Recently in the United States there has been some
banning of “best friends’ in schools. I stumbled upon this new ban that is
happening while watching my usual YouTube videos. You can watch the clip here
and the article about the ban here.
I agree with all the points that are made
during the video. In my opinion banning having “best friends” isn’t going to do
anything productive. To me it seems like a way to over shelter children. The
purpose of the ban is to protect children from the pain of losing friends. I
don’t see how losing a best friend is really all that bad of a thing, everyone
loses a friend at some point in their life, and I hardly believe that anyone is
traumatically scarred from it, at least very few people. One the other hand I
see how the ban would encourage children to work in groups better and not to
rely on one friend in particular, but I don’t believe a ban in necessary for
that.
An important part of going to school is
learning how to make friends and to learn that not everyone will be your friend
forever. In my opinion I think this ban on best friends would end up doing more
harm than good. I think it takes out the opportunity for children to learn important
life lessons, like who to choose to spend time with, how to balance your friend
groups and how to get along. If best friends are banned and children are being
told how to play and interact with other students then they won’t get the opportunity
to learn these lessons.
What do you think about best friends no longer being allowed at certain schools?
While I understand why they want to implement such a ban, it seems sort of counter productive. Won't children with close friends feel more comfortable in their environment than those who are vaguely acquainted with everybody? I definitely do not agree with telling children they aren't allowed to have a best friend at school! Encouraging group participation is one thing, but this seems like it would be an impediment to the socialization that is expected to happen at school.
ReplyDeleteYa this is clearly insane. One of the most important parts of schooling is the socialization process and developing relationships is an important aspect to that. Having best friends is what allows people to experience the world and reflect on their experiences with each other, I would have missed out on a lot in life without best friends. Losing a good friend is a tough situation to go through, but there is many worse situations that individuals will eventually have to face, everyone has to learn to live with this kind of thing as its a part of life. This ban was most likely pushed on schools by some suburban parents who want to bubble wrap their children. Great find.
ReplyDeleteThis really is an interesting story. The "helicopter parents" generation is really at work here, manipulating these once private details of their child's life. I can understand the need for encouraging children to have a wider social circle than clinging to just one or two people but this seems really extreme. There has to be other ways. More group activities, different kinds of games or positively reinforcing social behaviour but children will always interact with who they like most and it's only natural that very few like everybody equally.
ReplyDelete