19 minutes
Over the weekend I finished the book 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult. The book is about a school shooting.
Jodi Picoult is an amazing author and writes about real stuff, only as fiction. When we were in Newcastle I read My Sister's Keeper in about two days. I stayed up late one night so I could finish it.
Anyway, back to 19 Minutes. This book really made me think about the way that I treat people and the way that others treat others.
While in school I was never a bully and was never bullied. I was just a regular, normal kid--not a popular kid and not unpopular.
Junior High was pretty much the worst two years of my life. One day in 7th grade one of my "friends" decided to somehow convince our group of friends not to be friends with me anymore. And that was that. I never figured out why she did that or why my friends followed along. It was devastating.
My sophomore year in high school I had a class with that girl. She signed my yearbook and apologized for what she did 3 years before.
I did witness some bullying and never intervened. Probably because I had no idea I should. I still remember Carl twisting a rubberband and releasing it into Roland's hair in sixth grade. I remember Roland trying to cut it out of his hair. And the next day he came to school with a haircut.
The things we say and do to people can have a real effect. The fact that kids get tormented, beat up, humilitated every day at school needs to be stopped.
Kids think they are just having fun joking around. But at someone else's expense and feelings is just wrong.
It hurts me to know that kids like Peter Houghton (character in the book) hate themselves because of how they are treated by others. They avoid any sort of confrontation, whether it is walking in the hallway, changing in the locker room, even looking at the bully, etc.
I don't know how the problem can be resolved. But it needs to be.
I hope everyone who has kids have an open communication about this. No matter what side they are on, the bully, the bullied, the bystander, etc.
Jodi Picoult is an amazing author and writes about real stuff, only as fiction. When we were in Newcastle I read My Sister's Keeper in about two days. I stayed up late one night so I could finish it.
Anyway, back to 19 Minutes. This book really made me think about the way that I treat people and the way that others treat others.
While in school I was never a bully and was never bullied. I was just a regular, normal kid--not a popular kid and not unpopular.
Junior High was pretty much the worst two years of my life. One day in 7th grade one of my "friends" decided to somehow convince our group of friends not to be friends with me anymore. And that was that. I never figured out why she did that or why my friends followed along. It was devastating.
My sophomore year in high school I had a class with that girl. She signed my yearbook and apologized for what she did 3 years before.
I did witness some bullying and never intervened. Probably because I had no idea I should. I still remember Carl twisting a rubberband and releasing it into Roland's hair in sixth grade. I remember Roland trying to cut it out of his hair. And the next day he came to school with a haircut.
The things we say and do to people can have a real effect. The fact that kids get tormented, beat up, humilitated every day at school needs to be stopped.
Kids think they are just having fun joking around. But at someone else's expense and feelings is just wrong.
It hurts me to know that kids like Peter Houghton (character in the book) hate themselves because of how they are treated by others. They avoid any sort of confrontation, whether it is walking in the hallway, changing in the locker room, even looking at the bully, etc.
I don't know how the problem can be resolved. But it needs to be.
I hope everyone who has kids have an open communication about this. No matter what side they are on, the bully, the bullied, the bystander, etc.
2 Comments:
That was a great book. My Sister's Keeper made me cry. I just read another one and I didn't like it as well...I can't recall the name right now.
Thanks for passing along good information and ideas. I will definitely read those books! -M
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