Fri 14 Nov, 2008
Anti-bullying Law a Sign of Failure
Comments (2) Filed under: Education, Human Dignity, Law & Authority, Parenting, Society, VirtueTags: bullying, family, law, legislating morality, school
Bullying has become an issue that is growing in the public eye. I was bullied as a child – from elementary school all the way through high school. While in my experience I would have to say that news reports about the “damage” caused by bullying are a bit exaggerated, I cannot say that it did no damage. I suffer from a bit of a social phobia – a fear when meeting new people that I will not measure up to some imagined standard. Certainly as Catholics we want our children to learn to love each other. Bullying is the acceptance of power rather than love as the center of life (wouldn’t Nietzsche be proud?).
There is little doubt that bullying is a real problem in our public and private schools. However, to accept that there is a real problem is not to accept the proposed solution. According to the editors of our local newspaper, the solution includes a state law against bullying. Wisconsin is apparently only one of 14 states that has not already passed one. A state law against bullying would
. . .give every child in the state the same protection against intimidation and establish a procedure for complaints to be filed and cases investigated.
It also would mean that bullying outside of the school setting would be banned.
A state law against bullying seems so reasonable. I have to ask, though, why is a state law against bullying necessary? While a state law would give authorities leverage to investigate cases of bullying, I doubt that it would actually do much to protect children against intimidation. A law will definitely not teach a child to become lovers of peace and justice rather than tyrants. The only thing a law will do is provide a penalty for those who are caught – after they have already become bullies. Such penalties do little to actually stop negative behavior.
The very fact that a state law against bullying seems reasonable to us shows the failure of our society to embrace the family as the first school of love. Our culture has grown dependent on social institutions, form daycare to the school system, to raise our children for us. A school system does not have the power of a family to teach our children virtue.
Our social systems are doing their best to address the problem
In recent years, school districts across Wisconsin have adopted policies against bullying and many have backed this up with in-service programs for teachers and programs in the classrooms.
We applaud all of these efforts to put an end to something that can have both a serious and damaging impact on children.
In addition, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has developed “Bullying Prevention Curriculum” guides that have been sent to all school districts.
The guides contain instructional units targeted to students in grades three to five and six to eight. The guides also include bullying prevention policy guidelines that describe elements schools and districts should consider in developing a policy related to the prevention of and response to bullying behaviors.
That’s a pretty standard school system response to negative student behavior – policies, inservices and curricula. Such interventions do not compare to the power of a family’s daily personal interaction with the individual child.
The problem of bullying will not be completely solved this side of the Kingdom. It is a result of our sinful nature. However, our sinful nature can be overcome in each individual through the power of Divine Grace and by learning to cooperate with that grace to turn our hearts away from evil and toward authentic goodness. We learn to cooperate with grace – to live lives of faith and virtue – within and from our family.
A call for a state law against bullying is a sign of failure. It means that we have given up on forming lives of virtue and have resorted only to doling out penalties. I am not necessarily against such a law. It is possibly within the interest of public safety. On the other hand, we need to ask if it is an overreaching attempt to legislate morality that is best learned in the family. Our culture has come to see parenthood as a temporary interruption in “real life.” We expect parenting to be as little an inconvenience as possible. Falling for the allure of educational experts claiming to make our children more productive and successful if they can get them into school as early as possible, we have abrogated our responsibililty for raising our own children, expecting the State or the Church to do it for us. But social institutions that treat children in the plural are largely incapable of instilling virtue in the individual. The family is the school of love. The only real solution to bullying is to rethink the way we are raising and educating our children. The solution starts in the home.
End Note
“Anti-bullying law long overdue.” Marshfield News Herald 10 November 2008. Gannett Press. 6A.
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Mrs.Jeanne Rodgers says:
I have recently been going through a negative reprocution of this law’My child was accued of cyber bully.I went through seversl channels of the florida gov’t to only get the name of the accuser.M child has bee falsely accused and I can prove it if given a chance.Their are no rights for the accused to clear teir child of the charges and no acountability or consequences for the parents that abuse this law for their own personal revenge to hurt chidren and families.We have no justice to fight these cahrges against my daughter and she is giong through great emotional difficulties now.I also was bullied many years but I never cocidered suicide.This child “Jeff” had deeper issues.That is my belief.Thank You.
Sincerely, Jeanne Rodgers
Jeffrey S. Arrowood, MTS says:
@Mrs.Jeanne Rodgers – Jeanne, Thank you for sharing your story. I am very sorry for the mess you are in because of the unforgiving legal system. In my opinion, this is what happens when parental authority is superseded by legal authority. Was your daughter accused after one episode, or is the claim that she made multiple attacks? Does your state have a no tolerance law? That’s even worse than the initiative in Wisconsin. I hope you are able to clear your daughter’s record. It’s up to us parents to teach our children the right way to teach others – online and offline.