Time for the Sun to Set on the Culture of Sheep

[reinbeau]

This is interesting reading, Here is the full story. Below is the beginning of it.

Time for the sun to set on the Culture of Sheep


By Tim Inwood

My first memory of encountering the “anti-self defense culture”, which I call the “culture of sheep”, was a cold morning in January 1975. I was in the sixth grade and was riding the school bus. Suddenly, another student sitting in the seat ahead of me turned and began striking me. This was completely unprovoked. Naturally I struck back in defense. The bus driver separated us and drove on to Holmes school. Before I knew it I was before Principal Will Allen. Also standing there was Mark, the kid who started the fight.

Allen asked what happened, and Mark told a tale that was strewn with as many lies as Bill Clinton used in his “I did not have sex with that woman” lecture. Will Allen then turned to me for my version of what happened. I told him I was sitting there talking with my friend Tom Gray and suddenly I was being pummeled by Mark. I did nothing to provoke him and had said nothing to him.

Now, Mark was a behavior problem who did things like this frequently. I had a clean slate and had not gotten a swat since Kindergarten. So Will Allen believed me. However, since I had defended myself, I was in trouble too. We were both offered the choice of swats or having to stay indoors during recess for two weeks. I was flustered.

“Why am I being punished?” I asked.

“Because you fought back,” I was told.

I was stunned and disgusted in the same instant. Though I did not realize it in these terms, it was my first memory that I and the other students were being conditioned to be victims - to accept the idiotic culture of sheep. If attacked, submit and hope for the best. This is concept is unnatural to humans; it certainly goes against the grain of my instincts.

Just how this cower, cringe and hide in the face of danger concept ever caught on is beyond me. I reject that early conditioning the liberal public schools tried to thrust upon me. Ever since that injustice the anti-self defense culture, the culture of sheep, has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Their philosophy is not only unjust, it is down right stupid and deadly.

How incredibly true is that!

 

[JRyan]

This is interesting reading, Here is the full story. Below is the beginning of it.



How incredibly true is that!

Very true!

 

[Jay G]

I am NOT looking forward to getting that call. If I ever, and I mean ever, have to listen to some pasty-faced puke tell me that my son is in trouble for defending himself against a bully or malcontent, things will get very ugly, very quickly...

 

[Ripach]

Sad but true.

 

[second]

Good read, but will the sheep out there pull their heads out of the sand?

 

[Mikey]

I am NOT looking forward to getting that call. If I ever, and I mean ever, have to listen to some pasty-faced puke tell me that my son is in trouble for defending himself against a bully or malcontent, things will get very ugly, very quickly...

You are so right, and ever parent needs to do the same thing. The school is there to serve and teach us, not force a way of life on us. The school only has power to do things like this if the public lets them.

 

[pdm]

But there is hope, yet: Ohio anti-gunner changes mind after mugging.

 

[dwarven1]

He has seen the light! Hallelujah!

 

[Adam_MA]

The same thing about defending myself in school happened to me. Though, I was protecting my sister, and me and her both ended up side by side kicking the snot out of 2 shit heads. The didn't say word one to my sister, and sent her back to class. They did call my father, and when the principal was on the phone telling him that I was caught fighting, I took the phone away from him and told him the truth, that I was protecting my sister from 2 shit heads that were accosting her in the hall. The principal was trying to get the phone from me, and trying to talk over me. My father told me to give him the phone. MAN! I could hear my father tearing him a new one like no bodys business. He started taking a tough tone with my father telling him he was going to expel me WRONG MOVE! I was handed the phone and my father told me to go back to class, and if the principal tried to keep me there, just walk out of the school, and wait for him to get there. 1 hour later, my father comes walking into my class room, in his class A's with a friend of his from the jag's office. He took me out of class, and marched into the principals office.

MAN! I would have hated to be the principal that day!

 

[dreppucci007]

The same thing about defending myself in school happened to me. Though, I was protecting my sister, and me and her both ended up side by side kicking the snot out of 2 shit heads. The didn't say word one to my sister, and sent her back to class. They did call my father, and when the principal was on the phone telling him that I was caught fighting, I took the phone away from him and told him the truth, that I was protecting my sister from 2 shit heads that were accosting her in the hall. The principal was trying to get the phone from me, and trying to talk over me. My father told me to give him the phone. MAN! I could hear my father tearing him a new one like no bodys business. He started taking a tough tone with my father telling him he was going to expel me WRONG MOVE! I was handed the phone and my father told me to go back to class, and if the principal tried to keep me there, just walk out of the school, and wait for him to get there. 1 hour later, my father comes walking into my class room, in his class A's with a friend of his from the jag's office. He took me out of class, and marched into the principals office.

MAN! I would have hated to be the principal that day!

Wow, now THAT'S a great story!!!...I can only imagine that the principal needed a change of underwear!

 

[csharpdev]

I've seen similar events happen... when I played football high school there were a few kids picking on a mentaly and physicaly handicapped student. The captain of the football team stepped in and stood up for the victim. He was rewarded with 5 days suspension and being stripped of his captain's status.

Fighting got you 5 days suspension regardless of circumstances... if you were in any way involved in a fight you got suspended. Even though all the coaches agreed with what he did and told us that they agreed with what he did they couldn't have a captain who had gotten in trouble for fighting, regardless of the circumstances. He should have (by school policy) been kicked off the team too but they let him stay on the team and only missed one game.

Most of the administration and the rest of the school agreed with what he had done, but they didn't want to encourage that sort of behavior and it was school policy that he be suspended.

 

[Pilgrim]

When my brother and I were small - 10 to 12 or so, I guess, we had a neighbor kid who was about the same age but a hardened tough bully. He was always in trouble and like to beat on other kids....sorta like the bully in the movie "The Christmas Story".

One day, he'd beat on me, the next day he'd beat on my little brother. Never serious stuff, he just wanted to show who was boss in the neighborhood.

After a while, my brother and I came up with a plan.

We BOTH waited for the bully to walk down the sidewalk and we BOTH beat the crap out of him. We did a real job on him. He left the 'scene' with his clothes torn, one shoe off, (we beat him with it), crying his eyes out.

We never had any more trouble with him. It's good when you plan and work together.

To this day my 82 year old parents remember that day and tell us how proud they were that my brother and I looked out for each other.


When my kids were in elementary school, my oldest kept coming home very morose, day after day. Seems a bully was beating on him, not enough to do harm but just enough to be a real PITA. I told him he could either let the guy keep doing it or make him stop. He said that he was told in school that fighting was wrong. I told him it's wrong to start a fight but not wrong to stop a fight.

Next day he came home whistling and happy. I asked why he was so happy today. He said that he punched the bully in the stomach and the kid isn't going to bother him any more.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[Patriot]

I am NOT looking forward to getting that call. If I ever, and I mean ever, have to listen to some pasty-faced puke tell me that my son is in trouble for defending himself against a bully or malcontent, things will get very ugly, very quickly...

It happened to my son. My oldest boy didn't fit in with the 'in crowd' in school
for many reasons. He wasn't (isn't) good in sports, he preferred his D&D to
drinking and raising hell, and he is pretty intelligent and has a great vocabulary.
Since his life was a constant conflict with his peers we elected to provide him
with self defense training and we enrolled him in a fairly good karate school.
He took it for a number of years and became fairly proficient in it as he liked it.

One day in middle school (the ultimate battleground for teen aged kids) one
of his primary antagonists set upon him by knocking his books out of his arms
and kicking them all over the schoolyard and then began to come at him. At
that time my son delivered a kick, which had it hit it's mark would have caved
in this kid's chest. The predator managed to get his hand in front of his
chest at the last minute, which resulted in him getting a broken hand.

The result of this was a week longs suspension from school which when I
went to the meeting was a fairly interesting one along the lines of the OP.
I railed at their stupidity and meeting out punishment for my son who was
only defending himself against this predator and why should he be given
any punishment? Deaf ears! They essentially said that he should have
walked away and brought it to the attention of the staff, whereupon I informed
them that I have done this in the past to no avail and if they were not going
to provide essential security for the student population they could not expect
students to be victims for the animals that were present in their system. All
of this went to no avail with one exception. I stated that in no case during
this suspension was it to have one iota of impact on his grades. By this
time they were becoming concerned that they now had a very irate parent
on their hands and that he was not going to go quietly into the night so they
acquiesced to that. My son had a nice weeks vacation, the village idiot
had a broken hand for the summer, and I am stilled pissed off to this day
at the idiots in the town.

The village idiot was the son of a marine (sorry Derek) who was the supposed
to be the tough guy on the town's fire department and my son was told that
this moron was coming down to my house to kick my ass to get even with
my son for breaking the village idiot's hand. My son was concerned but I
laughed, so that pretty much calmed him down.

All I can offer any parent is to do the following: Take note of each and every
incident with your children in a public school system. Time, date, persons
involved, and any and all pertinent information to the incident. Write it down
in a log. It will serve you much better if the time comes where you are
involved in some incident where you have to have history to make your point.

 

[csharpdev]

But there is hope, yet: Ohio anti-gunner changes mind after mugging.

If only people like him would be more proactive than reactive he may have been carrying a gun that time.

It's too bad people have to be almost mugged or killed to wake up to reality.

Although I'm sure some on the other side will twist this story and say "see he didn't have a gun and he survived..."

 

[kevin9]

..All I can offer any parent is to do the following: Take note of each and every
incident with your children in a public school system. Time, date, persons
involved, and any and all pertinent information to the incident. Write it down
in a log. It will serve you much better if the time comes where you are
involved in some incident where you have to have history to make your point.

Or get them out of the public school system entirely.

 

[RKG]

The same thing about defending myself in school happened to me. Though, I was protecting my sister, and me and her both ended up side by side kicking the snot out of 2 shit heads. The didn't say word one to my sister, and sent her back to class. They did call my father, and when the principal was on the phone telling him that I was caught fighting, I took the phone away from him and told him the truth, that I was protecting my sister from 2 shit heads that were accosting her in the hall. The principal was trying to get the phone from me, and trying to talk over me. My father told me to give him the phone. MAN! I could hear my father tearing him a new one like no bodys business. He started taking a tough tone with my father telling him he was going to expel me WRONG MOVE! I was handed the phone and my father told me to go back to class, and if the principal tried to keep me there, just walk out of the school, and wait for him to get there. 1 hour later, my father comes walking into my class room, in his class A's with a friend of his from the jag's office. He took me out of class, and marched into the principals office.

MAN! I would have hated to be the principal that day!

Wow; almost identical story. No sister and by the tennis courts at the end of lunch break, not on the bus. I didn't do that much physical damage (bloody nose looks worse than it is) to the guy as much as suprised the digestive byproduct out of him as no one else had ever fought back.

We both got two detentions (served on Saturday mornings). So I had to go home and tell my father that I had detention. He started to get angry with me, but after hearing the story he just said, "Tomorrow morning I'm driving you to school."

(This was a bigger deal than it might sound, because normally he'd leave the house by 0700 to drive to the train station to go into NYC; driving me to school cost him about half a day of work.)

Next morning he drove us to school; I went to first period and he walked in the direction of the school offices. Next thing that happened was that I got a note from Headmaster saying my detentions were cancelled; no explanation, and no one (including my father) ever said another word about it.

Funny how different folks can have virtually identical experiences.

 

[Chris]

I won't get into details, but when that "one time too many" hit and I put the kid into the hospital, I could have cared less about the 'punishment' from the school. My parents never said a word as they had already 'talked' to the school about the harassment.

Should have done it sooner. Never had another issue after that.

"Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

 

[Jose]

I am NOT looking forward to getting that call. If I ever, and I mean ever, have to listen to some pasty-faced puke tell me that my son is in trouble for defending himself against a bully or malcontent, things will get very ugly, very quickly...

+1

My daughter is being taught to never strike first, but if struck she should fight back to win.

Later when she is more mature, I will explain to her the few instances in which it is right to strike first.

 

[Coyote33]

Third grade, sitting on swingset in the winter time. A kid I know who normally wasn't bad was shooting ice chunks at me with his plastic street hockey stick. I said "Hey, Fname Lname, do that one more time and I will come over and hit you." He did, I did, and a tooth went through his cheek. I think we both got in trouble, but him more than me when all was said and done. I became comparatively skinny in high school, and was picked on a bit, but recovered OK in college.

...My daughter is being taught to never strike first, but if struck she should fight back to win....

Same here, starting with her brother. I told her use words first or seek help, but if it comes to her being hurt or the other party, take care of yourself. Even with her brother. I figure it is a lesson for both of them.

 

[CaveDog]

They inculcated me with that attitude when I was a kid in school until I got to jr. high. There were a buch of tough kids that discovered I wouldn't fight back (because that's what I was taught) and all it got me was a series of beatings. I told my parents about it and they told me to go ahead and fight back, then my mother called the school principle and told him she'd told me that. The principle nearly blew a fuse, but I never took another uncontested beating again.

Oddly enough, after a started fighting back I earned the respect of the same tough kids and actually became friends with some of them. Go figure.

 

[MaverickNH]

Some kid was badgering my son at school. After finding that walking away, and talking to the teacher was usefless, the kid next hit my son. In a rage of frustration, my son picked the kid up in a bear-hug and threw him down, stunning the wind out of him.

The same teacher saw the whole thing. When brought to the front office, the stories were told. My son (7 at the time) argued that he did walk away, he did tell a techer, and that he didn't hit back. He still got "written up".

My wife and I told him he really didn't do anything wrong and spoke with the people at the school. When I asked what additional punishment the other kid got, I was told my son and the other kid were both "written up", although the other kid was on his 5th write up and my son on his first.

So I asked why shouldn't my son not just hit back directly if the punishment is the same for attempting to follow the rules. They actually just looked at one another and stammerred, trying to find an answer. I just cut them off and said that's OK - no answer needed. They looked stained, but said nothing more.

What BS.

 

[Joe R.]

One of the only few times in my life I wish I had a dad ( they got divorced when I was 6 or 7.) I'm a big guy but the mentality that I had back then was to " just let it go " no matter the circumstances. While on the bus going home one day, some a**h***s badgered me and my friend at that time to see who was tougher. By the time that my stop came up, I realized that it was stupid to do this but Greg wouldn't just walk away. From that point on, I got shit from every loser and bully there was in my school. I wish I could go back in time and fix that mistake on my part...

Joe R.