VIOLENCE  AS  GAME

A ten-year-old student in Columbus, Ohio, shaped his hand into a pistol, put his finger to the head of another boy and pretended to shoot, “kind of execution style.” The school principal, Patricia Rice, suspended him from school for three days as his punishment.

The boy’s father says, this time it is not the child who is being childish but the principal. The district education spokesperson says, the principal had, several times this year, warned the students against pretend gun play.

The Father is right. There is probably no male adult who in his childhood days did not “shoot” his playmates more than once in the course of their games. The principal is right. It is not a great idea to encourage children to play games that involve pretended violence. People have campaigned long and hard against toys for children the like of pistols and guns.

What is worse still is when children see just a game in torturing living creatures. It is not difficult to find children who catch a chameleon, tie a string around its tails and drag it around, children who get hold of an insect and pull out its wings, feet, etc., one by one till it is dead.

The fear is real that “pretend violence” hardens the emotions of children, hardens their heart, immunes them to pain not only to animals, but also to humans.

Is it not unfortunate that children watch so much blood, cruelty and violence on TV today, even in programmes meant only for them – even on cartoon networks?