11:51 p.m.

[ Popularity & Social Cruelty ]

This is my latest post at a message board I hang out on. It's painful to think about it right now, but I seem unable to think of anything else.

I don't know how many of you may have seen the program that was on ABC tonight (Popularity & Social Cruelty), but I did and I'm absolutely heartsick. There was one little boy in particular that made me very sad because he was mostly wandering around friendless when two boys attacked him on the playground, first by taking his toy and throwing it away, then (after he went and picked it up), by becoming physically violent. I feel so terrible for that child I'm actually in tears while I'm typing this. I ache for that little boy. He wasn't bothering anyone and it looked like he didn't have any friends. I know they had to leave the cameras running for their study, but I can only hope that someone intervened on his behalf.

There were other examples given too and it's really heartbreaking, especially since I know firsthand how it feels.

It's just as bad as it ever was, and it makes me wonder if our society has become so indifferent to suffering that we allow the smallest and most helpless among us to have their spirits broken and think nothing of it?

Worse, why are the children who are doing this allowed to continue? Kids have killed themselves over it. One bully bragged about how he told a girl she was fat and ugly so many times she developed bulimia.

How do they become so hateful toward one another?

This may not be the place to post something like this, but it's really bothering me and I kind of needed a shoulder ot cry on, even if it is virtual.

What I saw tonight only strengthened my determination to home school my children. They'll have to deal with enough cruelty once they've finished school and gone out into the world, they shouldn't have to deal with it at school too. How is a child supposed to get an education with that going on around him or her?

Everybody thinks it's just kids being kids. But it isn't. It hurts and it stays with a person forever.