When the whole world hates you, who you gonna tattle to?

"Don't be a tattletale."

I cried once and threaten to tell in 7th grade when a whole bunch of my classmates where at a party and started drinking, I didn't get invited to another party until senior year. Trust me kids, keeping your mouth shut is the best in the long run.

Teenagers snitch on each other all the damn time but just amongst themselves. You never want a grown up involved because they fark up everything well beyond the scope of any actual problem.

"Area of brain used to distinguish right from wrong erased and over-written by knowledge of texting, mall floor plans."

Good thing, though. A bomb? It might have bitten them.

TFA: Raising kids who don't hurt others isn't enough for Gina Taylor.

She wants her kids to be the kind of people who step in to protect others, regardless of the social implications.

...and this, right here, is the problem. Whistleblowing, by definition, hurts people. You can argue that it hurts people who deserve to be hurt -I'd agree, in fact- but it's still incompatible with the idea that hurting people is objectively a bad thing. To teach both at once is to teach a contradiction that any kid can see right through, and they won't be impressed.

You cannot effectively wire someone to blow the whistle without also teaching them that it's OK to hurt some people. That flies in the face of certain popular contemporary moral philosophies, and not just because of the basic contradiction: once you've established that it's OK to hurt some people, confining hurtful activities only to that subset requires a degree of discipline and self-control that is also commonly frowned upon. Given that, is it really so surprising that few people manage to maintain that balance and fall entirely one way or the other?

Was there an actual bomb? Did any evidence exist? Or more likely was this a bunch of bean brains out to see who could be trusted and the social pariah outed herself? That pinchfaced little snitch will have to move to a different planet to outrun her social status now.

tjsands1118: I cried once and threaten to tell in 7th grade when a whole bunch of my classmates where at a party and started drinking

Holy crap! I think we might have just found the most uncool person on fark. And that's saying something.

So, csb. In high school, I had a friend who decided to drink in the stands of a homecoming. The Narks were on hard-core booze patrol, so he had to play it smooth....until he dropped the farking bottle whilst in the stands, it didn't break, and the Narks noticed.So, Tony, the bald, black Nark who was a pretty cool guy, comes over and says, "Hey man, you dropped your stuff!Want me to get it?" in a pretty curious tone. My friend had a chance to save himself with something like "Nah, Yaxe here will get it" or something. But instead, he went with "Uhhh...uhhhhh".

Yeah the school was pretty pissed about it, suspended him for a while, and people didn't invite him to parties after it became known that my friend cracked under very moderate pressure. I thought it was funny as hell to be honest.

medius: tjsands1118: I cried once and threaten to tell in 7th grade when a whole bunch of my classmates where at a party and started drinking, I didn't get invited to another party until senior year. Trust me kids, keeping your mouth shut not being an uncool pussy crybaby is the best in the long run.

/Despite whatever my liver says to the contrary.

/this.

Subby, the article was written about Salt Lake City schools. In my experience, few will hold it in as well as a Mormon. That's why it takes so long for allegations of abuse to come out, if they ever do.

Now if you want a gossipy stool pigeon, I suggest Nevada. Cash gets to the point.

Millennium: TFA: Raising kids who don't hurt others isn't enough for Gina Taylor.

She wants her kids to be the kind of people who step in to protect others, regardless of the social implications.

...and this, right here, is the problem. Whistleblowing, by definition, hurts people. You can argue that it hurts people who deserve to be hurt -I'd agree, in fact- but it's still incompatible with the idea that hurting people is objectively a bad thing. To teach both at once is to teach a contradiction that any kid can see right through, and they won't be impressed.

You cannot effectively wire someone to blow the whistle without also teaching them that it's OK to hurt some people. That flies in the face of certain popular contemporary moral philosophies, and not just because of the basic contradiction: once you've established that it's OK to hurt some people, confining hurtful activities only to that subset requires a degree of discipline and self-control that is also commonly frowned upon. Given that, is it really so surprising that few people manage to maintain that balance and fall entirely one way or the other?


Don't talk like you're one of them! You're not... even if you'd like to be. To them you're just a freak, like me. They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out. Like a leper. See, their morals, their 'code'... it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these uh, these "civilized people", they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.

tjsands1118: I cried once and threaten to tell in 7th grade when a whole bunch of my classmates where at a party and started drinking, I didn't get invited to another party until senior year. Trust me kids, keeping your mouth shut is the best in the long run.

This, big time. It's usually best to just shut the fark up about things and go on with your day.

It sucks, but teenagers have their own set of politics and unwritten rules. Your life will be way easier in high school if you don't draw unwanted, negative attention to yourself. One of the best ways to do this is to keep quiet and not get into other peoples business.

Honest Bender: tjsands1118: I cried once and threaten to tell in 7th grade when a whole bunch of my classmates where at a party and started drinking

Holy crap! I think we might have just found the most uncool person on fark. And that's saying something.

What about the guy that was the vomit fountain at the party?

Teens are wired to value social relationships above all else because for the vast majority of human history, the social position you acquired as a young adult determined your entire farking life. Want to get laid? Get the good jobs in the tribe? It all depends on your standing in the pecking order.

You can't beat biology.

She did the right thing. I hope the other students realize that and stay off her back. But, after working with teens for three decades, I know they are far more loyal to peers than to adults. To them, most adults are the enemy.

However, I know for a fact that kids in my children's high school very much wish someone had known of one student's plan and had spoken up. No one did, or if they did they didn't talk. As a result one substitute teacher was shot and killed in the classroom, and an administrator spent a long time recovering from his wound.

Sometime kids don't have enough real world experience to make a good decision.

"Teenagers Human beings not wired as whistleblowers."
FTFY.

First rule of the playground: no one likes a tattletale.

AcneVulgaris: Honest Bender: tjsands1118: I cried once and threaten to tell in 7th grade when a whole bunch of my classmates where at a party and started drinking

Holy crap! I think we might have just found the most uncool person on fark. And that's saying something.

What about the guy that was the vomit fountain at the party?

Life of the party.

Or how about most adults are nosy turds that are willfully ignorant of actual circumstances surrounding situations and conveniently forget what it was like to be a teen for them while taking no initiative to find out what it's like being a teen for the person they're interrogating, all while lording the carte blanche authoritarianism of seniority and the false equivalency that age equates to wisdom?

Might have something to do with it.

No, but they can't keep a secret to save their lives.

/Lachance knows
//even swearing on your mother's grave

Stuffed in a locker? Ala Archie Comics? Swirlie? Ala Porky's?
How about kids don't want to get stabbed or shot?

Very few teenagers understand the concept of posterity. Details at 11.

I guess all of the teenage boys who ratted out the teachers they were farking
won't be getting their whistles blown any time soon.

Swirlies? What farking year is it?

Does this mean that teenage idiots publicly showing off their drugs or beer parties on Facebook is just a stealth way of tattling on the other guys?

thelordofcheese: Or how about most adults are nosy turds that are willfully ignorant of actual circumstances surrounding situations and conveniently forget what it was like to be a teen for them while taking no initiative to find out what it's like being a teen for the person they're interrogating, all while lording the carte blanche authoritarianism of seniority and the false equivalency that age equates to wisdom?

Might have something to do with it.


When I was 15 years old people would walk up and assault me. I don't take that kind of crap anymore, and now that I'm 30 I don't do it to anyone else. Your argument is flawed and invalid.

Valarius: thelordofcheese: Or how about most adults are nosy turds that are willfully ignorant of actual circumstances surrounding situations and conveniently forget what it was like to be a teen for them while taking no initiative to find out what it's like being a teen for the person they're interrogating, all while lording the carte blanche authoritarianism of seniority and the false equivalency that age equates to wisdom?

Might have something to do with it.


When I was 15 years old people would walk up and assault me. I don't take that kind of crap anymore, and now that I'm 30 I don't do it to anyone else. Your argument is flawed and invalid.

Anecdotes don't negate the general case.

When I was younger we called them narcs.

namatad: well fark you and your children

STOP BULLYING ME! ZERO TOLERANCE!

I prefer the chocolate swirlie.

I don't know about that. I've seen a lot of teenage candy kids at happy hardcore raves that were definitely whistle-blowers.

martid4: tjsands1118: I cried once and threaten to tell in 7th grade when a whole bunch of my classmates where at a party and started drinking, I didn't get invited to another party until senior year. Trust me kids, keeping your mouth shut is the best in the long run.

You cried in 7th grade? Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot!!

But crying lets the sad out

"They want to fit in," said Taylor, whose daughter attends Highland High. "The peer relationship becomes more important than the parent-child relationship."

bearcats1983: tjsands1118:

This, big time. It's usually best to just shut the fark up about things and go on with your day.

It sucks, but teenagers have their own set of politics and unwritten rules. Your life will be way easier in high school if you don't draw unwanted, negative attention to yourself. One of the best ways to do this is to keep quiet and not get into other peoples business.


Forget teenagers.
This is just good advice for life in general.

corn-bread: bearcats1983: tjsands1118:

This, big time. It's usually best to just shut the fark up about things and go on with your day.

It sucks, but teenagers have their own set of politics and unwritten rules. Your life will be way easier in high school if you don't draw unwanted, negative attention to yourself. One of the best ways to do this is to keep quiet and not get into other peoples business.


Forget teenagers.
This is just good advice for life in general.

Yeah, for pussies that want to make the world a worse place. Oh, no, a bunch of morons may not like me if I do something, like informing the authorities, to stop them from doing something that could harms others.

God, I hate people like you.

I tried to blow my whistle as a teen...

... I couldn't reach.

RDean: As a result one substitute teacher was shot and killed in the classroom, and an administrator spent a long time recovering from his wound.

Sad for them. No one deserves that.

But what about the trauma bad teachers and shiatty administrators inflict on students that will haunt students for the rest of their lives?

We need to hold those adults to a higher standard, get rid of the bad ones in order for our children to have any hope of gaining a worthwhile education.

I also believe that teenagers not telling adults (parents) everything is part of growing up. They no longer want mummy and daddy fixing things for them and may see the need to go to the adults as not only snitching on someone but as evidence that they cannot cope or work things out themselves. This is why when I hear the argument that you should never look at your child's private stuff i.e. facebook, diary etc as a parent I just think the people who say that are misguided. I also find it laughable that these parents, usually women, base this on the fact they have a three year old who dobs everyone in. It is very rare for a teenager, even those bought up in very open households with parents who never berate for admitting a wrong, to actual tell their parents when something is wrong. It is a parents job to be on the ball to find out when something doesn't feel right what the problem is and if this means looking through their diary then do it. Yes they will not trust you for a while, this is also why you pre-warn them that if you deem it necessary you will do it. But that is the difference betweeb being a parent and a "best friend". Also parents have been snooping since Jesus was a child and despite what so called experts say teenagers actually realise why and get over it.

Somehow it's better to be a victim than a "snitch."
Hooray for bully culture.

thelordofcheese: corn-bread: bearcats1983: tjsands1118:

This, big time. It's usually best to just shut the fark up about things and go on with your day.

It sucks, but teenagers have their own set of politics and unwritten rules. Your life will be way easier in high school if you don't draw unwanted, negative attention to yourself. One of the best ways to do this is to keep quiet and not get into other peoples business.


Forget teenagers.
This is just good advice for life in general.

Yeah, for pussies that want to make the world a worse place. Oh, no, a bunch of morons may not like me if I do something, like informing the authorities, to stop them from doing something that could harms others.

God, I hate people like you.

this

Guest: I also believe that teenagers not telling adults (parents) everything is part of growing up. They no longer want mummy and daddy fixing things for them and may see the need to go to the adults as not only snitching on someone but as evidence that they cannot cope or work things out themselves. This is why when I hear the argument that you should never look at your child's private stuff i.e. facebook, diary etc as a parent I just think the people who say that are misguided. I also find it laughable that these parents, usually women, base this on the fact they have a three year old who dobs everyone in. It is very rare for a teenager, even those bought up in very open households with parents who never berate for admitting a wrong, to actual tell their parents when something is wrong. It is a parents job to be on the ball to find out when something doesn't feel right what the problem is and if this means looking through their diary then do it. Yes they will not trust you for a while, this is also why you pre-warn them that if you deem it necessary you will do it. But that is the difference betweeb being a parent and a "best friend". Also parents have been snooping since Jesus was a child and despite what so called experts say teenagers actually realise why and get over it.

My mom would rifle through my CDs and smash the ones she didn't approve of right in front of me.

And yet they owned an LP of Sticky Fingers.