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Colorado schools may say they're hurting for money, what with Amendment One and a grasping teachers' union that values longevity more than competence.
It was tempting to believe that until I read about a bully prevention program at some metropolitan schools, which comes with inspirational video tapes, counseling sessions for students, sensitivity training for teachers, multi-cultural multi-media modules and related paraphernalia for holistic self-esteem enhancement.
There was no indication that this was an extra-curricular project running with donated money on the teachers' own time. Bully-prevention thus must take time and resources away from classes like math, English, art, music, geography, history, science and other once-important disciplines.
Why does bully-prevention matter so much? The educationists say that children can't learn if they're in fear. So, if you plan to teach grammar or chemistry someday, first you've got to get the kids in the mood to learn, and they won't be in the proper receptive state if they're worried about their lunch money.
This premise, that fear impedes learning, sounds good, but a moment's reflection will show that it is quite dubious.
The fear of getting yelled at or grounded by my parents often inspired me to creative academic feats that seem amazing in retrospect -- 20-page term papers cranked out overnight on a manual typewriter, complete with fabricated footnotes and fictitious bibliography.
The fear of losing face with my chauvinist chums, who were sure that boys were smarter than girls, sometimes propelled me to honest scholarship so that I might outdo one of the valedictorian girls who always got straight A's.
The fear of getting beaten up by the big kid who sat behind me in eighth-grade history and always copied off my tests was a major inducement toward sustained review of the material before the exam.
Indeed, to this very day, the fear of penury keeps me busy researching and writing.
Even so, it must be granted that schoolyard bullies are a nuisance at best, and should be controlled. But there's a big difference between control and elimination, and the future of the Republic will be jeopardized if they succeed in eliminating bullies.
Without bullies, where would we find the tough CEOs who delight in downsizing in order to make American industry more competitive in world markets? If there were no bullies, where would we find managers who insure that their subordinates are productive? Without bullies, we'd have no linebackers, few jailers, fewer federal cops, no Rush Limbaugh, no Donald Trump, no Arnold Schwartzenegger movies -- American society as we know it would collapse.
And if eliminated even the concept of bullying, the
notion that I'm bigger and tougher than you are and I'll
make sure you know who's in charge around here,
what
would America do for a foreign policy?
It seems obvious that if our schools are determined to devote scarce time and money to bullying, and if they want their graduates to be successful and admired, then they should teach kids how to excel at bullying.
If they take that approach, and teach bullying with the same success that they enjoy with algebra or rhetoric, then the happy day might dawn when there are no bullies. Even the mean kids who had enthusiasm and talent for bullying will have it bored out of them.
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