<p>tl;dr - How many physical fights occur at your school and what's the catalyst? Do you think that fighting in school could ever be justifiable on the individual level?</p>
<p>For my own commentary and a more deeper look at the questions raised, please read on...</p>
<p>First off, let me start by asking how prevalent fighting (of the obviously non-pretend/non-joking variety) is at your school? At my school, which tends to be very cliquey, physical fights happen, and they often mark the climax of a particular conflict between two people or two social groups.</p>
<p>I think it goes without saying that most fights involve a mix of hurt pride and testosterone, and thus the most frequent combatants are those who wield the testosterone-producing Y-chromosome. In the very biosocial sense, I find that most fights occur on the fringe and often turbulent outskirts of the social order. (For example, the beloved football QB doesn't get physical with the lowly nerd. He doesn't have to. Likewise, there is little to gain and a lot to lose for the nerd to takes on the QB.) </p>
<p>Where social rank is not clearly defined and tensions run high, fights are frequent, heated, and vicious. </p>
<p>One thing that's always interested me, though, is whether the individual "fighter" can justify fighting for the social and personal rewards at the expense of getting in trouble with the school administration. I'll admit that I had my fair share of fights back in middle-school, culminating in one big fight which resulted in suspension. I was being bullied almost daily and <em>knew</em> that telling a teacher wouldn't change anything. While I regret the situation, I don't necessarily regret the action I took. I actually felt as if I had grown up a little bit, for taking matters into my own hands. And in proving to myself that I <em>could</em> use force if required, I never really felt the urge to fight again. Better to learn that in grade eight as opposed to the "real world" right?</p>
<p>While the administration is obviously obligated to be completely opposed to fighting, do you think there are justifiable reasons as to why an individual would resort to clocking out a classmate? Are there ever cases in which a student <em>should</em>?</p>
<p>I go to two schools, one every other day. At one of my schools, there is probably a fight a week at my school of 1200. Generally those fights are over girls, or kids from other schools because of our rivalries. The other school is for gifted children and there is seldom a fight there, perhaps one a year that I’ve heard about, if that. I do, however, think that fighting is sometimes justifiable, for various reasons.</p>
<p>I DON"T KNOW WHERE I READ THIS, but half of aggressive acts are supposedly examples of displaced aggression, where you are aggressive towards someone because you were frustrated by something else. Why do humans do this? Because the sad thing is taking out your frustration on something else, even if it’s not the thing that frustrated you, makes you feel better</p>
<p>Physical fights never occurred at my high-school, not one, due to the nature of the school and the kids at it. But in middle-school there were fights. And incidents with knives. </p>
<p>I want to be far removed from any sort of “fighters” when I grow up, and never think of them. People predisposed to physical fights should be confined to jails. </p>
<p>The sad thing is when you have someone who is not a fighter who inadvertently gets into a fight. Then that person just ends up getting what’s called bullied, which is something we have to minimize the likelihood of. We need to segregate based on aggression tendencies (yes, it might end up looking like black/white segregation, but it won’t be completely that way). </p>
<p>And we need to have an adequate review system so any failed sorting can get amended asap.</p>
<p>@Wiscongene our class size is relatively small ~120 kids. I guess we all know each other from a very long time since middle/elementary school. Fighting happened much more back then, but now throughout the entire HS it never happens. The only times it happens is kids from my school vs. kids outside of school, and that’s even rare.</p>
<p>^Yes, that’s the <em>administrative</em> point of view I was talking about, but if you seriously felt like you were threatened, how would you respond? Mind you, it doesn’t even need to be an outright physical threat or an outright physical response.</p>
<p>If you felt that your social standing was threatened by another person or group of people and you couldn’t draw anyone else to your cause, what would you do?</p>
<p>Need I remind you that our country fought A WAR to gain independence? The Libyans weren’t going to get it without force, nor are the Syrians. Are these not macrocosms for the social order at school, at work, even at home?</p>
<p>@enfield I can’t say I agree. First of all, aggression needn’t be confused with standing up for yourself or even getting your way by method of force. It also shouldn’t be confused with ambition, which isn’t what we’re discussing. I don’t feel as though you could create a perfect society “free” of aggression because I think any and everyone has the capacity to be that way. It’s obviously a reproductive asset seeing as it’s been passed down for so long. I think the key is knowing context, and part of that, as cynical as it sounds, is “learning your role.” </p>
<p>Like the nerd who knows better than to go after the QB, the lowly factory worker knows better than to go toe to toe with the factory manager. It would end badly for the lesser party in either case. But in the very physical, male social structure, the occasional fisticuffs might as well be expected. The question I’m wrestling with is whether or not it’s justified.</p>
<p>Once some girl just randomly threw chocolate milk all over this other girl so they got into a fight with hair ripping etc. The girl who was spilled upon got up midway through the fight to adjust her bra and we learned that she was wearing two bras, then she got back into action. DAYUMMMMMMM</p>
<p>Okay, standing up for yourself IS DIFFERENT. I hope I didn’t confuse the two. Standing up for yourself is the case where you’re not predisposed to fight, but someone tries to fight you, and instead of cowering away like your instincts tell you, you do the opposite thing, which is fight.</p>
<p>And I also hope i didn’t confuse aggression with ambition (i’m pretty sure i didn’t…)</p>
<p>You could create a part of society virtually free of it (those sub-societies already exist, e.g elite universities). Aggression being a reproductive asset doesn’t make it a good thing for humanity to hold on to if we want to reduce suffering. I would argue that it’s more true that aggression <em>was</em> a reproductive asset, but now is just a vestigial quality of human beings, and is neither being greatly selected for or against at the moment.</p>
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<p>You always seem to wrestle with the most asinine questions :p.</p>
<p>So how does your discipline code work? At my school, if someone starts knocking all your teeth out breaks a few bones, if you even lay a finger on them in return, both of you get suspended for up to a month. </p>
<p>It’s ludicrous. What am I supposed to do? Die? Sure.</p>
<p>I have violence at my school all the time. One time, a student brought a butterfly knife and pulled it out during the middle of class to show it off … lol.</p>
<p>^The public schools in my district are terrible. Police patrol the halls nowadays because of all the gang violence there’s been. There are signs reccommending that you don’t use the bathroom alone because there have been beatings and even rape cases. I’m fortunate enough that I don’t go to those schools. </p>
<p>Eveyone in this goddam thread is caught up in some fluff about how violence is brutish and unnecessary which I can’t understand. I’m saying that the administration <em>must</em> be opposed to violence for legal purposes. But what about a kid who feels like he needs to take matters into his own hands, even striking preemptively? Under what circumstances is such behavior justified, in your opinion?</p>
<p>And I’m not “wrestling” with the question in actuality, because I’ve already made up my mind (and it may not be the opinion, you’d expect). I’m consulting the people on this forum.</p>