Generation of resentment: When schoolyard taunts indicate what lies ahead.
My third grader daughter came home from school crying yesterday. The substitute teacher had asked the class where they were born. She raised her hand and said "I was born in the USA."
Immediately the chorus came from boys in her class: "Shoot her! Shoot her! Shoot her!"
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Update [2005-9-14 14:35:45 by Gearhead]: Through many posts and comments from others I must agree that there is no "absolution" for this behaviour, except to say that the children should remain blameless. Yes, parents are responsible for a child's violent behaviour, yes, the school is also responsible to keep such behaviour in check, and yes, mocking an individual for his or her background is abhorrent.
I am not an appologist for what has happened, I am pointing out with this diary that the actions of children are symptomatic of larger forces at play.
We live in Canada, we are all Canadian. My wife is from Canada, I became a citizen a couple of years ago and since our daughter was born in the US, like me she is a dual citizen. This is all really beside the point, though.
Apart from issues of making fun of a peer's place of birth (and here we can add all the other reasons that kids tease and taunt other children), the fact that 8-year-old Canadian children would want to shoot someone from the US is telling: around the world, a generation of children know and have only known George Bush's America: the self-centered aggressor.
I cannot blame the children for their taunts, nor do I blame the school or even the parents. Children cannot distinguish between individuals, their nationality and their government. I don't believe they have that degree of sophistication unless they are explicitly taught these distinctions. What the taunts have shown me is that for this generation of Canadian children, brand America is bad and anything bearing that mark, consequently, is bad.
I brought this up with the regular teacher this morning and she told me that she would address this issue immediately. As I left the school, the children were filing in. I told my daughter to have a good day, but she had been swarmed by this group of boys, one of which was saying "You are an evil USA person!" and pointing at her menacingly with a "gun" finger. I told the lot of them that it wasn't right to make fun of someone because of where they were born and that our daughter was in fact Canadian.
We shall see what happens. But know this: It will take at least a generation for this now ingrained notion that the US is not good to work its way out of public consciousness the world over. And this incident took place in Canada. Never mind what is simmering in the budding consciousness of children in other parts of the world.