I remember very little of my childhood and teen years - I have blocked almost all of it out. It was very unpleasant for me in several ways - and one of those
ways was the fact that I was bullied really badly where I grew up in Amherst Nova Scotia.
It probably started when I was 9 or 10 and didn't end until I graduated from high school and left for university in Halifax.
Back then - in the 1970's and early 1980's - no one talked about the fact that being bullied was something that was bad and you didn't have to put up with it. I never told my parents what was going on - instead - I believed what the people bullying me were saying to me, and it shaped the personality I was to have as an adult and totally dictated the amount of self worth I had for myself.
Being bullied as a child does not just affect the child - it affects that child for their whole life because that is the time when they are developing what their internal consciousness is going to be for their adult years - and to be told over and over again that they aren't worth anything, that they're ugly, that they better have sex soon or their hole will grow over (that is what one very generous fellow wrote in my yearbook who like to be particularly mean to me - his name was Rick Chapman).
I would not want to be a child growing up today. There is just too much going on in the world, too much stuff going on, too many things available for a child's mind.
But what's going on about awareness regarding bullying is fantastic - kids are learning that they don't have to believe what bully's are telling them - and that they need to go tell an adult that someone is hurting them - that they are worth something regardless of what that bully is teling them.
That idea did not exist when I was growing up.
There is a movie being released April 13th that's called "Bully" that is becoming a movement and has tons of resources attache to it - I hope it comes to Halifax and makes a ton of money and millions of people see it.
I don't know if I'll see it - whenever I see anything related to bullying I get really uncomfortable and have panic attacks - I think it's too late for me to do anything about the subject - but it can be a great learning situation for tons of children and their parents today.
https://www.facebook.com/bullymovie/events
ReplyDeleteThis opened in 2 theaters in NY March 31--I was so deeply moved and upset by it (and I was never bullied) that I put it on my wall.
Saw this movie this afternoon & I may not recover all weekend! It just opened here & I went to the screening where the director took questions for over half an hour afterward. It's opening nationwide in April and they are getting it into schools & communities (meaning teachers admins & school boards too). I'm posting it on my wall because it is not just a problem nationwide in the US but from the Nova Scotia websites I follow I know it is a problem there too. It's a teaching tool--and a call to action--not merely an expose after which we can say "how shocking" and turn it off. It always went on, but I do agree it's gotten worse. One lady afterward spoke to the school bus incidents (& he told us how he was able to record the things he did)--she said that when she rode the school bus as a kid if any student got out of their seat or ran in the aisle of hit another kid the bus pulled over and stopped then & there. Period. (That's what I remember!) When the bus incident occurred & was filmed (in Sioux City I think--not sure) the filmmakers showed the footage to the parents & they went to the school admin--who said she'd ridden Bus 54 & they were good as gold. When the finished film was screened in Sioux City, as it was in each of the locales, they expected 300 & 1600 came. They all fit in the room and afterward that lady walked up to the front and before 1600 people said she hadn't known what was going on, SHOULD have know & apologized. Wow.
Good post Joan. I am sorry this happened to you.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awful thing some children go through ...