Such Silliness

I saw that earlier and have been chewing on it a bit. We have schools ending dodgeball, countless sports programs and other organizations eliminating the winner vs loser aspect of involvement.

Little by little we are taking away the means by which kids learn how to work together, test their mettle, win with grace, and lose with grace. Instead they get ribbons for just showing up and get on the honor roll without knowing how to spell.

Is it any wonder we have these shootings?

 

Yes it is a wonder. The shootings cannot be blamed on not playing dodgeball, or ending winner vs loser contests. The problem goes a little deeper than that. It centers around not being taught respect for others.

Getting a ribbon for showing up and being on an honor roll does not explain mass murder. It explains not being able to lose graciously, which is a fact of life. That is like saying the sky is blue because trees are green.

 

1st Day of School 2015

 

The gun grabbers should see this from the article in the OP:

Katz said she would be concerned if a child plays with a toy gun to the exclusion of all other toys or becomes obsessed with gun play, or if the child shows signs of alienation, withdrawal, depression or a loss of control over aggression, adding: “Those are the real risk factors.”

While throwing out toy guns may make anxious parents feel better, Katz said it’s an ineffective, overly simplistic response.

“It’s not the issue,” she said. “The issue really is the big picture of the child’s adjustment to other people and the world.”

 

Yes, the issue is deeper than dodgeball. The point is the lessons we usually learn in those situations are not being learned by the younger generations. They are not learning how to respect people. They are not learning how to be gracious winners, or losers. They are not being given a chance to even win or lose. These liberal, feel good do nothing, experiments at social engineering are ignoring key aspects of the human psyche. These young people do not have important social skills. They have no way to deal with the normal desire to have an impact on society.

Quite often we see kids acting out because they have determined that being good does not get them the attention they want (and kids need this) so they misbehave. For them negative attention is better than no attention.

I am suggesting that the mental health issues of most of these shooters had to be developed, and I am offering this as one way that is occurring.


Is it any wonder we have so many young people planning attacks like these? How many have claimed they want to out-do Columbine?

 

Parents taking away toy guns: an exercise in futility if ever there was one. Boys will make play-guns out of anything (sticks, fingers, etc.). They'll use their imaginations to create play weapons out of anything. I remember my brother and I having sword fights with fence pickets and trash can lids and having gun fights with maple sticks.