I'm sitting here listening to "Youth of the Nation" by P.O.D. and it talks about a kid going to school and shooting his classmates.

Now, I've only been out of high school for six years. We never even had to worry about this kind of stuff. I even grew up in a rural area where a lot of kids had access to guns and such. It just seemed inconceivable that something like that would happen.

I was just curious to hear people opinions about what is at the cause of this behaviour that seems to be happening with kids these days.

My first thought would have to be parents not doing their job. Anyone else?

 

some of the movies, I think

 

Break down in gang mentality. There used to be (and still is) a gun problem in schools, especially in the urban settings.

At one point there was strength in numbers, which is held together by a gang structure (we describe it better as social pack behaviour).

Now there is an old thought that is being presented in a new way in our schools. I dubbed it the Bonnie and Clyde concept. Bonnie didn't need anyone, or anything besides Clyde, and vice versa. If anything didn't go their way, or something stood in their paths of immediate gratification, they had tools to do away with their rivals.

This does completely away with the gang structure, and puts an individual in a place of self-empowerment.

....also, much blame goes to the parents.

 

.....and the system that doesn't allow corporal punishment like it once used to.

 

I don't know if your response is being sarcastic or not, but the only argument I have is that I watched a ton of bloody bloody movies starting at a very young age. I could always be an exception. I could see where some kids could be influenced by this, but to me it comes down to what you were taught is right or wrong from your parents. I always knew it was just a movie.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Luder94
[B]Break down in gang mentality.

 

As much as a lot of people don't like to see statements like this, I agree 100%. I know that I was on the receiving end of several swats when I was in Jr. High and High School as were many of my classmates. Having said that, I am also certain that none of us suffered any mental anguish because of it because every one of us knew we had it coming when it happened. We were taught that there were consequences to be considered for inapropriate behavior and we accepted those consequences when we blew it.

I also grew up in a rural area and there were many many times that a lot of us had guns in our cars out in the parking lot so that we could go hunting right after school. Even though there were all those guns around, none of us were ever worried about getting shot because that's something that you just didn't do (shoot people). It just seems to me that in this age where it's in vogue to sue somebody when you do something stupid and hurt yourself, kids are being taught that everything is someone else's problem and it's okay to do whatever you want and blame someone else. Hopefully, at some point, common sense will prevail and things will turn around. What scares me is, what exactly is it going to take before that happens...

 

You see this behavior in adults, so I am not surprised that has been learned by our children. It seems that we (Americans) have lost a sense of community and have adapted a very selfish attitude in recent years. Many people act as if they should be the center of everyone elses universe and therefore don't have to put up with the trivia of day to day life. Recent trends like road rage and mass murders in office buildings are my case in point.

 

I could probably fill a 10 page reply with my thoughts on this, but suffice it to say that it is not a simple problem. Movies, music, and video games are NOT to blame - they are simply a path of gratification and expression for an individual. If I had to summary my feelings on the problems, they'd be:

1) Inadequate parenting - not necessarily bad parents, but the parents aren't there for their kids anymore. Many parents expect teachers (whose salaries are barely above the poverty line) to teach their kids right from wrong. Sorry, folks, teachers are there to teach and be role models and positive influences - not to raise your kids for you.

2) The ease of scapegoating. This coincides with #3, but it's all too easy for a piss-poor parent to say "my boy was a good kid, he just shot those other kids because <insert random musician> said it was ok to kill people" or "my son was driven to kill 'cuz he played video games". Was Doom a violent game? HELL YEAH! Did it drive me or any of my friends who grew up on those games to shoot our class mates? Nope, because our parents had guided us down a path where we could discern right from wrong, a game from reality. Same goes for listening to rap music which talks about "screwing bitches, capping niggas, and getting high wit' da homeys" (no offense intended to the women and african americans here). Which leads to #3...

3) The news media. Anything is a story to them. A lot of kids are left behind - they're not social, they get teased, beat up, maybe they're struggling with classwork or can't compete with the other kids in gym class - and they see kids on the news getting all this media coverage for shooting people. It's blatant copycatting, and the excessive media coverage of who the kids are, constantly putting their faces for all to see, that's good incentive for a loner. I'm not suggesting that the news media ignore these events, but rather than slap the kid's (or kids') face(s) on the TV every night, they could refer to the event and minimize the fame-factor for the kids that go postal. I think a lot of the events that have happened in the past 10-12 years have a big tie-in with the 24/7 news channels (CNN, Fox, MSNBC) because it is a way for a person to get a lot of attention, even though that attention is for the wrong reasons.

 

I should also mention that I'm in the same boat as ltweintz is - 5 years removed from high school.

- The year I graduated ('97) we had basically an open campus.
- The year after I graduated I went to visit some former teachers, walked in the building without so much as a "who are you here to see?"
- The following year I had to sign in and say who I was going to see. No reason, just who.
- The following year, there were metal detectors, every door was locked except the main entrance, you had to sign in, and the person you were there to see had to come to the main entrance (often a 5 minute walk due to the layout of my H.S.) and get you. Needless to say I stopped visiting