School bully business

As long as there has been status posturing, competitiveness, inclusion and exclusion social boundaries the practice of one to one or many against one, active or passive bullying has existed. Now there are efforts being made to ease the pressures and break open the closed circle of bad behavior by using texting and other electronic communication and documentation methods. These two glimpses of the campaigns were on display in one rural high school during the middle of March 2016

 (click image for full-size view)

national anthem before music event at high school

faces turned to the flag, standing, and some with hand on heart

Seeing the many families loyally in support of the outdoor marching band season finale here in the school gymnasium, I began to imagine all the statistical facts reported in the news headlines and in feature stories by investigative reports, documentary film makers, and so on.

Among the 300-400 people gathered this evening, we can imagine such things as:
-jobless rates (and those under-employed; those working without benefits)
-single parent households
-people dependent on social services for food, heat, health, transportation
-debt loads vs net assets/worth
-per centage of un-insured (and under-insured) for health care
-fraction of the adult population who smoke (a generation ago almost 40%, now 20%)
-number of people with serious health threats
-public health problems: flu, obesity, lack of fresh food (not refined or highly processed)
-educational attainment levels (those completing 2 years of college; four; advanced degrees)
-income stratifications
-abuse: substance abuse and addictions (including gambling), DV, TV-video gaming
-personal development difficulties: adjustment, self-esteem, lack of (wide) perspective
-learning difficulties (emotional, physical, mental)
-generational preoccupations: each season of life has distractions and worries

high school contest to decorate classroom doors - Hallowe'en

around October 28 the judges went round the halls of the school to award top rank to best decorated doors: this one is far better than most (in fact it appeared that fewer than 1/2 the rooms participated), but not the top place. On the Friday (10/30, last day of school before the actual day, Oct. 31) a number of students and a few teachers also dressed in costume or parts of costume in keeping with the halloween theme. I was not at this school on the Friday, but at a different high school instead.