High School Hazing: post #5

On my last post for this book, i want to compare and contrast from this book and the video "Hazed" that we just watched in class. The book focused more on how hazing is bad and why its bad and where its affecting most poeple. The video focused more on college hazing and what happens when alcohol is mixed with hazing. The book touchs the subject, but not to the extent or seriousness that the video had. The video also focused around Colorado University and the story of a young man who died after being at college his freshman year for 1 month. The video was deffinatly more affective on how it struck me and got to me because of the outragousness of the story. But it did not end with any solutions, just the tragedy. The story basically continued onto what happened with the family and the frat house. The book on the other end offered how to pin point bullying/hazing and how to attack it with ways such as: establishing welcome programs for first-year and transfer students, reconsider all traditions in all school groups, don't get caught up in groupthink, urge ur school to adopt a statement of awareness, create a spirit of camaraderie, Tell a parent or another responsible adult when you need help, stuff like that and the list goes on. I think the problem is more serious than the solutions that Hank Nuwer gave. Yes hazing is a lot about tradition and competition and intimidation, but its also about rebellion and being dangerous and pushing the limits. The best example is obviously binge drinking and that is a problem that will be so hard to stop because a lot of people have to a agree to a lot of terms. In a Rolling Stones article, it says that the Phi Delta Theta would average 12.3 liability claims a year and $812,951, but since becoming alcohol free they average 3 claims and $15,388. This is a very good solution that showed big changes but it would be hard to spread this idea throughout other frats.

High School Hazing: post #4

The last chapter of this book struck a very important question to all who notice and see hazing as a problem. Can hazing be stopped? Nuwer says, "If hazing in the United States is to be stopped or even curtailed, it must be attacked as the pervasive social problem that it is. If addressed as a problem in health and social studies classes, hazing can perhaps be best understood in the context of other human rights abuses such as racism and harassment." What I was able to gather from this chapter was... possibly? I mean, given that everybody realizes that what goes on is hazing, realizes how bad it is, and gives effort to stop hazing, do you really think this will happen? Kids constantly go against their parents, simple rules at school, and major laws in the real world all the time! Kids in high school and college haze as tradition, and it is hard to change tradition when the hazing has been done on the kids in past years. I think the real problem with hazing is when alcohol gets involved and i think ultimately that's what needs to be stopped. When alcohol gets involved, peoples bodies are hurt and damaged, and as I've learned people can also die. There's no doubt that this is a serious problem in my mind, but I know its not the same for other teenagers and college students. If death won't scare the kids enough to stop, I don't know what else will.

High School Hazing post #3

One of the chapter's in the book, High School Hazing, is dedicated to bullying and hazing in sports. Before i started the chapter, i thought back to all the teams that i had been a part of, and i thought if there was really any hazing. Of course i remembered a few instances when i found a kid "annoying" and i couldn't help but pick on him, but it was all in the purpose of team building and chemistry. Is that okay? Was it terrible of me to tease and push my teammates around? What i learned from this chapter is that even though i think its okay, i can't automatically assume it is. A lot of what the book refers to is college type hazing, with alcohol. And in my little experience, i have never been around hazing that involves alcohol. This quickly made me think about next year... when i go to college. Am i going to get hazing and be forced to drink way too much? Will i be pushed around by older teammates or other upper upperclassmen? As of right now i can only hope that none of that will happen to me.

High School Hazing: post #2

Something that Nuwer said in his first chapter really struck me. He said, "However, as less vigilant high schools, people who tend to get involved in clubs and activities may be subjected to hazing not just once but many times." This shocked me because as freshman you are encouraged to try out for many sports and join lots of clubs and groups so you can meet new people. But for a weak individualy (not just physically but emotionally and mentally) this could be potentially dangerous because you are more likely to be exposed to older individuals which leads to the possibility of hazing or bullying. This comes more into affect though in college where students must do pledges in order to get into the fraternities or sororities. I quickly developed a question after reading this: why is bullying such a big deal NOW, even though its been around for so long and it has never come across as a huge deal to most of society before? Lucky, my question was answered, "as reports of hazing are heard more frequently on the nightly news, in school board meetings, and in professional journals, one conclusion is unmistakable: hazing in high schools across the country is becoming an increasingly pervasive probelm that students, parents, school administrators and educators, and communities must address-and in a preventive way." Nuwer strongly believes this because while bullying problems can be small in high schools, it can also be a huge problem when gangs start to get involved and rituals start to form, and then drugs and alcohol get involved and can create huge problems for schools.

High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs, by : Hank Nuwer. intro post

I chose to read the book, High School Hazing, for my second semester outside reading book because its a slightly knewer topic of issues. Its starting to come up more on the media, which obviously would follow the schools attention. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy the book because hazing doesn't seem like an extremely important topic to me, but to others its a major issue. At the end of the introduction paragraph, Nuwer says, "Once you understand why students haze and submit to hazing, you'll not only be able to resist getting involved yourself, but you'll be able to talk sense with your classmates before they make mistakes that could haunt their lives forever." This sentence at the end of the chapter really stuck out to me because its so powerful and it shows the authors passion and how serious he is about hazing and bullying. And, because he's treating this topic with full seriousness, so will I.