Children and Violence - Essay Example

Children and Violence Children and Violence Violence refers to extreme aggression being executed by physical or mental force and occurs when a person gets very angry and is not able to control his anger. Children, more than adults, are not able to control their emotions and thus when they begin to feel negativity, they tend to execute the same by physically acting upon their feelings and this tends to cause violence. Violence in children is becoming an increasingly recurring phenomenon because of several reasons. Most of them include the atmosphere that the child has been brought up within. Under this, either a child is subject to violence and is forced to witness his family members committing violent actions on a regular basis, or he is pampered to such an extent that by throwing tantrums and being a little violent he is able to get with what he wants while getting away with violence. Furthermore, a child might even pick up violent conduct at school from other children if he is exposed to such an environment and his parents refuse to spend time teaching him otherwise. Violence committed by children in American society is on the rise in the recent past because of the above mentioned reasons and the various aspects of life that influence children to commit violent acts have been discussed within the purview of this essay. Children need to be dealt with with warmth and affection because it becomes difficult to handle someone if they are not willing to listen. A parent should never try to impose something on his child; instead he should try and make the child understand so that next time, the child himself will not want to commit the wrong that he did. Whenever parents try to force, children always resist and thus they throw tantrums, get physical, and even begin to throw things and hit others in order to get what they want. Many children in American society have also been reported to hit their younger siblings in order to take out their frustration. Children even hit their parents when they feel helpless which another cause of feeling is low and angry, thus taking to violent measures. One of the primary influences of children committing violent conduct is a parent that does not listen to them. By listening to them, it does not mean that parents give in to their demands and wishes; however it simply means that they lend an ear when the child feels low and wants to talk to them. Most parents in America are working and thus there is no one at home when the child comes back from school. When the parents come home, they are far too tired because of their daily routine and thus end up giving no time to the child. This makes children believe that their parents are far too busy to listen to them and be there friend or guide. American society has a vast culture of adopting nannies or babysitters in order to take care of the children, and most of the time, it is the nanny that talks to the child, plays with him, helps him grow up, which is something that the mother or the father should be doing. Children thus turn violent towards their parents because they do not feel attached to them and get very emotional when they are forced to make conversation with their parents. Parents thus need to spend quality time with their children in order to ensure that the child’s vulnerable emotions are kept in check and not exuded by violent behaviour. “A sixth-grade teacher at Simon Elementary School in Washington, D.C., was stabbed with a knife thrown by a twelve-year-old boy who had been spanked for attacking the teacher with a broken bottle. Teachers in the East St. Louis, Ill., school system have become so terrified, says School Board President Charles Merritts that three out of four are carrying guns to class.” (Bodman, D) Violence has become a very inherent part of public schools in the United States of America as more and more children often resort to unruly means and improper conduct which they use in order to terrify other students and teachers to get what they want. However, it must be understood that this violence is coming from a source – many children attending public schools grow up in unsafe environment and face conflicts at home with their parents. Nurturing children in unstable atmosphere leads them to believe that violence is the answer to everything in life and thus they take up such measures in order to have their voices heard. Most teachers state that it is the parents who are to blame. This statement stands true because most parents of such children have problems of their own and often include their children in the fights that they have which leave them scarred. Children of divorced parents might be subject to violent behaviour at home and that frustration comes out on other people because the kids think that it is alright to behave like their parents have been doing. Adolescence is the time when children learn the quickest and act with even greater haste and thus if their emotions are left immature during this period, then they are bound to take up violent means. (Children and violence) Many children spend their time on the streets with gangs of people influenced by drugs and other substances. Children learn the art of using these substances at an early age and this causes their behaviour to differentiate from others. They often fall prey to peer pressure and take up violent methods just in order to be accepted by certain people. (Beaton, H) Children learn from what they see, may it be their parents fighting at home or even television programs and violent video games. It is the duty of the parents to ensure that children do not watch things that are not meant for them. (Children and TV Violence) Moreover, it is a parent’s duty to provide a sheltered and strong environment for their children so that they grow up to be civilized and mature human beings. The psyche of a child gets affected by watching war movies, action films and serials and children think that they must live in the same manner. Hitting siblings, getting into conflicts with friends at school and getting into arguments with teachers makes a child feel unwanted and he thinks that violence is the only way by which he can get around to doing what he wants. (McCluskey, N) Various children come together in American schools to study and learn in a decent academic sphere. However, most of these children come from different backgrounds, may they be on the basis of race, caste, gender or nationality. They each have something different to offer however, children that form a part of these minority groups sometimes feel left out by oppressing children from the majority backgrounds. Such superiority complexes are also to be blamed on the parents because no child is born knowing the difference between colour and creed. (Kelly, Melissa) Parents need to shoulder the responsibility of making their children understand adjustment and living together with people from various walks of life. If a parent holds a gun and points it to someone’s head openly, in front of his child, what else can the child learn from someone who he lives with and spends all his time with? According to statistics, “in the 2000-2001 school year, students were victims of about 1.9 million nonfatal violent crimes such as rape, assault, and robbery. This figure equals about 9,000 violent incidents every school day throughout America, or about one every three seconds.” (Turtel, J) Most schools in America which are meant for the Public do not provide good quality education to those who can afford it and in today’s day and age especially it has become imperative for parents to protect their children by teaching them the correct way of life. In these schools, a teacher’s attention is diverted because of the vast number of students in every classroom and thus he or she is not able to keep an eye on every single thing that every student is doing. These schools have become the hub of drug trade and alcohol abuse because of the sole reason that children are not cared for and their parents do not take control of their lives. A child’s home life needs to be sheltered and cared for; some children do not even have parents and thus are born with responsibility of taking care of themselves and despite this turn out to be wonderful human beings. However, other children are bent on creating havoc and disrupting ordeal. Children begin as bullies and miscreants and if parents do not control their activities, then they take to violence which can sometimes cause fatal accidents and produce dangerous results. In conclusion, it is up to parents to hone and nurture their children into young adults that do not resort to violence and respond by violent means because that proves a threat not only to them but also to the people around them. Violence in American society is on the rise because of the behaviour of children that is affected because of their parental as well as school life. Parents need to take time off in order to talk to their children and help them curb their anger instead of increasing it. Furthermore, children need to be taught about the harmful effects of drugs, alcohol etc in order not to take to those methods in times of depression and feeling low, instead they need to speak to people and climb out of such periods rather than let them prolong and cause harm to others as well. It has been found out that if children are not spoken to or understood in a proper manner, they use the means of violence in order to vent their frustration; this therefore needs to be kept in check. References Beaton, H. (1986). The Pattern of Violence in Urban Public Schools: The Influence of School and Community.. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:tpUx_xErgp4J:www.sagepub.com/mssw3/overviews/pdfs/Brezina_Article.pdf+Beaton,+H.+(1986).+The+Pattern+of+Violence+in+Urban+Public+Schools:+The+Influence+of+School+and+Community..+Journal+of+Research+in+Crime+and+Delinquency&hl=en&gl=in&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShzYI6w_JWVdE-6WxnZWhFwq9ElByHC73wg1RF0jUg58rbkREcLrzwf--fWYYAnUXY9sHqCkd1dLX3beULWlslV9KLvOryegwIuTam5562iUZhigflHtdOGdsglIqo7Q1gMVs6-&sig=AHIEtbSNMMLwZaqXGMJdhGsxJifzzFchBQ Bodman, D. (n.d.). Children and Violence. Arizona State University. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://www.public.asu.edu/~dbodman/candv/ Children and TV Violence. (n.d.). American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_and_tv_violence Children and violence. (n.d.). National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/child-and-adolescent-mental-health/children-and-violence.shtml Kelly, M. (n.d.). School Violence - Violence in Education. Secondary School Education - Education and Teaching. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://712educators.about.com/cs/schoolviolence/a/schoolviolence.htm McCluskey, N. (n.d.). Violence in Public Schools: A Dirty Secret . The Cato Institute. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4032 Public Schools: New Violence Against Teachers . (n.d.). TIME. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,840364,00.html Turtel, J. (n.d.). Drugs And Violence In Public Schools. information. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/201659/education/drugs_and_violence_in_public_schools.html Read More