Bullying

Yes it's a big problem . .
My problem is that no one can expect a new class program to reverse the growth in non coping with anger and assertiveness.
It's a world view problem that will only be better resolved by recognising we have somehow told ourselves,  as a post Christian culture, that  it is right to put the individual ( not the parent or teacher) in charge ..That such rampant individulaism actually works ( those watching our own cultural demose can see it) ..
We must find a way to give authority back to both parties before mere word stating reactions like "this is now a problem " will make a difference .
We now call anger a sin when for thousands of years we were told and trained to call it a risk ; the classical post modern crap of letting correlation be seen as  causation , We weren't taught to sit on it like we are now ; were taught to deal with it .We weren't tutored in the desperate art of denial ( somehow adrenalin is not mentioned) but in the realistic art of expressing yourself . Minister Cash wants men to not be angry and just show respect ( Today ) This is foolish unnatural unworkable blind religious talk  of a new kind
 Calling it a sin means we are tempted  to deny it in ourselves( a simple reality) and then  say the outward expression of it in others is "deeply wrong" . Jesus the master spoke to the inside , most moderns are hopelessly lost trying to read from the outside.
Our post Christian culture has no effective way of dealing with this projection guilt and denial; A program to" fix it " must involve radical surgery of ideas not the patches governments and reactionary medicine men will apply .
Denying that the old way is now wrong is denying history and experience . Denial leads to fanaticism and there is plenty of that in program ideas for schools at the moment. Watch it grow and fester as evidence of the denial it is.

Any wise parent with more than one child learns to deal with bullying before the kids go to school , So why would anyone expect a mere " education program ' at school to really resolve these things?.
I fully accept that school can be the place where modelling how to cope with bullying can occur ( mainly through individual modelling and personal coping strategies )but  only those who have never left school think you can deal with it easily in class .
Attitude standards is a very sensitive issue and hard work driving many teachers away from jobs they once loved - you can also be expected end up ALONE if you try to teach values carelessly making kids feel guilt and shame ; Whatever good you do there is more of the same behind the sheltershed.

It's also wrong to categorize all perceived "bullying "  as wrong .Calling a spade a spade is calling a real sin a real sin and not getting diverted-( precision helps )- that of course was the old way which is the only way it works .( precision a prerequisites= )
Now - people are confused--- is it natural to lie or be aggressive
Yet years ago , telling a lie shouldn't mean you are called a liar - thats the law of lible .To call someone a liar is an offence under the eight commandment.   Getting angry with your partner wasn't considered wrong and now that  it is it means the path to resolution is NOW closed in some households .The proper dealing of these complex matters is an urgent matter YES

Some people see bullying as assertiveness but we all need to learn assertiveness and whether you want to see it or not , we can learn it in the context of a situation of anger and mostly do.
.What we perceive as someone else's problem may become our problem if we don't see our part in resisting the call .Maybe parent training would help more , but not back door and "out the door with anger" policy .

Advocates of the proposed program in schools think they can run assertiveness training in schools .They are focused on a few things they know and not the full picture which "who knows who really knows" . I don't know many teachers who could do it and parents MUST have a say in the contents as they would have had in methods classes before school. As Neiman might say , its bringing uncertainty into the curriculum which it should not bear to achieve  the great status Fairfax gave it . Keep teachers comfortable in the job by keeping it simple . The ideologues will cause even more  early retirement .
 Integration as a means to effectiveness
Clearly both mentorship and modeling go together with insight on this . I simply don't accept secular schools should teach values unless they get parents approval to run those sorts of classes. As every one knows the system meddles with disintegrated concepts of  "confidence , assertiveness and resilience " and in a fractured and incomplete way that sends thinking parents off to Private schools  where subjects are subject to less pedantry .Humpty dumpty reactionary experimentation( non curriculum or temporary) instead of consistent competency ( known and accepted curriculum)  Training not playing . Pedagogy not pedantry,

Equality - whatever happened to diversity

I don't see how any sane person can vote to change the definition of MARRIAGE when its clearly trying to change the substance of what it has meant for centuries and clearly cross culturally . This is just another overly ambititous, almost tyranical, claim by reactionaries who as Chesterton said over 100 years ago about his Fabian friends ; they don't want democracy to mean a parliament or a republic , but just want what they haven't got . What do they want ? Do they know ?" An improved sense of their status"? So much for depth and sustainability if its a feeling or even thats where its coming from !

Our society. like science, is only functional if we maintain definitions that mean something. This whole effort to simplify will only confuse and restrict as the feminist movement did before it . No longer will we feel free to have the full conversation about diversity because unity is the extremely dumb and constricting determinant .As the catholic paper points out "Only the conjugal view accounts for both facts." We could add "all the facts " needed to be considered here ; adoption , surrogacy, ideal marriage , disfunctional marriage , and civil marriage in an austrailian, christian or muslim context .

God help this country if we are no longer allowed our God given right to call things what we wanna call em =define things .

God help the government with their difficult decision about what civil marriage means if some smart arse legislation not only tells them how to do it , but doesn't help them find any clearer way of talking to it ; This is smartarse legislation that not only tries to tell people what love is, it but also wants to say what words we should use about all the different types of relationships existing . What will be a family for taxation purposes in ten years time ? .This is only one question for this very weak week in our history . Born Equal and equal before the law - but they are religiuos concepts ( see Neiman) This idea of equality contrasts with natures striving to maintain cooperation in diversity - equality is not a concept derived by deduction , peerreview or physiological or genetic drivers I pity the man . Looking for identity but expecting the driver behind to know where its all going