Why do kids fight?

CNN.com posted another story today about another fight at another middle school where another group of kids recorded another video for posting on YouTube, complete with background music. (I won't provide the YouTube link because I don't want to support this kind of thing with a visit.) The school is in Wisconsin, but the location really doesn't matter. This sort of thing can happen anywhere.

Many people loudly lament these events. "Why do kids do this?" "Where are the teachers?" "Where are the parents?" All legitimate questions, but thinking that bewailing the savagery and brutality will cause anything to change is a sure sign of insanity. Teachers are already doing the best they know how with the direction and limited resources they've been given. Likewise, the parents who get it are already passing on the values of civility and nonviolence to their kids. (BTW - Those kids are not anywhere to be seen in the above picture.) And the parents that don't get it - the ones that teach through their actions and words that "might makes right" - are just making things worse. Adding more school police doesn't help. The kids just move the fight somewhere else.

A visitor from abroad once inquired:

"Why is it that Americans are so advanced and literate, and yet so violent?"

The answer:

"Because we teach our kids to read."

It seems rather obvious that, for the most part, our kids don't have the skills they need to resolve their differences nonviolently. Without some kind of intervention, these kids grow up to be adults who cannot resolve their differences nonviolently.

The proposed Department of Peace will help educate children in the life skills they need, such as mediation and conflict resolution, that would create safer and more productive learning environments. The best school programs that have already been proven to reduce violence in some districts will be expanded and made available everywhere. Kind of a "No Child Left Violent" campaign.

Check out the Department of Peace bill - HR 808 - and contact your Representatives and Senators and ask them to support this important legislation! Help kids get the skills they need to resolve their conflicts without resorting to violence!