British Teachers Still Blaming Games for Schoolyard Violence

[OldNewNewOld]

Because games existed from the beginning of time?
This teacher real seems like an uneducated prick.

 

[darksakul]

stricter legislation?

what about...education?!..hey parents...see this 15+ rating here? if you worry about little john and his games you might want to take note

anyway, this really isnt worth getting riled up over...Im pretty mcuh imune to this kind of thing...birds fly, fish swim and aults dont like the "vid-eee-ooohh" games

You sir are brilliant.

I am sick and tired of some-so-called professional who thinks there is a coronation between Video games and violence. Especially when they fail to provide any scientific evidence supporting this theory. Just because some brat owns a Wii or a DS does not mean that the video games he plays make him into a bully, or a bloody thirsty killer.

Parents for the most part are fricking stupid when it comes to understanding video game ratings.
They are just like ratings for movies, with clear indications why is the game that way.

You can also judge the game's content from Cover Art and the Game's title.
Grand Theft Auto, Modern Warfare, Mortal Kombat and so on highly suggest the games genre and topic.

Maybe the country needs to make legislation who can have kids before they decide if a media format is bad or not.

 

[Dastardly]

Lack of sufficient ability to control or protect student populations has been ongoing since well before the advent of modern schooling. In the old days it was "boys will be boys", then it was TV and movies, now it's video games. Anything to allow educators to avoid responsibility for what happens when you put a bunch of kids, not all of whom are going to like each other into a building in the hundreds or thousands even without proper supervision.

Not sure if you realize this, but it's not "teachers" that do that. We all know the current format of school doesn't work. But we don't have the time or money to campaign for school board, so it's populated by businessmen. Even our SECRETARY OF EDUCATION in the US was never a teacher.

Decisions are made by those businessmen based on what is cheapest, not what is the most educationally sound. And teachers, as educational experts, are tasked with filling in the ever-widening gap between doing a good job, and having the money to do the job. (Hint: Most of the time we say we want more money in education, we're not talking about pay. We're talking about funding for resources.)

Public schooling is efficient enough but it is powerless to stop bullying or other forms of bad conduct in schools. What will help more is educators actually taking some responsibility for the kids under their care. Zero tolerance is a code for punishing the victim as much as the bully because they are too damn lazy and incompetent to determine the proper aggressor so they punish both.

You try to sort it out every single time. Go ahead. Not every case that comes before us is "tiny kid beat up by big kid" or "cool kid picking on nerdy kid." You would be absolutely shocked at how many instances of bullying we do, in fact, prevent... but, of course, you don't hear about them, because they never happened.

Students who are continuous trouble should removed from the school to another place where they can be away from other kids while they get their education.

We would love to. Problem is:

1. Where do we send them? Where's the money for this additional school?
2. Okay, so you want it to be private. You realize that the overwhelming majority of our "problem children" come from homes of low socioeconomic status -- meaning they don't have the money to pay. You can't get blood from a stone, no matter how hard you squeeze.
3. Our funding, as schools, is tied to enrollment. Remove a kid, lose thousands of dollars that were also helping other kids. It's a stupid system, but we didn't create it. We just have to survive in it.

Media is not at fault. Media cannot be at fault. It is about how kids are raised at home and at school. I am sick of "science" finding reasons to ignore the root causes of this crap. The root causes are exposure to actions in life with no context for the consequences.

I almost agree. Except kids aren't raised at school. That's not our job. Our job is to teach them, not to raise them. (Though, hell, we already feed most of them two of the three meals a day.) By the time a kid is 18, he has spent around 13% of his life in school. That includes bathroom, recess, hallway, and locker, too. Each teacher gets a fraction of that.

tl;dr Remove the troublemakers to a private school. Send the bill to parents. Add in some counseling for good measure.

Write us a check, or elect someone that will. We'd be happy to do it.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Really nobody has done this yet. Fine i'll do it.
Hey, Teacher, leave those kids alone!

First off video games have nothing to do with real violence. Even if they did why bring in laws just becasue parents don't want to be responsible for their children.

 

[Dastardly]

As one who only too recently left secondary education I can sympathise. It really is too easy to blame the teacher for everything ranging from bad grades to lack of parking spaces.

But this particular stab is published not by a specific teacher, but by a representative organisation that can afford to push hard truths, as their audience is far greater than "little timmy's parents".

To a degree.

But these organizations also know that teachers will be the ones that have to deal with the fallout. This organizations job is to open dialogue between teachers and parents, by giving the teachers a united (and thus louder) voice. If they directly attack the parents, that won't happen. The parents go on the defensive, dialogue shuts off, and the teachers will suffer as a result.

They can afford to push hard truths, but not in a frontal assault.

 

[Pearwood]

Not much to do with games really, may as well just say UK teachers are lazy whiny pricks. Although that wouldn't really count as news.

 

[Farotsu]

While the whole thing has been exaggerated and kids are always going to be kids... Still I have some experience on this myself on the issue where a kid has actually gotten really wild because of videogames (though the bigger issue was that the kid was spoiled rotten) and then there is some of the "kid see, kid do" going on. So it wouldn't be a bad idea for the parents to take a gander on what their kids are actually doing with their free time.

 

[Jodah]

Backhand the little shits for acting up and move on!

 

[Brutal Peanut]

I'm starting to think parents should have to take a mandatory parenting course once or twice a year that includes educating them on video game and movie ratings. Because really this article sounds like they don't want to ban video games, they just want the parents to have a stronger hand in their child's up-bringing and perhaps try some discipline. It seems at first that they might be blaming video games entirely, but I do also see some parent bashing in there as well. Like they are trying to get a point across that they can't say out-loud.

So basically,
"Parents, educate yourselves on video game ratings if you have a problem with your child seeing sex and violence and make sure your little sperm-blossom goes to bed at a reasonable hour." ........TA-DA!

 

[ryo02]

Explain the insane bullying rates in the 60's, 50's, 40's, 30's, 20's, 10's, 1800's, 1700's, 1600's. FUCKING 1500's! AND FURTHER

its certainly nothing new both the violence in schools and the blaming of everything but yourself.

 

[repeating integers]

These videogames are making our students un-conch-onable!

Wow, man. Didn't think I'd see a Lord of the Flies reference on an Escapist news article (I've only read the book, so I didn't recognise the picture).

 

[funkzillabot]

Alternative headline; "Adolescent Behaviour Modeled on Violent Fiction Reveals Parental Neglect."

Doesn't quite roll off the tongue does it? Guess that's why we never see it on the front page - that and you can't criticize the only people buying your nonsense.

Excellent. Well said.

 

[funkzillabot]

They have to blame something. Because taking responsibility just isn't as cool.

 

[MalkavianLunatic]

*facepalms hard enough to fuse hand to skull*

Y'know, I keep seeing this kind of article popping up over and over again and it makes me lose that much more faith in humanity these days. It is not the government's job to raise people's children. It is not the teachers' responsibility to raise peoples' children. It is not the Television's job.

If teachers are so disturbed about children playing, then they need to talk to the parents and not just sit there like idiots, looking for the Next Thing To Blame. Conversely, if parents don't want their children exposed to violent imagery in video games, movies or what have you, then they need to get off their asses and do some parenting for a change.

Years ago, it was rock music getting the blame for when kids behaved aggressively. Rap music. Horror movies and violent television shows. The Internet. Video games are just the most recent scapegoat for people who had kids and don't want to deal with the responsibility of monitoring what their child is exposed to or, barring that, speaking to their child about the difference between right and wrong, reality and fantasy.

By no means am I trying to say that all parents are lazy, neglectful people. But if there are so very many stories like this going around, you'd think that someone would have an epiphany about maybe trying to get to know what little Timmy or Suzie likes and helping them find something within that realm that they will enjoy, as well as something that is a bit more age-appropriate.

And as for that teacher who is-- *dramatic gasp!*-- so worried about children playing out those oh-so-violent scenes during recess, I suppose she's never played a game of cops'n'robbers when she was young. I recall being a little kid and playing games like that though it had no origin in the latest games or movies, and putting up my best, overly-dramatic death scene when I was 'boom! bangbang- kerPOW'ed into fake oblivion. I wasn't the only one. And we didn't see our parents wringing their hands with worried expressions, complaining that we were going to end up axe-murderers because, goodness! we saw a some blood in that movie we'd watched a few nights ago.

Sheesh. I just wish these parents would quit trying to pass the buck on child-raising to school employees and take a little responsibility for what their kid watches and listens to. Maybe then, the teachers would quit throwing such fits about how kids play at recess and get around to, y'know, teaching again. Instead of trying to pass more 'stringent legislature' about what parents Can buy for their kids, how about bringing it up at this meeting how the parents need to be more involved in the lives they've brought into this world?

 

[blackrave]

During my school years (graduated high school 6 years ago) I never blamed any media for violence
I blamed other kids and they idiotic, ignorant parents
"What? My little angel would never break his nose, but you know that that kid is from bad family, so most probably he is guilty"
"He called teacher and other students names? That's nothing big, because nobody got hurt"
"Why his grades are so low?"-...-"Don't teach me how rise my kids"
etc.
I was sick every time I heard similar lines coming out of parents

Anyway
Only blindman can't see a pattern here.
At first books were considered root of all evil, then music and movies, now games

Actual reason is that various stages of violence, hatred and abuse is normal while growing up
Is it good and we should let it happen? No.
Should we start crusade and witch hunt every time shit happens? Also no.
If someone does something bad, we should blame that person, not look for excuses in environment.

 

[Stabby Joe]

I like The Guardian's take on this story, particularly with this source and quote, one that I doubt I'll find in many other news sources:

Mary Bousted, general secretary of ATL, said many teachers were worried that parents ignored age restrictions on games. "The watershed tends to work quite well, but with online TV and video children and young people are probably watching inappropriate content over a range of media," she said.

"It's about reminding parents and carers that they have a very real responsibility for their children and that schools can't do it alone."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/03/children-addicted-violent-games-warn-teachers?newsfeed=true

 

[RyuujinZERO]

C'mon guys. Are you telling me when you were a kid you NEVER acted out something violent you'd watched on television or video games?

I mean, when I was in school it was allllllway going on...

Transformers... Ninja Turtles, fuck. Even Captain PLANET had the dude with the fire ring, everyone wanted to have that artifact of mass destruction. Later on it was power rangers, and, I dunno what they feed kids these days on television.


My point is, kids learn by watching, and mimicking. It's an evolved response - saying "kids copy violent video games" should be as frickin' obvious as saying "kids learn to talk by listening to parents". The important part to realise, is this is WHAT KIDS DO; the solution isn't to ban violent video games to have the school councillor talk to little Jimmy who chainedsawed up 200 nazis last night in some video game.

The solution is for the PARENTS to pay attention for 2 seconds to what their offspring is actually doing and (gosh, here's a really outrageous concept) BE A GOOD PARENT. Don't let them play Megalsluaghtermurderfestextreme unsupervised, and if you do let them see or play something violent, help them to understand the morality of it; why killing is not an ok solution to things, teach them concepts like empathy, morality, right and wrong - in this way a video game could be a useful medium to *help* learning, by tying what they see and experience in the virtual world, to useful life lessons.



Screaming in horror and wrapping them up in bubblewrap is just as damaging as using Duke Nukem as a babysitter

 

[Comando96]

Government blame the parents. Parents blame the teachers. Teachers blame... Videogames... Which the parents buy for the underage tykes...

The government has got this right... This is the parents fault for letting kids have access to stuff they should not have access to. The number 18 on the box should mean something if these damn teachers had taught the parents to count all those years ago.

This is a case of s generation being lost... a whole generation... And now that generation is having kids who are just as bad as the parents... video games are a scapegoat here as the real problem is the parents using the TV and the Xbox360 as a babysitter.