EARWIG

February 3 2010

Earwig
\’ir-‘wig\ v : to annoy or attempt to influence by private talk

I have never believed that kids are bad; just socially and environmentally conditioned. I regard this as a very mature attitude to adopt considering my history with my peers. Children, especially now are led to believe that it is ok to treat one another horribly, the reason often varying and more often never valid. There are always followers, but more importantly, there are a healthy dose of leaders, those young minds ready to be negatively influential and to earwig about anyone or anything that crosses their path displeasingly.
These kids may all have stories, some of which are too unfathomable; their ability to put others down is clearly a way to achieve a sense of self-worth and a high self-esteem. Whispers in the classroom before the teacher arrives, in the locker room as they dress for gym, in the bathroom when they think she can’t hear them and in the cafeteria on the dreaded lunch line, these are all places where the vicious rumors live and breed and where the power of ear wigging is handed down generation to generation.
She walks out of class and behind her she hears, “Wow, she really knew how to solve that math problem, that’s so cool…” If only that dream could be real.