 3 out of my 6 schools have been from there, the people there are definitely not the bullying type, sure there are mean people but in general kiwis are pretty nice. Now I am in Canada, another country known for their politeness, it maybe that countries like America are more prone to bullying, but I may be way off since I am going by stereotypes having only visited the States a couple times for short periods of times.

This could be the case, too. Though it may not be directly related, I've recently been looking at things like the Global Peace Index, and noticed that the US scores noticeably lower than places like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. In the case of the US State Peace Index, my state is one of the 10 least peaceful states.

I'm open to the idea that US schools are less harmonious than schools of other first world countries. Then again, I'm kind of cynical about US society, too.