Anti-bullying signal-boost.

[gaudior]

People have been talking about bullying lately. Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project has drawn attention to the suicides of gay teenagers, and has inspired the Make It Better Project, to give youth and concerned adults the tools they need to stop bullying in the schools. (I strongly recommend MIBP's Take Action page, which has such useful links as information about The Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 2262/S. 3739) and how you can support it). And both homasse and seishonagon linked to an insightful and useful article by Kate Harding, On Good Kids and Total Assholes.

I'm glad people are talking about this so much-- it's making me think about my own childhood, and how much I accepted kids making fun of me, ostracizing me, and generally making me miserable as "just the way things are." That understanding of the universe and my place in it had long-lasting effects, and I am delighted and grateful that people now are talking seriously about how to stop bullying.

(I may at some point make a larger post, but at the moment, I wanted to signal-boost. Yay, signal-boosting.)

--R

Comments

[jeshala.livejournal.com]

Is it something in Shorewood's water that makes the kids so eager to be complete out and out foul to people?

Fortunately though I've seen a wave of very polite, accepting kids there lately. Perhaps there is some hope for that hole in the ground posing as a high class town.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

From all the outcry nationally against bullying, lately, I'd say that it's not Shorewood-- it's people.

But on the other hand, the fact that you've seen kids being more polite and accepting is also, I think, part of a larger trend. And one that I'm very, very glad of.