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In reply to the discussion: Girl, 10, forced to walk five miles to school after dad hears she bullied another student [View all]Ms. Toad
(34,126 posts)It teaches kids that once they are bigger/have more power it is socially acceptable to hit or shame people to get your way. Kinda the heart of the message this girl has apparently already learned since at least the latter, and often the former are at theheart of bullying.
Your message kind of reminds me of the Christians I once had a conversation with - whose response to the prompt, "What would happen if all the churches disappeared," was - with a straight face - the crime rate would skrocket. Their view (apparently) was that it is only the god-fearing imposed by churches that keeps us inn line.
If it takes external public shaming to maintain a civilized society, there's not much hope of maintaining one. There are far better ways of teaching children about empathy than punishing them using the very behavior we hope they will learn is wrong - and if it takes external shaming, we've pretty much given up on teaching empathy as opposed to teaching fear of public shaming.