A great friend and very smart man told me this when I was very young. He used slightly different words but I never forgot it. Ernest A. Dewey, father of my dear cousin, Marcheta.I compare bullying to injustice.
I don't remember seeing too much bullying in high school but I remember teasing. That's what we called it, anyway.
I was called bird legs, told I had alligator skin and told repeatedly, "You look like Hellen White," and "If ignorance is bliss, Mary is happy." And the Spanish kids favorite, "Seca" and "Chiva." Who knows what was said behind my back. So I had a terrible inferiority complex - but when I started junior high school, Marcheta, was a big influence on me. She had lots of friends and laughed and joked with everybody.
That was my goal, to be friendly. And when the taunts started, I would laugh at the remarks even though they hurt. I still felt the insults or ugly remarks and sometimes my eyes didn't cooperate and there were tears. Hard to pretend you are laughing but I tried.
This seems pretty tame to what we see as bullying today. I think almost everyone had more respect for teachers and so it wasn't overt in the classroom.
Be kind to each other, please.
No comments:
Post a Comment