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Violence and Children

By George Baumler

  Many parents oppose exposing their children to violence in the form of entertainment, such as TV shows or video games.  Ironically some of these same parents will yell, “kill the umpire” and watch obviously violent sporting events as entertainment.  The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there either.  They will use the might of government to force their will upon others ultimately by means of violent physical force.  Children’s games, video entertainment and backyard play has been more or less violent from the beginning.  Even so called nonviolent games such as draughts have innate elements of violence.  (“I killed your king.  Ha ha!”)  Denying violence is denying our human nature.  Teaching children in which instances violence is justifiable and in which it is not should be the domain of parents and those that parents entrust to teach their children. 

  The “Zero Tolerance of Violence” policies have sprung up in school systems across the country and indeed in our community as well.  The notion that human nature can be suppressed to the degree that the proponents of “zero tolerance” seem to believe, flies in the face of reason.  Every parent wants his or her children to be safe, but these policies are beyond reason.  In today’s “zero tolerance” atmosphere a harmless child’s game of “cops and robbers” could be enough to have a small child suspended or expelled from school as happened to a child in an Arkansas elementary school who pointed a piece of fried chicken at a classmate.  The toy pistols I played with as a youngster would have gotten me the maximum penalty if I were a student today.  Under today’s silly rules everyone I went to school with, some years ago would have been suspended or expelled from school.  (Though, at that time they would have been violently beaten for infractions of the rules.)

  Which violence is justifiable and which isn’t, is the question honest folks should ask themselves before condemning all violence or instruments of violence out of hand, with policies such as “zero tolerance”.  Should Shakespeare’s plays be banned from school curriculum due to their violent nature and content?  Isn’t swordplay or suicide too violent?  Are one’s life, property and liberty worth defending with violence?  If not, would we employ an armed police force to protect our homes or have a standing army to protect our nation from foreign aggressors?  The use of violence to achieve political goals is the hallmark of tyrannical government whether the government employing it is democratically elected or not.  Violence is not in and of itself evil, but the uses to which citizens, schools or governments choose to put it may or may not be.

  The lessons children learn about violence are not confined only to their classrooms but to the whole experience of their lives.  Teaching children to be peaceful, productive adults doesn’t mean insulating or isolating them from the reality of human nature, but rather instructing them in our ideals by what we teach them and by the examples we set.