Harriman High School

Harriman, Tennessee
Teacher: Nancy Newcomb

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recognizing Today's Violence

By Jennifer Arwood

10^th Grade

 

 

 

Webster's Dictionary defines violence as: A physical force or activity used to cause harm, damage, or abuse to someone or something. Through out the past couple of years we have heard a lot about violence in our schools through the media. It has affected large schools in places such as California and small schools in rural Kentucky. However, is school violence only mass murders, shooting sprees, or bomb threats? No, violence can also be fistfights, verbal arguments, and bullying; and it must stop! If we want productive communities we must have productive youths.

           

Where does this violence originate? There are many sources that can contribute directly and indirectly to these outburst of violence. This is a sad, but true fact. It can be that they see there parents abuse one another or to be abused themselves. Even though this is perhaps the greatest factor in youth’s violent nature, there are still more. Parents today are not as protective of their children as was not to many years ago. Parents now allow their children to watch television shows unsupervised containing many scenes of violence, listening to music that may be contributing to certain attitudes, and play video games that actually teach children how to fight, so when facing problems at school these children choose to solve the issues with fist and mouths. This in fact only creates more problems.

           

The question that lays heavy on my mind, does this violence only effect the children involved in the confrontation? The answer is no. Whenever this violence is made public it does two things. One, it shows violence to other students which in turn may cause even more violence to erupt and secondly teaches other children that violence is O.K. Most children fist fights, or so you think, but in fact it is the words that hurt the most. There are many bullies in our elementary and middle schools today, and although the physical abuse hurts, the words affect the children much longer. Verbal, abuse lowers self-esteem and self-confidence. It can leave people with emotional scars and complexes that can carry over into adulthood. This is a big problem that must be addressed.

           

So now the problem is made public, but what can we do to prevent it? There are many different alternatives that can be taken to help. One solution is a kind of council for teens by teens. This idea has not really been publicized, but I think it would be extremely useful. If you get a group of kids who really want to stop violence in their school, and form a type of committee to help when kids face a problem either at home or at school, you can see results. This committee could meet on certain days and discuss any conflicts they see arising. A problem caught early is one not having to be dealt with later. Another alternative is, a teen talk line in this situation people can call in anonymously and talk to someone about his or her problem. The line could have set hours so there would be no problem knowing when someone would be there to listen. The other party could be a teen or teacher but must be a willing listener. The last option is one that has been publicized a lot recently and it is mentoring. Mentoring is when an adult takes time out of their schedule to help someone having problems by talking to them, hanging out with them and basically being a friend. It would mean a lot to a young person to have an older individual, who is not a relative, to discuss things with. It is also more likely that a teen would listen to someone who is with them, not out of obligation, but because of relationship and perhaps even take their advice more willingly. Perhaps the best thing about mentoring is the only requirement is lots of love. There is a link of this program for teens that want to help others. It is called Big Brothers and Sisters. For a teenager to take time out just to let a younger person know what they are facing is normal and that they will be O.K. because they have been there before. It is a lot easier to get through a situation if you know you are not the only one who has been in it.

           

These are only a few methods we can use to help others. I believe if we will follow these simple steps there will not only be less school violence, but more productive students coming out of our schools. This being true, there will be overall better individuals entering our communities. Thus, improving the standard of living and life. All we need is love and determination to improve the quality of life and living in our community today.

 

Answers To Questions Regarding The Required Reading

 

1.   Manus invested financially in stable marriage where as in USA many Americans invest by committee and communication

 

2.   1) married once 32 years- communication and stay out of politics.

      2) married once 32 years- think a long time before you get married

      3) married once 27 years- compromise

      4) married twice 5 1/2 years - don't' get married to early

      5) married once 33 years - find someone you love -spouse has to be best friend-                                     

          compromise work together

      6) married once 21 years - work together

      7) married once 21 years - always you keep the vows you made

      8) married once 60 years-one wife for a lifetime

      9) married four times 5 years-If at first you don't succeed try again

    10) married twice 20 years-Proverbs 3:5-6

 

3."Dematerialize society without reducing the quality of life".

 

4.Our community is a rather small community. So it really not a big crime filled community or anything

I think that the one thing that I would want our community to work towards simply a better looking community. I would like to clean up the streets. To also work together to get things in the community for the younger people in our town.

 

5.I think for kids that miss their mothers a lot while away from them, that this doll could be a comfort to them. I do not think for a child who never knew a mother this wouldn't be a comfort.

 

People have gotten to where if the way to make money is not obvious then they don't do it. We have many percentages of minority groups and if we don't help them out nation will become poor.

 

6. "The notion of democracy going with individualism and social fluidity, is deeply ignored in out culture (lawyers) help, like  other intermediaries, between individuals and the state protect us from the danger of tyranny of the majority.

            Social mobility, none of us are born into a tribe cast or social status not a guide or faction form which we cant escape.

 

7. There should not be regulations on this.  Simply punitive damages depending on the situation. 

 

8. As the baby boomers retire they will become highly competitive, because of their experience and extensive business contracts.

Some of the retiree entrepreneurs will offer services to the large number of generation X'ers who will be settling down.

            The first decade of the twenty-first century the baby boomers will retire and the healthiest educated generation in history will create a new baby boom.

 

9.  I feel that President Clinton's anti-poverty act will become a success.

            Already things have been changing. Almost four million people have lifted themselves out of poverty.   As the President stated " The time is ripe" The gradual fall in the number of those below the poverty line and the big fall in those on welfare show the economic expansion in others has begun to benefit the poor.

            Some worry that the economy is running at full capacity. The only way to keep the economic recovery going is to have new sellers and more buyers.

 

10.  Both Cathy and Lewis enjoyed helping young people with unfortunate lives. They both went to church and let god lead their lives.  Even thought people tried to discourage the two men by telling them their ideas didn't work they never gave up.