The 10 Rules for Bullies
I’ve been thinking about this 10 Stupid Goddy Rules in the Classroom thing, and what would be better in classrooms. I don’t necessarily think any homilies or bits of moral advice should be on the walls of classrooms, but I’m not adamant about it. Maybe it’s useful to have them. So what kind of thing should they be?
My hunch is some form of “don’t be shitty.” Maybe a bulletin board that could have posters that change every few days, with small manageable iterations of “don’t be shitty.” Help each other; don’t make fun of anyone; share; remember what it feels like to be teased or bullied. Blah blah; that kind of thing. Tiny chapters from the large book of Remember Everyone Has Feelings Just As You Do. Basically trying to coax children to be decent to each other – trying to nudge children into being not like a trump.
It annoys the bejeezus out of me that legislators think it’s a good idea to plaster walls with God shouting “ME ME ME ME OBEY ME” rather than mild advice on how not to be one of the mean kids.
I was actually somewhat convinced by Plato’s Republic that some degree of moral education is in the interest of both the State and the body politic. When deciding what goes on the wall, I’d remember that moral instruction is most effective in the form of story. Ideally, the story would tie into a healthy national identity in which the nation is something to be valued, a la the myth of metals. We want that whole e pluribus unum thing, not a house divided against itself.
From this perspective, the Declaration of Independence, Preamble to the Constitution, and Bill of Rights are all more useful than the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because they tie directly to the national identity. They help form a national myth. I’m using myth not in the sense of a false history or lie, but rather to gesture toward a story or stories that provide a symbolic model connecting people to—and situating them within—a morally and emotionally significant universe. National heroes and heroines, accomplishments, and moments in history would also be useful for both myth-making and moral instruction. The state- and municipal-level shouldn’t be left out, either.
Nullius, I agree, but I would add the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Emancipation Proclamation (or something similar). We also need to know our nation’s bads, and what we’ve done to try to repair the tears in our national quilt.
Perhaps the first thing to get people to understand is that even if it was possibly “written down” sometime long ago, all this stuff has been translated and re-interpreted and so many times that subtlety is no longer an option.
But . . . every version of the “New Testament” I’ve seen has Jesus/Christ/Whatever saying:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”
So that first bit is pretty ambiguous (it kind of relies on a social construct to define “the Lord thy God” – which no one ever even tries to do) but isn’t the second bit pretty darn clear?
If there was a jeebus who had any idea of the potential meltdown from his messages, he would have just ditched the first bit and focused on the second bit: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” . . .
Yet I’ve never met an x’tian who took that to heart . . .
I like that broad bulletin-board template, especially how versatile and easily adaptable it is. Many classrooms feature some sort of poster with rules on it – surely, if we trust teachers’ capacity to educate children, we should be able to trust their judgement in this matter, rather than Moses’s.
Nullius, I’m not against the idea of presenting models and heroes, but why do this in a national optic? Surely morals don’t need to be tied to a particular nation in this way.
iknklast, oh, yes, those are good suggestions. My list was nowhere near exhaustive. Anything that touches on core, foundational values, anything we would want to say is quintessentially American, absolutely gets considered and probably has a place.
Mosnae, the national framing was mostly because of the context of being a response to the State-mandated Decalogue. There’s certainly no reason that things would have to be tied to the State. I was simply exploring what a legitimate, beneficial policy might look like.
Well, I say we go with the Clough version of the Big Ten, but I’m feeling nasty today.
The Latest Decalogue
Thou shalt have one God only; who
Would be at the expense of two?
No graven images may be
Worshipped, except the currency:
Swear not at all; for, for thy curse
Thine enemy is none the worse:
At church on Sunday to attend
Will serve to keep the world thy friend:
Honour thy parents; that is, all
From whom advancement may befall:
Thou shalt not kill; but need’st not strive
Officiously to keep alive:
Do not adultery commit;
Advantage rarely comes of it:
Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat,
When it’s so lucrative to cheat:
Bear not false witness; let the lie
Have time on its own wings to fly:
Thou shalt not covert; but tradition
Approves all forms of competition.