Peer violence

The phenomenon that, apart from terrorism, fills the news columns the most and raises the attention and condemnation of all citizens is certainly peer violence. Especially what is happening in primary and secondary schools in Serbia. Some political organizations use such cases for intercountry calculations, thereby further warming up the already tense atmosphere.

In order to arrive at a conclusion and to propose adequate measures to suppress this negative and extremely disturbing phenomenon, it is necessary to investigate it during its manifestation history. Pushing, tugging, gossiping and physical maltreatment in schools has always been. It would really be dishonest to say that none of us noticed this during childhood. But in the 1970s and 1980s, it was neither as mass nor as raw as today. The situation that a student assaults a teacher or brings a knife to school or hardly physically injures the school one is considered abnormal in a literal sense. And so the whole collective was dealing with them. From the teacher, the class officer to the next. Such a pupil would be outcast, and the parents of shame would not go out on the street for days. Long family discussions in extended composition, babies, grandfathers and aunts would all be involved in order to solve the problem. The most important thing in the case of peer violence in the true sense was the clear condemnation of other students. He was so alone. No support from any other. Everybody would shy away from him and move to another school was inevitable. And in that new school, when the children would find out about the reason for the move, they would stare at him. Today, the situation is completely different. Society in the world is not enough dedicated to combating peer violence. For if it were, it would not be present to such an extent. The frequency of the phenomenon clearly reminds us. We have to see where we made this a failure as a society, which we have loosened too much. Why were once the naughty kids become juvenile delinquents and bully? Could not we at least save some of them from the ranks of crime and violence. Parents as bearers of the family, and the basic units of the society in the race for material goods neglect what is more important, their children. The purchase of children’s gratitude with expensive gifts must all be understood can not replace advice, hug and smile. On the other hand, denying the same material resources to children as a form of punishment can not replace the conversation, and if you want to have a tiny tumor at an early age. Abandoning children with abusive negative media content of the front pages, aggressive video games, and ripping programs is the primary cause of peer violence. Because if they are in a growing up period in which they absorb all possible information left to themselves, they will inevitably accept what surrounds them.

I think that the situation is alarming, and that all social factors must be engaged. Everyone must be fully committed to the proper guidance of young people. Parents, Ministry of Education, MIA through their psychologists but also the entire public. Let’s give the children an adequate example of life’s success. We put scientists, writers, actors on the front pages instead of blasphemy and sort out the programs or killings and family violence they are currently overwhelmed with.

Author: Ilija Zivotic