Children and violence
by Lolita Nikolova (.pdf)
by Lolita Nikolova (.pdf)
2009 © International Institute of Anthropology, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
2009 © Lolita Nikolova, PhD
Created: 06-03-09
2009 © Lolita Nikolova, PhD
Created: 06-03-09
Reference:
Safe communities – safe schools. http://www.colorado.
edu/cspv/publications/factsheets/safeschools/
Violence is a social issue with deep roots in human society. In many case what
some societies believe is violence, other may accept as a norm. The last
especially applies to children, since the human history is a network of a variety of
enculturation and socialization systems. Some children have been prepared to
become warriors even today since their childhood, or other play electronic games
that teach them in details how to kill. Since at the earlier stage of the childhood the
physical intelligence is leading, the violence starts with the first children fighting
games that we accept as normal. Bullying is just increasing the scale and intensity
of the non-conscious or non-recognized violence.
Violence is not unpreventable and usually education is one of the means for its
decreasing. The education not only occupies and develops the cognitive
intelligence but also makes the children learn about positive values.
Recognizing early signs of violence is essential for society. They can be visible
and invisible. In the Safe communities – safe schools fact sheet are listed
important signs. It is worth mentioning that some of them itself is an indicator of
violence. They should be analyzed in combination and relate to specific context.
We can distinguished the listed signs in the following groups:
Psychological (social withdrawal, excessive feelings of isolation and being
alone, excessive feelings of rejection, feelings of being picked on and persecuted,
uncontrolled anger, intolerance for differences and prejudicial attitudes)
Social (being a victim of violence, affiliation with gangs, inappropriate access
to, possession, of and us of firearms))
Cognitive (low school interest and poor academic performance)
Behavioral (patterns of impulsive and chronic hitting, intimidating and bullying
behaviors, history of discipline problems, past history of violent and aggressive
behavior, drug use and alcohol use
Communicative (expression of violence in writings and drawings)
My personal experience shows that usually violence is not very popular in the
central parts of the cities and in all schools. Since downtown has been my typical
living environment and I attended specialized schools, I don’t have recall about
witnessed violence. But bullying as a form of violence is popular in some schools.
It is more typical about boys and can be explained by a complex of reasons, mostly
as a form of physical expression, especially in the teen years. Bullying is a form of
the transformation of some children games and it can be preventable if the
schools have special programs that could eliminate its signs listed above.
However, I am not sure what would do if I witness directly bullying.
In our changing society of re-inventing humanity we should be able easily to
transform the negative violence in a positive although a little bit wild behavior.
Probably involving the students in specific games would help in this direction.
Also, increasing the academic learning motivation, training in positive thinking and
development of integrity would probably to resolve at least partially one of the most
crucial problems in our society – violence among children.
Safe communities – safe schools. http://www.colorado.
edu/cspv/publications/factsheets/safeschools/
Violence is a social issue with deep roots in human society. In many case what
some societies believe is violence, other may accept as a norm. The last
especially applies to children, since the human history is a network of a variety of
enculturation and socialization systems. Some children have been prepared to
become warriors even today since their childhood, or other play electronic games
that teach them in details how to kill. Since at the earlier stage of the childhood the
physical intelligence is leading, the violence starts with the first children fighting
games that we accept as normal. Bullying is just increasing the scale and intensity
of the non-conscious or non-recognized violence.
Violence is not unpreventable and usually education is one of the means for its
decreasing. The education not only occupies and develops the cognitive
intelligence but also makes the children learn about positive values.
Recognizing early signs of violence is essential for society. They can be visible
and invisible. In the Safe communities – safe schools fact sheet are listed
important signs. It is worth mentioning that some of them itself is an indicator of
violence. They should be analyzed in combination and relate to specific context.
We can distinguished the listed signs in the following groups:
Psychological (social withdrawal, excessive feelings of isolation and being
alone, excessive feelings of rejection, feelings of being picked on and persecuted,
uncontrolled anger, intolerance for differences and prejudicial attitudes)
Social (being a victim of violence, affiliation with gangs, inappropriate access
to, possession, of and us of firearms))
Cognitive (low school interest and poor academic performance)
Behavioral (patterns of impulsive and chronic hitting, intimidating and bullying
behaviors, history of discipline problems, past history of violent and aggressive
behavior, drug use and alcohol use
Communicative (expression of violence in writings and drawings)
My personal experience shows that usually violence is not very popular in the
central parts of the cities and in all schools. Since downtown has been my typical
living environment and I attended specialized schools, I don’t have recall about
witnessed violence. But bullying as a form of violence is popular in some schools.
It is more typical about boys and can be explained by a complex of reasons, mostly
as a form of physical expression, especially in the teen years. Bullying is a form of
the transformation of some children games and it can be preventable if the
schools have special programs that could eliminate its signs listed above.
However, I am not sure what would do if I witness directly bullying.
In our changing society of re-inventing humanity we should be able easily to
transform the negative violence in a positive although a little bit wild behavior.
Probably involving the students in specific games would help in this direction.
Also, increasing the academic learning motivation, training in positive thinking and
development of integrity would probably to resolve at least partially one of the most
crucial problems in our society – violence among children.
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