looks like there wont be not much of improvement for another
generation to come:
Teenagers
Something's not quite right
A behavioral decline that could augur ill when they grow up.
By Seah Chiang Nee, littlespeck.com
Jun 25, 2006
SINGAPOREANS have been shocked by a widely circulated video of a
teenage schoolgirl being brutally beaten by three older
girls.
This came just as a survey showed that bullying in schools has
reached an epidemic level, with 70% of primary and secondary
students reporting being physically abused at some time or
other.
If non-physical harassment is included, bullying is felt by
nine-tenth of all students, which means that the bullies are
themselves also being bullied.
In the four-and-a-half-minute clip, the attackers, who were
slightly older, were seen viciously kicking and punching the
13-year-old girl after removing her shirt. Like many such cases,
the dispute was over boys.
The beating, which happened in April, was blatantly bold, with the
assailants daring to film it and probably distribute the
video.
Surprisingly, the police, who have a low tolerance of public
violence, have said they will not take action without the victim
making a report, although the identity of the assailants is
known.
This is the latest - and more serious - case of juvenile
delinquency that has caught the country by surprise.
In recent years, cases of bullying, including assaults, in schools
have been inexplicably rising, with a few even involving teachers
who complain that today's students are generally harder to
discipline.
The Education Ministry considers it serious enough to launch a
Bully Free Week to encourage victims to report bullying. Most are
too afraid to do so.
Educators this week held a two-day meeting on the subject to help
them understand it better.
The serious cases often take place in "neighbourhood" schools,
which have more than their share of children from poor or broken
homes where parental care is low. Many troublemakers are
girls.
Among the 4,000 students surveyed, some 2,800 or 70% said they had
been victims of physical acts such as kicking, hitting,
hair-pulling or pushing that often happened in the classroom,
canteen or in the toilet.
Discipline among Singaporean youths has undoubtedly dropped, but
the situation is probably nowhere as serious as the survey
statistics imply.
For one thing, violent assaults such as the video case are few and
the use of weapons is even more rare. Most cases of bullying
involve teasing, name-calling or harassment, which may be described
as horseplay elsewhere. They are a far cry from the violence in the
United States or Japan.
Nevertheless, it is a concern because research has shown that
habitual bullies have a greater chance of growing up into violent
adults or criminals. Why are teens becoming so intolerant or flare
up so easily?
Some attribute it to the high pressure of a competitive exam system
(reforms are being implemented) and high parental
expectations.
But most acts of bullying stem from peer or boy-girl conflicts that
have little to do with national issues or even considerations of
right or wrong.
It is caused by a clique system that forces conformity, in which a
group bands together to ensure individual compliance. The victims
are often loners who refuse to cooperate or who opt to remain
apart.
The methods used can range from slaps to vandalising schoolbooks or
bags and, of course, cyber-threats.
A world report has said this high-tech city has the highest
incidence of Internet bullying among kids in any country outside
the US.
It entails sending insults, pornographic images and threats of
bodily harm.
"Singapore has far more cases than anyone would have expected,"
says Wired Safety, which monitors 76 countries.
On a per capita basis, it had received far more reports of
"cyber-bullying" from Singapore (except the US), with 80 reports
last year.
"Having been to Singapore and seen how well-behaved the children
are, the results came as quite a shock," said Parry Aftab, its
Washington-based executive director.
Others use cell-phone SMS to harass classmates.
Bullying is not the only concern; another is teenage sexual
promiscuity.
Earlier this year, a 19-year-old Polytechnic girl videotaped
herself making love with her boyfriend. The video was stolen by
someone who uploaded it on the Web, and it became the most sought
after item in the world's search engines.
Despite these shortcomings, the new generation of Singaporeans is
largely rational and well behaved, with most teens seriously
pursuing their studies and getting good results.
Bad teenage elements, however, merely mirror the worst part of an
ill-tempered adult world where road rage and marital violence are a
frequent phenomenon, and an unintentional stare can result in a
severe beating for the innocent.
For Singaporeans young and old, the lifestyle is one of high cost
and fast pace, where competition starts from kindergarten (age six)
to university and on to the workplace.
The leaders often remind them that the world doesn't owe them a
living.
The outcome is an increasing number of people with shorter tempers
and flying fists.
At last count, road rage cases had reached 96 a year, which
resulted in stricter punishment for serious offenders - caning, a
maximum of a year's jail plus a S$1,000 fine.
Singapore's tight living space and over-crowdedness are also
helping to create an exaggerated sense of being squeezed or
aggrieved by others.
A youth social worker, Carol Balhetchet, is concerned by youths who
turn to bullying as a means of managing their problems or merely
passing time.
A more serious letter warns: "If physical bullying continues, we
will wake up one day to find ourselves having to search students
for hidden weapons at the school door."
