Bus monitor bullied

There is a video on the internet that went viral last week. A sad and anger provoking video called "Making the bus monitor cry." Most likely you've heard of it and maybe watched it. The video shows just how rude, disrespectful, and disgraceful kids can be. Making matters worse, it displays this behavior from middle-school boys towards an elderly bus monitor. Most of us know, that you just don't go around disrespecting the elderly like that, but apparently these kids never got that in their unfabulous training. 

I have watched a lot of the video responses to this video, and read several written responses. People were genuinely hurt by the behavior of these children, and saddened to see a women that could have easily been anyone's grandma, harassed and bullied for 10 minutes straight. The biggest response ringing throughout many of the responses, is a general feeling that children in society today have grown to be completely lacking respect. Many posters, accusing parents of being at fault, and some insisting that had the children been spanked, this would never occur. I understand this response, people's feelings that society is losing its way, and their feelings that children have no respect or proper upbringing. However, I also like to look at the positive side of things when bad things occur. 


Consider this, many responses were from other young children and teens who were just as disgusted and revolted by the behavior of these boys as I was. Most of them spoke very well about the sadness, anger, and frustration they had at seeing other children treating another person this way. Almost all of them repeatedly stressed that you should never disrespect you elders like this. While some had a very hard time containing their temper, as did many of the adults, there where some who maintained their composure very well and spoke very eloquently about their genuine feelings on this matter. Several of them also spoke of the reality that the actions of children like this reflect very badly on their generation and society.


I know many of us want to lament about how proper and respectful children once were. They feel that poor parenting has destroyed the fabric of society, bringing rude disrespectful children that have no comprehension of responsibility. I see these children as one small sliver, creating havoc, wherever they go, and making others look bad. Yet, in many other children, there is a glimmer of hope, of graciousness, intelligence,  empathy, and true respect. If you look for it, if you pay attention, it shines through the brokenness and disrepair in our society. There is a light that comes from some of these children, and I think we need to help them and cultivate them to keep that light going strong. Not to squash them and squelch that light, while putting all our focus on the negative. 

We drain so much energy and emotion into what we feel is wrong with the world. I wonder what could happen if we put most of that energy and emotion into what is going well in this world. Don't we often say that children do bad things because they are looking for attention? Then we turn around and give them exactly what they are looking for, when they are doing the wrong things. Could we possibly give our attention to the good things happening every day, all around us? Could we put our energy, attention, hope, and care into the positive things that are going well? Children tend to learn by example; they live what they learn and learn what they live. So if they live and learn that we put our energy and attention into the good, awesome, positive things and people in this world, maybe being rude, disgraceful, and disrespectful wouldn't seem to be such a huge attention-getter. Still, I see far more light in this generation than many people will give them credit for.