I Am Not Just A Label
Yoshiyuki
Mitsukuni
*All
names in the story have been changed except mine(and quotes).
Have you ever wondered why everyone sticks with their own “kind?” Peer labeling
is happening all over the world. Not just your peers, but everyone around you
“labels” you on how you look and act. That’s not really fair, is it? If you
don’t do something about it, it might raffect others as well.
Looking
back, I realize how many times that happened to me and I didn’t do anything
about it. Back in third grade, I was considered a “nerd” because I usually got
everything right. But,that’s not true! Normally, during recess I would
stay inside reading or helping the teacher out in class. But, I had to give
someone else a turn. So, I went outside much to my dislike. I decided to go
play on the playground. As I walked up the stairs to get on the slide, a kid
known in the school as “The Chewer”* pushed me off and said, “What’ya doin’
here nerd? Go’an play chess with them other losers!”(I personally love chess, I
would never call someone who plays chess a loser.) Not knowing what to do or
say that’s what I did. I remember going home in tears that day. This had been
one to many times that this has happened. That’s when I realized that was
the last time I was ever going to take something like that. EVER.
The
problem is that labeling happens so often, that people don’t recognize that
they are hurting somebody.
But, Jason P.
Stadtlander from the Huffington Post says, “No, I am not a sum of my
labels. I am someone unique, with my own views, perspectives and opinions.
But to say that I am a word or that a word really describes me wouldn’t be
accurate.” This shows that he will not become what those labels say he is.He
will be his own person. Unjudged.
Even
after my promise not to take those labels, I have gotten labeled countless
times. But this one time it happened to my friend Anjali*. She had missed maybe
six months of school because she went to India with her parents to take care of
her sick grandparents. Seeing as she missed more than half of the entire school
year, she had to redo fourth grade. The kids in her class called her “dumb”,
“an insult to all Indians around the world” , “idiot”. She gave up her social
life, risked being ridiculed by her classmates, and went to take care of her
grandparents.
One way, that we could
stop or at least lower the amount of times that this happens, is by educating
kids, and adults about the dangers of peer labeling .Educating adults will show
them what’s happening to their children, and the fact that this is happening in
the adult world as well.
According to Carol N. Trueman, author of “The Labeling
Theory,” “Labeling can also mold the
way someone behaves in their lives especially if they cannot shake off that
label.” This means that people will behave the way that they are labeled, if
they cannot get rid of their label. For example, if one kid gets called a nerd
and he can’t shake it off, he will become a nerd just to fit with that label.
Adam Alter, author of “The Dangers of Peer Labeling”,
says, “But it's important to recognize that the people we label as
"Stupid," "slow," "rich," poor,"
smart," and "simple," seem stupider, slower, richer, poorer,
smarter, and simpler merely because we've labeled them so.” This means that
even though we label people to be a certain way it does not make them how we
think they should be. Many people have had this problem, but some bullies
take it way too far. The victims take actions that would be regrettable.
Many students notice the
labeling, but are afraid of what is called “Social Death.” Telling the teacher,
principal, paraprofessional, etc, would cause all of the other
students to laugh, call them a crybaby, snitch, or altogether stop talking to
them, you know, “shunning.”
Another
way this can be stopped is by making an anonymous “tip” box, so that students
can report what they see is happening from their point of view anonymously. So
that they can feel good about reporting something bad that happened, but will
not get teased by their friends. But even so, everything we try to stop peer
labeling, it will not stop.
Research by Kate Dailey
of Newsweek shows this, “Kids are the ones who are most damaged by
Middle-school labeling. Those kids are also at a disadvantage because the label
that sticks the most isn’t one given by peers, but by the Middle-school system
itself, and one that disproportionately affects kids. Tracking—the process of
putting kids in remedial, gifted, or average-level classes—has a lasting impact
well beyond graduation. “They get messages all along the way about how good and
bad they are. The kids who are on the low tracks know that they are. They know
what their status is,” she says, and the label of “smart” or “dumb” carries
long beyond “band geek” or “nerd.” This means that people aren't labeling each
other, the school system itself is labeling them. By putting kids in certain
classes the school system itself is the one starting all of this bullying and
such.
One
other way to stop peer labeling is not to make students feel bad about
class that they are in. Putting kids in remedial, gifted, or
average-level classes, is not right, and they should be treated the same. Just
because a kid is in a remedial class, it doesn’t make them stupider than
everyone else. If a kid is in a gifted class it doesn’t make them smarter than
everyone else. Everyone is equal.
Thinking
about the future, I realize that if we don’t take action on something
like this then, we will be in a horrific shape!!! It reminds me of my favorite
book, Divergent. The main character had to “Stick with her own clan” and not
make friends outside of it. We will soon become like that if we don’t take
action about this issue.
Has
my question from the beginning been answered? Peer labeling is happening all
over the world, and we have to do something about it. There are many
different ways to solve this worldwide problem. With these solutions I
hope, that many people will take action and stop this problem from expanding.
Citations
Alter, Adam. “Why It's Dangerous to Label
People.” Psychology Today, Sessex Publishers, 17 May 2010,
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/alternative-truths/201005/why-its-dangerous-label-people.
Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.
Trueman, Carol N. “The Labelling Theory.”
History Learning Site, History Learning Site, 16 Aug. 2016,
www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sociology/crime-and-deviance/the-labelling-theory/.
Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.
Kulhanek, Sadie. “Middle School - Labels &
Stereotypes.” Prezi.com, 18 Oct. 2016, prezi.com/yad_wdriiunj/middle-school-labels-stereotypes/?webgl=0.
Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.
Stadtlander, Jason P. “Casting Off Stereotypes:
I Am More Than a Label.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 June
2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-p-stadtlander/right-and-wrong-good-and-_b_5504133.html.
Accessed 21 Feb. 2017.
"Indiana University Bloomington." IIDC
- The Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University.
N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.
Dailey, Kate. "Can You Ever Escape Those
High-School Labels?" Newsweek. N.p., 16 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2017.
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