When my kids were in Primary school, one of them, I’m not naming names, came home from school with the latest joke! S/he slapped my face (ever so lightly and playfully) and then said “Forget it, it’s in the past now”. We both laughed and went out into the world to find others to play the ‘joke’ on. As you do.
I hesitate to mention this joke because if it went around schools now, the slaps would be stinging and it would be filmed on a mobile phone and uploaded to youtube. Please don’t….
I remembered that tonight because there is something to learn.
Popularity: 9% [?]
The kids of today have become more absorbed with mobiles, and revenge and the notion that notertiety for such behaviour will gain them popularity amongst their peers. In some cases , sadly, it does.
Sometimes I think the problem is they have all these toys and no legitimate way to use them. We ban them at school and make them risky to use and then they become a sneaky thing that means trouble.
I’ve read some great blogs about innovative teachers getting kids to use mobile phones in class for research, which I think is sane and useful, yet these kinds of incidents just seem to drive schools to banish them more, perpetuating the cycle.
I don’t think kids of today are any more about revenge than they’ve ever been, but noteriety and publicity is something they seem to embrace more than I remember in the past.
my son’s highschool has a complete hands off policy – not even allowed to shake hands – it gets your detention !
I agree noteriety is what it all about these days … like Corey W
We have the hands off policy that includes both aggression and affection. Kind of sad isn’t it?