The other day I read about another shootout at an American school. Several precious lives lost once again for no reason. It is high time governments across the world, not only in the USA, thought and discussed why such incidents keep repeating. The children of today have become the perpetrators of tomorrow. Why? Children grow up watching their elders which include primarily parents and teachers. At a later stage in life, they tend to have heroes — either from real life or from imageries and movies. They ape and follow what they see and hear. The stories they hear at a young age actually stay put up in their minds for a very long time.
When I was a child I used to hear about the unfair means by how my uncle used to treat my father. By watching their mental and physical tensions whenever they met, my mind made a clear picture of what was happening. At some point in my grown up life, I had to really give it back to my uncle in leaps and bounds for how much ever my father used to be insulted. When the family stood shocked, I knew that it was only the out pour of a built up tension that only developed over the years when I kept quiet and watched the show meekly.
I used to teach in a private school in the UAE for a very long time. Morning assemblies used to be and perhaps still going on, a very important part of the school day. It was the time and venue to show one’s talent in speaking and acting skills. The students did so with vigour and pleasure. It was also a platform to keep students aware of the current affairs. Many a times, acts were put up of whatever was happening around the world. If it was a Pilgrimage time, a model of the Ka’ba would be made and students would go around it as the real pilgrims did at Makkah during Hajj. The one thing I could never understand was when little children were given toy guns and they had to act as soldiers gunning down on innocent victims. This was perhaps being done to show what was happening in Israel-Palestine conflict. The sight itself was pathetic. I used to think loud that these little children when they hear about stories, they build up revenge inside them for a long time. And some day, the built up revenge might get overflown into a rage and into a situation that might be out of control- more or less like the shootouts that is prevalent in schools across the USA and has somehow become habitual. Childhood is a beautiful and an innocent time of a person’s life.
To conclude, when diagnostically approaching the matter, it’s very clear that about ninety per cent of violent adults had a poor upbringing. When I say ‘poor’ I don’t mean it financially but in an unhealthy way. Their parents either forced a lot of religion into their heads in a twisted manner or portrayed events in a wrong order. The world becomes the receiving end of such ‘mentally disturbed’ parents and their parenting ideas. The other 10 per cent of the criminal act might have been picked up by the growing up individuals from their surroundings.
Charity begins at home. So does the individuality of a person.
