A recent wave of teen suicides has hit Japan. Within the past two weeks 6 teenaged students have killed themselves. What a sad waste! Almost all of the students say they were being bullied.
In the old days, it was honorable to commit suicide. The problem is that those people who committed suicide back then were killing themselves because they had wronged someone, not been wronged. These kids have it all wrong.
First of all, for no reason whatsoever should they commit suicide. There's nothing honorable about it, not now or then. Whoever thought that doing such a thing was good, had no clue what life is all about.
No one says life is easy. Living life is hard, ending it is easy though.
These kids are leaving families and friends behind that love them, whether they know it or not, and could get help if they talked about what's going on in their lives with someone like a family member, someone that truly loves them. Unfortunately, many of these kids don't think they can talk to their family about their problems. This is a product of the society.
Many parents brush their children off along with problems because they are supposedly too busy to spend a little time talking and finding out their children's problems.
Sometimes friends can help, if family isn't available. But here in Japan, that may not do the trick. Too many friends have similar opinions about life that someone thinking of committing suicide might approach a friend that would agree with them or possibly even join in.
The whole society of Japan needs help, not just the education system.
Abe, the newest Japanese Prime Minister, has said he wants to do something about the recent increase in suicides and the bullying going on in the schools. The problem with that is it's not just about the education system like I said previously. More has to be done by the parents. Instead of leaving all the raising of the children to teachers, like many do here, parents need to contribute to their kids lives by actually being a part of it. Too many parents spend little time with their kids. Their kids are so engulfed in school during the week - they don't come home from school until the wee hours in the evening because of juku, club, studying or playing with friends - when they do come home it's around 10pm, way too late to spark up a meaningful conversation with mom and dad. They're usually too tired to talk and just want to relax or go to bed themselves.
So while modfying the education system may help in some areas, there's a lot more to these teens being bullied than what goes on at school.
For whatever reason students are bullying others, most likely because it makes them feel good, what they are doing needs correction and that too can be from a disfunctioning lifestyle at home.
Another way it can be corrected is the old fashioned way.
My dad told me if someone tries to bully you, walk away from them. And if that doesn't work and they put their hands on you or try to handle you roughly, punch the bully right in the nose as hard as you can. Most likely the bully will go away crying and never bother you again. And if the bully doesn't, and fights back. That's okay. Fight back. Don't give up and throw your life away because some bully is getting the best of you. Fighting will expose the bully and your problems. And if for some reason the bully kills you, at least you died fighting. Now that's honorable!
kbyte on November 17th 2006 in Health
