I'm not a big fan of corporal punishment, but there are days its tempting to hit a kid. Specifically ones who would come up with "Hit a Jew Day" to celebrate their school's spirit week.
The goal of "spirit week" was to encourage celebrations like "hug a friend day" and "high five day" at a Missouri middle school. But the sixth graders who coined "Hit a Jew Day" decided to slap one Jewish student across the face and smack two others on the arm. The incident was turned into a chance for the principal to talk about the Holocaust, multi-culturalism and acceptance of others, and the kids were suspended.
The principal did the right thing, but I wonder what else can be done. I don't honestly think corporal punishment is in order - that was a knee-jerk reaction to the horror of the headline at CNN. What's needed is tolerance and compassion, modeling of behaviors that these children apparently don't see every day. I can't believe intolerance is inate. Kids don't come up with this kind of hatred on their own (even if the means of carrying it out are their own creation). Suspension usually means days spent at home, more time spent in a household where they're being raised to think up "Hit a Jew Day." What's next? Crosses blazing on the middle school lawn? An Australian study showed we're likely to become less tolerant as we age, not more, so this isn't that much of an overreaction.
So how do you reverse it? Counseling? Maybe. Putting thse kids in the other kids' shoes? How? As I said, hitting back isn't the answer.
It's a reminder that we're responsible for modeling the right behavior for our kids. A lot of people assume they can tell an off color joke as long as they don't "really" believe it. Guess what; kids can't tell the difference. Literally and figuratively mean nothing to them. Everything you say, they hear. Everything they hear gets filed away, and when it starts piling up in there, they start forming their opinions on life based on all of that stored up information. We have to give them the "right" information if we expect the "right" decisions.
Image: FamilyCrafts
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