The $%*! frustration thread

[skylark]

I have an anecdote and a suggestion to add to the current conversation.

One very profound memory I have of elementary school, the fifth or sixth grade I believe, is of the time that one girl spoke out passionately against the bullying of a boy in our class.  For reasons which I cannot exactly discern the boy had become an almost constant target of jokes and put-downs.  It just seems like it was an unfortunate case of bad luck for him, but in the mob world of elementary schoolchildren it was apparent that his luck would not get better without intervention.  I still am amazed by how that intervention came about.  We were sitting in music class after a lunch in which the poor kid had been picked on particularly badly, and one girl raised her hand and told our teacher that she would like to say something.  The teacher gave her permission, and she immediately stood up with such gusto and, in no uncertain terms, vehemently condemned the bullying and the bullies and stood up for the boy, reminding everybody that he did not deserve the unfortunate treatment which was being doled out so continuously and that he was a good person.  I think in that moment the entire class was shocked into serious personal reflection, and after that class those who had bullied the boy shook his hand and apologized.  Sadly, he was still the target of some jokes, but it was not nearly so bad as it was before the girl stood up for him.

Sometimes, even these situations which resemble mob rule, it just takes one action to shock everybody into reflection and serious consideration of their actions.  Granted, the actions of one girl were enough to move a class of fifteen to consideration.  I do not know what it will take to move, say, a middle school or high school class to consideration.  I wish that I did.  I realize that I was lucky in that my high school class was, on the whole, pretty civil and considerate.

With regard to a tiered school system, I think that the best way to "tier" a school system is to offer various levels of all subjects at every school.  That way, students are able to choose to take more involved courses in the subjects they feel most passionate about.  In that kind of system, you also have more intermingling of very passionate students and not-so-passionate students, which is a good way to perhaps inspire the not-so-passionate students to adopt a more enthusiastic outlook about subjects they did not previously consider to be important, or in many cases within their grasp.  I get the impression that not-so-passionate students probably do not have the resources at home that more passionate students often have, and instead of permanently placing them in a lower "tier" it would be better to place them in a situation where they have have opportunity and incentive to improve from their peers.

*sigh*

Where the hell were people like that girl when I was in elementary school?

Only one person in my entire life stood up for me and that was in high school, when it was already far too late.

The constant bullying and bullshit are probably a big reason of why I have such a low opinion about humanity in general.

[FaustWolf]

Uboa, I think that's the reason my Mom always told me to remain on the best terms possible with humans of the female variety. I hope someone told her "You go girl!" after she stood up for that poor kid.

[Uboa]

I think our teacher was the only one to say anything immediately afterwards.  She was probably about as amazed as the rest of us, but she was able to find more appropriate words for the situation than any of us were at our young age.

[Sajainta]

Wow.  Major kudos to that girl.  Not many people are that compassionate, or that brave.

[ZombieBucky]

the world needs more people like that girl. do you know if shes still the same now as she was in elementary school?

[Thought]

I thought your home computer was broken. =P

It got better.

[Temporal Knight]

Grah....I've let my grades slip. But I have a wonderful excuse why now, you know? 


Got to bring those up.

[GenesisOne]

Uboa, that was a very touching story of bravery of that girl standing up to someone who was getting picked on.  So touching, in fact, that I have a similar story which took place while I was in high school.

It was lunch and I was talking with my friends.  Suddenly, screams erupt from the amphitheater and a swarm of students start to gather around something.  My curiosity piqued, I excused myself from the conversation and raced over there.  I worked my way through the crowded masses of onlookers to see a Hispanic student getting beat up on by some overweight black kid.  The black kid had torn the Hispanic kid's  shirt off and he was covered in mud and what I believe to this day to be blood (it had rained the previous couple of days, so it was literally UFC meets mud wrestling).

Staring at this crude improvisation of a gladiator match as it turned into the high school version of the Kitty Genovese incident, my instinct to help the victim overtook my senses. I raced into the fray and started punching at the black kid and shoving him back with all I had (he was twice my size, but the adrenaline rush made up for the difference).  It was like this for 10 seconds until some LD's showed up and hauled the degenerate away.  All the while, he was swearing to the high heavens at that Hispanic kid like there was no tomorrow.  He would be expelled for sure.

It never occurred to me afterward to see to the welfare and state of mind of the Hispanic kid.  I just walked away, knowing in my heart that I had saved him from a trip to the hospital.  It was that very incident that inspired to take up martial arts.  Strangely enough, I wasn't brought to the front office for questioning, let alone whatever I would've received from assaulting the black kid like that.

I didn't consider myself a hero or the man of the hour when I did what I did. I saw somebody's life in danger and I did what I could to protect him.  Simple as that.  We never saw each other again (the black kid or the Hispanic kid), but I have reassurance that he is grateful that somebody stepped in to do something.  And to think, it was just like any other day I went to high school.  You never know...

[Thought]

Ethiterian is already a word. I hate it when people start using my words before I even come up with them.

It is a conspiracy of the future against the past, I tells ya!

[Lord J Esq]

Golly, stars, how I've been there. Thankfully the frustration is usually mixed with pleasure.

I dreamed that ZeaLitY got killed in Europe somewhere due to his high-speed (i.e., "passionately intense") driving recklessnesses, leaving the Compendium without a driving force. There's really no "second-in-command" around here. It's All ZeaLity, All the Time.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

After listening to reggae all week in Jamaica (woe is me, right?), I'm frustrated that I have a sudden interest in all things reggae-related.  Yeah, mon!

[Lord J Esq]

That more properly belongs in the "Holy Shit, That's Awesome!" thread.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

But I don't WANT it. The chords... they seep into the neurons and bury themselves deep... The haunting melodies... The steel drums...

Make it stop.

[Lord J Esq]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsjbEWKK8AU

[Sajainta]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsjbEWKK8AU

That is the biggest bathtub I've ever seen.