It takes character to deal with psychological abuse and anger in nonviolent ways. The salient point is that it can happen anywhere, and this knowledge has made more than one third of all secondary school students feel unsafe at school. For KNX 1070, this is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts. S ticks and stones can break your bones, but names will never harm you. The problem is that this old proverb is essentially false.
Names can hurt a lot.
In fact, thoughtless and malicious insults, teasing and gossip inflict deeper and more enduring pain on more people than guns and knives. Ask anyone who as a kid was fat or skinny, unusually short or tall, flat chested or big busted, acne faced, unathletic, slow witted or exceptionally smart. In schoolrooms and on playgrounds across the country weight, height, looks and intelligence are as often the subject of taunting and ridicule as is race or religion. There s nothing new about this, but the ethical significance of name calling can be lost if we trivialize how damaging words can be, especially to youngsters who are still forming their identities. When we try to convince kids that words cannot hurt them, we may fail to encourage and demand greater sensitivity in the way we treat each other.