Hurting people…hurt people!

Hey guys, this is Xavier! Today Nicole and I learned a great lesson on why people bully, based off a cartoon we watched...

Bullying has occurred for thousands of years, dating back to the times of primitive cavemen. First cavemen fought the beasts. But when they learned to rule the animals, they became territorial and turned on each other. They became prejudiced, and began to attack each other based on their unique differences.

One of the reasons prejudice forms is because all humans have a built-in preservation instinct called the "Fight or Flight" response, also known as "Survival of the Fittest." This is located in the Reptilian part of our brain, which has a natural fear response to things we don’t understand, or for the purposes of self-preservation.

It's easier to fear others' differences and attack them, rather than get to know them and understand. This is reinforced by important people in our lives, such as family and friends, who we imitate. If we see these important people discriminate or judge others based on differences, we tend follow them and do the same thing: Monkey see, monkey do!

However, if we take some time and learn to understand why others are different than we are, we can incorporate this knowledge into our Cerebral Cortex, which is the reasoning center, or our "new brain" that that allows us to create more rational responses to things we do not understand and make better choices.

To summarize, we learned that hurting people...hurt people, and healthy people...help people! Just like the compassionate cave kid, who took some time to understand the rejected cave kid, you too can get to know other classmates who are different than you, and chances are, you'll find out that while they may look different on the outside, they are great people on the inside! You can accept and appreciate differences, and choose to be a hero and stop bullying!

By the way, we also learned there are many causes of bullying, such as:

1) Uncaring and badly functioning family;
2) Cultural promotion of violence;
3) Experience of being rejected, low self-worth;
4) Poor academic standards;
5) Recognition/reward for negative behaviors;
6) Aggressive personality
7) Prejudice against minorities;
8) Low standards at home/social environment

Finally, as Nicole said, just remember that if you don't understand someone, get to know them and follow the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

~ Xavier