The Games Children Play

It's all over the local media: at one of the premier local high schools, students are playing a game they call "Nazis and Jews." The basic premise is that one person is tagged as "the Jew" and starts running, while the "Nazis" try to catch him. Who knows where the idea originated, or why teens think this is not only an appropriate game, but totally fun. Someone finally told, officials intervened, and now the students are going to have sensitivity training provided by the school.

My question: does anyone actually think that the school is responsible for the game and, thus, has to provide a solution?

Isn't that kind of training what the parents instill at home? Or kids learn in church? Or is this the latest, greatest video game? A YouTibe viral video? A counter-culture status symbol? Does the public actually think that the schools teach this curriculum in the classroom; hence, commence the ethnic cleansing game in a geographical location that enjoys a large population of Jewish residents and boasts a "tolerance park" dedicated to the memory of those Jews who were put to death by the Nazis during WWII. Kids do live what they learn, but I'm not so sure that the schools are the guilty "in loco parentis" party for this aberration of basic humanity.

The modern shorthand, however, is "it's the schools," as it absolves the other societal agencies of any complicity in the blame game, especially for such abhorrent behavior by "good kids" who all come from "good families." The only commonality these kids have is ... the school, so this must originate at the schools and will be solved by the schools. People really believe this to be a direct cause/effect issue between the school and the child, so it makes perfect sense to anyone who is NOT employed by the local school district!

It once again becomes the directive for the public schools to teach the concepts of ethics, morality, tolerance, and acceptance of differences, but these are not goals to achieve on a standardized test. These are deeply-held values that take a lifetime to learn. It's easier to abdicate society's responsibility for the lifestyle it has created and blame the failure of the schools for this game, but this is an instance wherein we all have to take responsibility for what these high school students are doing. We need to do a better job in our homes and stop blaming the schools for society's problems, as well as holding them solely accountable for retraining the students who commit these kinds of egregious offenses against their classmates.

It takes a village to raise a child, and the teacher is only one resident of the village and the school but one hut.