One line in Kent Nerburn’s reply to the writing students particularly caught my eye: Learn now to do no harm to each other — to never treat each other with cruelty, whether verbal, emotional, or physical. It’s a lesson well worth learning.
These Sebastopol, CA middle schoolers are trying to do just that: stamping out name-calling by hosting No-Name Week. It’s a worthy effort, especially in schools with 300 kids or less. But in our national insanity for economies of scale in K-12 education, we put kids in warehouses of a thousand kids or more. No Name Week implemented in big schools will likely be another feel-good program that ultimately will not only do anything to prevent another Columbine. But it won’t do much to prevent the endless emotional scarring that goes on day in and day in out in these buildings.