British Teachers Still Blaming Games for Schoolyard Violence

Rhys95

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May 16, 2011
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Children play war games. That's a fact that's always been true. They also like to re-enact things that they see explaining the bullet time. It's not really any different from them running around playing "Cowboys and Indians" with their fingers shaped as guns going "bang your dead"
 

Double A

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Jul 29, 2009
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She's also going to claim that teachers have witnessed young pupils "acting out quite graphic scenes" and that games are responsible for an increase in "hitting, hurting and thumping."
I assume the vast majority of them have never played a video game, and if they have, it was a casual game and they don't remember it that much. This would logically put them into a position where they cannot claim that kids are reenacting scenes from things they have not experienced because they simply wouldn't know.

But silly me, logic doesn't apply to politics.
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
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Grey Carter said:
To find out why, you have to travel through the tremendous buck-passing conga line. The government blames the parents, the parents blame the teachers and the teachers blame - you guessed it - video games.
Quick, make a video game that blames the government for brainwashing children into vile fiends! Then the cycle shall be complete!
 

Smiles

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Mar 7, 2008
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DVS BSTrD said:
Scars Unseen said:
DVS BSTrD said:
Scars Unseen said:
DVS BSTrD said:
These videogames are making our students un-conch-onable!
Like a conch shell? I don't get the reference.
You don't know what film the picture is from do you?
Nope. I don't watch many movies. The local theater is pretty awful, and by the time a movie comes out on Blu-Ray I've forgotten all about it in most cases.
I'll give you a hint
<spoiler=It's based on a book you might have read in school>http://literacylinks.civiced.org/design_images/Lord%20of%20the%20Flies.jpg
huh, I've never seen that title cover before and I've had to read that book at least three seperate times in all my schooling.

I always got the one with the bloody decapitated pig head on a spike

Edit: should probably post something OT... hmmm... I dunno, I grew up with mario and things weren't very violent when I went to school...
 

DTWolfwood

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Oct 20, 2009
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The government blames the parents, the parents blame the teachers and the teachers blame - you guessed it - video games.
See how Europeans follow the Logic train and blame down accordingly. In America, we start from the beginning and jump straight to the end.

/facepalm

on topic everyone needs a scapegoat, if all the fingers are already pointed at in the same direction, the Teachers can't very well point back at the parents! So as they must, point to everyone's favorite punching bag when children and violence are involved, M/18 rated games!
 

zidine100

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Mar 19, 2009
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that damned rock music turning our children into immoral jerks!

shucks to your (asthmar) rating system which should prevent them fom getting these games in the first place.
 

QueenWren

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Apr 7, 2010
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It's not the games, or rather not the industry. All those violent games that are supposed to be inspiring this (as well as the film and tv) have age ratings that should advise the moronic parents not to let the kids play or watch them.

When I was in primary school they were blaming Power Rangers for causing play ground violence (which was at least a kids show).

The problem seems to be that there is still a mentality that "games are for kids" so that over indulgent parents ignore the age ratings and buy stuff for the little demons anyway.
 

chadachada123

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I once pounced on a kid and attempted to beat him up because he took my Gameboy and threatened to delete my Pokemon save. We had a substitute teacher that day, heh. Fourth grade.

Good times. (Edit, might as well put how long ago that was, that'd be just over twelve years ago, late 2000 or early 2001, damn time flies...)
 

The Dutchess

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Feb 24, 2011
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Pretty sure this is mostly a case of "boys will be boys". When I was in school WWE (or WWF as it was then known) was huge on TV and the boys would pretend to wrestle ALL THE TIME at school, often hurting each other in the process. Everyone quoted lines from Southpark or movies that were rated above their age. As far as I'm concerned this doesn't sound any different to normal. A boy will pretend to shoot his friends with a gun or have a ninja fight with them whether he's played video games or not ... I think it's in their DNA or something.

Do people really forget what childhood was like so easily? Do they look back with rose-tinted glasses to a time before video games and think school boys wore their little shorts with pride, smoothed their hair and respected their elders?
 

Sis

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Apr 2, 2012
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Right now I'm reading the Hunger Games trilogy, books intended for teenagers and young adults. So, kids are probably reading it too. And this is in FIRST PERSON. And it talks about KILLING other kids. That's fine. It's videogames we have to worry about.
 

Kapol

Watch the spinning tails...
May 2, 2010
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The "Watching kids jump out of car windows in slow motion and pretent to have blood squirting" really gets me. First off, if the kids can jump in slow motion to begin with, that's freaking awesome. It must be a British secret they're keeping from us. Secondly, there are very few games I can think of that you jump out of cars in slow motion in or have blood squirting as a huge focus. That happens much, much more in movies.
 

Seanfall

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May 3, 2011
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....*headdesk* I was a councilor at an art camp for a few years. These kids where mostly home schooled. They played video games, but their parents respected the ESRB. Their parents paid attention disciplined them. And because of all that PARENTING they were not violent little turds. Don't get me wrong their was one or two that you wanted to strangle. But by and large they were well behaved kids who listened to us.

So the moral of the story is: If you don't want your kid to try to kill other kids, be a fucking parent. Don't just set them in front of the TV and expect them turn into perfectly formed adults. I guess a second moral is that public schools have devolved into fancy prisons. Only the guards care even less in schools.

captcha: took me 20 tries to get a non-ad.
 

mooncalf

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Jul 3, 2008
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Alternative headline; "Adolescent Behaviour Modeled on Violent Fiction Reveals Parental Neglect."

Doesn't quite roll off the tongue does it? Guess that's why we never see it on the front page - that and you can't criticize the only people buying your nonsense.
 

Fasckira

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Oct 22, 2009
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I think this is relatively fair assumption. Seems like many above me haven't actually read the article and instead saw the title and skimmed the rest.

The teachers aren't saying games as a whole are responsible but instead two points off that -

1) Kids playing games they shouldn't be playing due to age ratings - directly the parents fault for allowing them/neglecting to check what they are playing.
2) Parents allowing their kids to be up all night playing these games, so the kids come in irritable as hell the next morning and subsequently get into fights a lot easier.

Yes, teachers take some responsibility for the development of a student but they can only work with what the parents hand over to them.

Theres also a difference between violence where you have a bunch of kids who've been watching WWF and are play fighting to violence caused by sleep-deprived kids who flip out because someone's looked at them funny!
 

mrF00bar

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Mar 17, 2009
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Absolute Bullshit. I have lived in England my whole life, played some pretty Gorey games and watched horrifying films but I have yet to ever once start a fight. Video games are not responsible, the fact that more and more children grow up around concrete estates with almost no money is the reason. Turning to crime/violence for young children seems to be the only way for them in their eyes, instead of fixing the damn problem at its core these teachers only perpetuate it by blaming video games.
 

jklinders

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Sep 21, 2010
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Lack of sufficient ability to control or protect student populations has been ongoing since well before the advent of modern schooling. In the old days it was "boys will be boys", then it was TV and movies, now it's video games. Anything to allow educators to avoid responsibility for what happens when you put a bunch of kids, not all of whom are going to like each other into a building in the hundreds or thousands even without proper supervision.

Public schooling is efficient enough but it is powerless to stop bullying or other forms of bad conduct in schools. What will help more is educators actually taking some responsibility for the kids under their care. Zero tolerance is a code for punishing the victim as much as the bully because they are too damn lazy and incompetent to determine the proper aggressor so they punish both. Students who are continuous trouble should removed from the school to another place where they can be away from other kids while they get their education. Parents need to be more accountable too. That other place would be private run, at the parent's expense thereby giving them additional incentive to not completely ignore what a monstrosity their brats are becoming.

Media is not at fault. Media cannot be at fault. It is about how kids are raised at home and at school. I am sick of "science" finding reasons to ignore the root causes of this crap. The root causes are exposure to actions in life with no context for the consequences.

tl;dr Remove the troublemakers to a private school. Send the bill to parents. Add in some counseling for good measure.
 

Griffolion

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Aug 18, 2009
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Okay, clearly with a claim like this there is peer reviewed evidence to back it up...

No?

... Oh wait, there is none.

This title should really read, "Teachers too incompetent to control their class blaming video games for increased violence when they should really be looking at the irresponsible parents letting the kids play these games that apparently make them violent without any evidence to back it up."

Of course, you've lost the reader after the word "incompetent".
 

JakobBloch

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Apr 7, 2008
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"Boys will be boys" is an apt quote here. A pedagogue friend of mine who I worked with for a while explained that kids and boys in particular have a biological need for, essentially, being violent. It is part of their physical maturing. While a lot of can be achieved through running, jumping, climbing and other physical activity, sometimes they just need a good dust up. Incidentally this was what we worked together on as I can make foam-weapons (everyone can make foam-weapons but it was a gig so get off my back). So suddenly the kids could run around wacking each other with little risk of actually hurting each other.

I remember this from when I was a kid as well. Every morning through kindergarten and first grade I would start my morning at a daycare center. We amused ourselves by wrestling. Not WWF wrestling but just trying to throw each other to the ground. The pedagogues did not try to break us up (though they did recommend we put some cushions on the floor), as it is generally understood that this sort of thing is a part of being a kid.

Now the article does talk about an increase in these events and if indeed that is the case then I don't think videogames can shirk at least its part of the blame. However it is not just videogames but a much broader problem. I believe it is more because of the increasing pace at which our world is moving combined with the glorification of violence in media in general (the stats with violent crimes going down while the coverage of violent crimes has gone up are on record) would make for a confusing world to navigate.

Humans have always had a need to point the finger and reasoned debate and coverage with the full picture don't sell papers (or ads if you will).

Lastly I would like to add: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3AOdIVJH7tE#t=246s