ALL TEASING IS BECOMING “BULLYING”

ALL TEASING IS BECOMING “BULLYING”

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Different words are supposed to communicate a specific meaning. When we start to blur them misunderstanding, confusion and ignorance arise. What we mean by the word we choose may be erroneously interpreted by the hearer as different than what the speaker intended or consciously equated to confuse the issue. The specific meaning of words clarifies what the person is trying to communicate.

Currently many words are losing their original meaning by associating them with another word. This often changes the meaning to a more severe implication than before. Many parents and children are perceiving teasing and bullying as synonymous. This is not true and is dangerous. Bullying in no way has the connotation that is helpful to the person. It is a nasty act to hurt the victim’s self-worth by using intimidation to do something harmful against their interest. It is often done to brow beat or intimidate the innocent person to give the perpetrator something of value that demeans the victim’s self-worth or for the bully to elevate his status among his peers.

Teasing is generally an innocuous form of communicating with several possible objectives. It can be a playful joking act, socially toughening up a child or an educational process to motivate the child. The use of teasing in our modern culture is now emphasizing the teased person as being mocked and taunted which hurts their feelings. Traditionally teasing emphasized the person who was teased as reflecting a loved one mirroring an inappropriate response to a social event. This has been done by a loving usually older person to prod a younger person to act more appropriately. It was used to increase a child’s awareness by teasing him to be more of a social learning experience rather than a negative one.

In order to become functional in an electronically interactive world it is almost impossible to gauge a person’s intentions without face-to-face contact. Without the non-verbal cues too many youngsters jump to conclusions about cyber associates without sufficient evidence to support them. Many responses of these so-called “friends” can be devastating to the unprepared child. However, the prepared child would dismiss the comments as, “what can you expect from that type of person.” This cyber bullying will end as easily as blocking the person from their electronics.

Modern children have to learn the saying of the past to protect themselves. “I am rubber, you are glue. Everything you say bounces off me and sticks to you.” In other words, the youth has to possess inner strength by not taking everything to heart. An aspect of maturity is discerning the character of another to determine the value of what they say.

When every seemingly negative comment is seen as a bullying one, the world would appear to be frightening and cause a person to withdraw inwardly or join the bullying club. Either one of these choices is not appropriate or positive. A youth has to become desensitized to these tactics and become strong enough to continue to search for honorable and healthy people as real friends. Remaining in negative relationships is an indication of mental weakness that has to be conquered to develop positive interpersonal experiences.

Often the most effective place to learn social appropriateness is among family members. In the early years of a person’s life this process assists the child to overcome his overreactions when it is pointed out he is not perfect. The more they see loving members point out their obnoxious behavior by teasing the more they understand the necessity of social appropriateness. When family and friends mock the child’s inappropriate reactions to events he is placed on a stronger path to a healthy and successful future.

Kids teasing each other will not cease. The human nature of putting down a peer can be controlled by simply learning to counter punch. Appropriate comebacks to annoying remarks can stop the verbal and non-verbal rewards gained by the teaser. When the teased person remains in emotional control the teaser will see the game is not working. The teaser will either move on to another person or just respond more appropriately or learn to respect the individual as a friend.

Once a child accepts the truism that “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never harm me,” the teasing game loses its power. The individual shows strength when they no longer act baby-fied.

Loved ones should prevent the child from being a victim by giving him the tools of emotional strength of handling teasing Being a victim is not an answer. It leads to greater failure and feelings of inferiority. Children have to be trained to be mentally tough or face a life more difficult than need be.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

VOUCHERS NOT CHARTER SCHOOLS

VOUCHERS NOT CHARTER SCHOOLS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

When a parent visits a charter school often the facility looks like a start-up private school. The building is usually small and not the imposing modern public school building. It could be housed in a strip mall, converted house or office building. This is confusing enough for parents seeking an alternative to public school education but adding to this confusion charter schools often call themselves private/public schools. This purposeful mixed message is a branding technique to appeal to a broader audience. This private/public statement does not do anything to clarify the charter school’s actual status.

There is one feature that is a dead give-away that a charter school is not a private school. When examining the application of the school literature a family learns there is no tuition schedule included. This is not feasible for a private business. They have to charge tuition to pay for their expenses including teachers, facilities, taxes and to make it profitable enough to remain in business.

Charter schools have more flexibility than public schools but not as much as private schools. The curriculum of a charter school has more leeway in what they do in the classroom and more flexibility that can lead to innovation in the curriculum to teach more effectively.  The downside is their less transparency and accountability, which leads to possible shady practices, mismanagement and possible closure of the charter school. The employment compensation package is not as extensive as those unionized teachers in the regular public schools.  This allows them more flexibility to allocate more funds to better meet the educational needs of the students. As any other public school, charter schools have a form of accountability to local or state education bureaucracy. They have to have a normative based national test to show the academic achievement of the students although they are exempt from many other bureaucratic benchmarks.

Private school owners have their own financial investment in the building, material and supplies. They have all the financial responsibility and risk in any costs associated with any business venture. They have “skin in the game” while charter school administrators do not. Since the parents have to dip into their income and savings private school parents have more motivation to know their child’s daily progress. They want to insure they are getting their money’s worth.  These parents expect instant responses to their inquiries and personal in-depth information concerning their child’s behavior, academic skills in all areas and character development. Private schools can only be successful by convincing the parents their students are receiving a quality education for the tuition they are paying. The private school owners in essence have as many bosses as they have parents of students, not just a distant school board or a foundation member that is sponsoring the charter school.

Private schools and homeschoolers receive no school tax money given by the state. The entire risk and cost falls on the shoulders of the owners and parents not on the public taxpayers. Besides, these parents of private and homeschooled students are still responsible for public school taxes on top of their child’s private school tuition and home school expenses. These parents present a great plus for the average taxpayer. The more children are in private and home school settings the less the taxpayer has to shell out for school taxes. It relieves public schools of vast numbers of students that are overwhelming the public schools.

A much more effective and fair system to improve education is to give tuition vouchers to all parents with children to determine the school of their choice rather than allowing only charter schools to receive public funding. This voucher could be used in public, charter, private or homeschool situations. Home school parents are sacrificing their time, energy and income to educate their children and should receive compensation for their dedication to their child’s education. The voucher system would increase the parents’ options to select the best school for the needs of their children.

The powerful political teacher’s union and other organizations that promote only public schools should not be allowed to influence what type of school options should receive funding. The education of our future leaders should be decided on what is good for students not on political considerations of winning the favor of a large block of “voters,” who only consider a “public school” education.

Instead let the citizens directly decide by giving them a voucher to vote with their own tax money to choose what is best for their children. Competition will improve all the educational venues through fair competition without strings attached.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING- In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

THE LAST TWO EPISODES END THE GUN DEBATE

THE LAST TWO EPISODES END THE GUN DEBATE

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

The advocacy of gun confiscation was an eye opener. The democrat candidates were in different degrees for gun control; but all agreed to confiscation. Beto O’Rourke taunted gun owners by emphatically saying, “they will go to jail if they do not voluntarily give up their guns.” The debate about guns was over according to these democrats. Their victory lap seems to be premature. 

Currently facts seem to get in the way of denying American citizens their Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights. The elimination of this right would leave the US citizens defenseless against lawless people or a tyrannical government. This is the reason our founders established this amendment to deter any cabal of elites from eliminating the people’s other nine rights present in our constitution to protect law abiding citizens.

The ridiculous arguments against gun ownership were highlighted in the Saturday, December 28^th machete attack where an unstable person wounded five orthodox Jews in a rabbi’s home in New York. A day later a shotgun killing of two men took place in a church congregation of 240 members in Texas demonstrating that citizens with guns can stop mass killings. 

In the incident in Texas the shotgun was the weapon of choice to kill as many people as possible. Fortunately for the church, the parishioners decided to have members bear arms for their security. In six seconds the insane perpetrator was killed preventing a huge massacre. He managed to kill two people but the churchgoers with weapons were able to end it in seconds. This incident decisively showed that weapons in the hands of sane people are a detriment to mass killing. 

Any of these attacks could have been accomplished by a vehicle, a bomb, an incendiary device, gassing the home, plowing into the home with a truck or other devices of destruction. Guns are just one of many weapons that kill innocent people.

Both of these horrific acts and others that have been done in the past were done by mentally ill people or by criminals with lengthy criminal histories. It is not normal behavior to kill innocent people. A background check on mentally ill and violent criminals even when they are pinpointed does little to prevent them from obtaining a weapon illegally. 

The disregard of the safety of the innocent for the coddling of the criminal and mentally ill is a major reason for having explosive, demented people free in the midst of healthy, law abiding people.  The mental health professionals need to be retrained to emphasize the importance of protecting the public from a ticking time bomb.  This awareness of public safety should be a primary concern of mental health professionals. Our society has to focus more on the innocent victims and less on the deranged people’s feelings.

Over the past half century this practice of allowing crazy and criminal individuals to roam the streets has become common as many of the helping professions consider it an infringement on the humanistic rights of the individuals to institutionalize them. 

In effect they choose the rights of a few over the many.

Once we realize that guns and mass killings are two separate issues, we can begin to get them under control. Only when mental health professionals, schools and family members view the safety of the public as their primary responsibility can we begin to decrease mass killings. These perpetrators of violence need to regain stability before they can be trusted to mingle with the public and be followed up for a long period, usually for the rest of their lives. 

The increase in identifying the imminently dangerous people and locking up these people would necessitate more lockdown facilities for the safety of citizens. The real issue to solving this problem is to realize the public needs to allocate increased tax resources for preventing these outbursts. This societal desire for efficient mental health is necessary and a huge commitment. It must be done to have a safe and stable society.

The gun confiscation charade is not about stopping mass killings, it is about stopping citizens from retaining their freedom established by the Bill of Rights. Without possession of personal weapons, any resistance to random acts of violence would be futile. Only by citizens being able to fight back with weapons can we lower the number of innocent deaths.

Confiscating guns is not the answer to mass killings. Fully functioning mental health institutions, along with healthy families would prevent and detect potential tragedies before they happen. 

 It is the obligation of every citizen including the family of the sociopath to report dangerous people to the proper authorities. This would prevent unnecessary killings.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

TENURE FOR COLLEGE PROFESSORS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED

TENURE FOR COLLEGE PROFESSORS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Tenure means that after a certain length of time a professor cannot be dismissed from his position no matter his failings. It is a way of defending the principle of academic freedom of speech. It assumes that tenure is beneficial for society in the long run. This allows scholars the freedom to hold and examine a variety of views without fear of termination.

The privilege of tenure has not considered poor professional ethics or abusive behavior towards students and other conservative professors. Currently most professors on campus are not providing both sides of an issue. They are not provoking discussion or debate. The standard of critical thinking has been replaced with adherence to an ideological philosophy of egalitarianism and anti-capitalism. The students are being indoctrinated instead of being provided training to think for themselves. This is the opposite of education and should be reversed.

If a medical professional who is supposed to monitor a patient’s vital signs instead leaves and does something else, he will probably be sued or fired for dereliction of duty. Any employee in a capitalist system who does not perform his primary duties is exposing himself to a legitimate reason to be removed from the position. This principle exists and is necessary in all positions in our free market economy. Without the employer discretion to dismiss a delinquent employee there would be no order and little quality production.

Many tenured college professors are doing just that. They are doing their “own thing,” which means they are doing whatever they feel like doing. Some talk about their pending divorce, dogs, favorite recreational activity, and too often nothing about their assigned subject matter, which often indicates this professor is not prepared. This behavior is as egregious as medical malpractice. Failing to e4ducate a student has lifelong ramifications: a life with diminished career opportunities and the basic inability to critically think. There are numerous professors who have a miniscule number of office hours to assist students to answer their pertinent questions. Many do not show up for their own scheduled office hours.

There are many of them who have an assistant that hands out assignment lists or reads their written lectures. Some highly paid professors have the audacity to not even show up to scheduled classes. Many others strongly advocate progressive ideals that they demand the students repeat to receive a passing grade even though they are opinions, not facts. Most students are learning little of the knowledge they expected to gain while paying an enormous amount of tuition. This results in an accumulated debt for worthless or worse, obvious indoctrination.

Students are the customers who deserve a dedicated teacher for the outrageous amount they are paying for an education. If professors are tenured prima donnas who are not earning the right to represent this honored profession they should be dismissed. University administrators might hide behind tenure, but the students also have the right to a first-rate educator. A diploma without the knowledge or necessary insight in a field of study is not worth the paper it is printed on.

In the modern age where information is at your electronic fingertips, we need educated guides who can assist students’ learning, evaluating and organizing information in a logical, coherent manner. These analytical skills are required in this advanced electronic age where legitimate and false information is cascading down on all citizens. Rather we should be taught how to distill and analyze the information so we can make valid decisions. If we do not develop these essential abilities, we will be targets for exploitation and further brain washing.

Comprehensive, logical thinking is a vital ability to prosper and remain free in this information overload.  A useless diploma shows the student inherited vast tuition debt and lots of wasted time with professors who were never held accountable for their unprofessional and unethical behavior. This is not what students expected.

Freedom of speech does not mean teaching progressive viewpoints as this is straight propaganda. Only by having two or more sides of an issue discussed with all facts and questions explored can a person develop the ability to draw valid conclusions.

We can no longer accept tenure as inevitable and acceptable for agenda driven educators. When professors abuse their positions and do little to create an educational environment of excellence, they need to be fired.

Incompetence or lack of doing one’s duty as a professor is a legitimate reason for being terminated from this influential and honorable position. Tenure for college professors is outdated, no longer serving a useful purpose. It should be abolished to reestablish ethical standards for professors and a worthy education for all students.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.