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>2. We will not laugh at or make fun of a person's mistakes nor use sarcasm or putdowns. I would have appreciated this as my public school experience was rife
by SeeDave 9y ago
>2. We will not laugh at or make fun of a person's mistakes nor use sarcasm or putdowns.
I would have appreciated this as my public school experience was rife with negativity, sarcasm, snark, jeering, insulting, etc.
I'm not sure what causes such anti-social behavior but I dream of a day where all students can be kind, considerate, polite, and supportive of one another.
- merpnderp 9y agoMy school wasn't rife with it. Maybe only half my teachers used sarcasm, mockery and negativity towards students.
- SeeDave 9y agoHalf of teachers being outright hostile to students is far too many, in my opinion. How does this behavior positively impact the lives of their students? Do they not understand the psychological damage they can be inflicting? Do they simply not care?
- barrkel 9y agoAdolescence is an exercise in accumulating scar tissue. What you call damage, I can argue is growing up. You need a thicker hide and a more independent source of self worth; reliable continual external validation inhibits, imo. Teachers are just other people too. The sooner teenagers recognise it fully, the better placed they'll be to choose their own way rather than have it chosen for them.
- SeeDave 9y agoIf it's done in a respectful, consensual manner then sure... there's nothing wrong with friendly harmless teasing. The problem is that it often crosses a line into bulling with zero net benefit for the victims. Saying something like "What you call damage, I can argue is growing up" is a dangerous phrase; the type of dismissiveness that gives me the impression that you may have difficulty with respecting the boundaries of others. Could you please provide a couple of examples of the type of conversations/comments you've made that helped people build a thicker hide? Have you ever been thanked for it? That said, adolescence is absolutely not an exercise in accumulating scar tissue so much as learning through trial and error how to interact with others, gain an education, and learn life skills to become a functioning member of society.
- sjg007 9y agoThey don't recognize it.
- dTal 9y agoI'm going to guess merpnderp was indulging in a little sarcasm of their own.
- oblio 9y agoHaving been brought up in a positive environment, yet full of sarcasm, I'm not sure I buy this argument. Yes, there must be a balance. But sarcasm and negativity are part of our everyday life as adults and we should learn how to handle them.
- SeeDave 9y agoThe best way to handle sarcasm and negativity is, in my opinion, to reduce contact and/or interaction. To not reward such behavior and instead choose to associate with positive people. The problem is that school-kids are forced into repeated, unsupervised interactions where they are often deliberately and persistently targeted by aggressors. Out of curiosity, what purpose does sarcasm serve you? What do you get out of sarcastic interactions?
- barrkel 9y agoIt's stops people's egos getting too big, and keeps them grounded. Verbal play, attack and defence is also an education for more subtle interactions later in life. Like it or not, adult life is a sea of competition and words are weapons.
- bittercynic 9y agoIn some domains this is absolutely true. If you're lucky, you have options to explore outside of those domains.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jacobolus 9y agoIf you handle other people’s sarcasm, cynicism, sardonicism, nihilism, ... by eliminating interaction with them, you’ll miss out on hanging out with some truly hilarious and insightful people throughout your life. YMMV.
- jdietrich 9y ago>Out of curiosity, what purpose does sarcasm serve you? "Ha ha, only serious". Gentle mockery can be a non-threatening way of expressing grievances and telling people difficult truths. A joke can be a very useful way of letting someone know that they're annoying us, that their work isn't up to par or that their haircut is unflattering. It's why the British excel at it - we're not very good at blunt truths, so we tend to make a joke of things. A classic example might be the British way of greeting someone who is late - a gently sarcastic "nice of you to join us". It gets the message across without being a direct admonishment. Most of us would be unwilling to directly criticise a colleague for slacking, but we'd find it far easier to sarcastically remark "you must be rushed off your feet". Nobody wants to be surrounded by relentlessly negative people, but uncritical cheerleaders can be just as harmful. Sometimes we need to be told things that we don't want to hear, lest we turn into vainglorious prima donnas, drifting through life with a total obliviousness to our obvious shortcomings. Sarcasm, irony and gentle mockery can make that bitter pill a little easier to swallow.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Kenji 9y agoIn my early teens, I was the only one who used sarcasm in the classroom, and none of my peers understood it. There needs to be more sarcasm in schools.
- SeeDave 9y agoWhy does there need to be more sarcasm in schools? I'm willing to hear you out, but would appreciate it if you could clearly explain the benefits of increased sarcasm in schools.
- Kenji 9y agoSarcasm is a great rhetoric tool.
- mythrwy 9y agoI've always felt overuse of sarcasm to be indication of a juvenile mind that thinks it's more clever than it actually is. Occasional use is fine.
- sjg007 9y agoThe cause is competition.