Survival of the Fittest Free Essays

Survival of the Fittest His sweaty palms clutch a few coins. The bus line moves forward. Ticket paid for, a quick glance to the back of the bus. We will write a custom essay sample on Survival of the Fittest or any similar topic only for you Order Now They wait, feeding off his panic and distress as he walks to his seat. Fiona Dove investigates teen bullying. Survival of the fittest has been a notion well accepted by society when applied to animals. The strong and the weak battle it out to determine who will be supreme. Does this theory apply to bully behaviour? If three-quarters of Australian households have at least one person affected by bullying are our children fighting a battle, which will determine how they conduct their lives? The Education of Queensland Child Protection Act defines bullying as â€Å"The abuse of power with the intention of causing distress to other person(s)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Bullying is a poisonous weed within society. Research shows that children who bully at a young age have a higher risk of committing felonies as an adult and becoming a criminal. Indeed victims of bullying have experienced psychological damage so severe it lead to suicide. Chanelle Rae was fourth student from Western Height College in Geelong, Victoria to commit suicide in a five-month period. Chanelle was a zealous supporter of the Geelong cats. Her idol Corey Enright a cats team member was pallbearer at her funeral. However on the 17th of July in 2009 Chanelle committed suicide after a brutal cyber bullying attack. [pic] It’s natural, so what’s wrong with this Picture? With technology constantly advancing this generation has much more choice in torturous devices than 20 years ago. Mobile phones, Internet physical violence and smear campaigns are all weapons in a bully’s arsenal. With all this at a bully’s disposal victims are in a constant state of trepidation unsure as to which direction the blow will come from. Television programmes preach that only those who fit the stereotype of a â€Å"Nerd† are bullied in society; the reality is that a bully can target anyone. Insecurities, fear and jealousy are the underlying emotions that bullies deal with by intimidating and antagonizing others. As a consequence of young people being herded together for extended periods of time, the instinct to overpower and â€Å"bully† others is natural. As caregivers we should be asking ourselves whether bubble wrapping and shrouding children from the public domain mean that they have insufficiently developed social skills? Are we, ironically, making children revert back to the battle for supremacy? With one in five students having been harassed at school and at least one in three children bullied almost daily, only a fool would say that bullying in schools is a minor problem. â€Å"Bullying will always be a part of school culture,† agrees Alison Heder a school bus driver. To change the bullying culture children need to be told from a very young age that telling a trusted adult, whether it may be a school counsellor or a parent in OK and not â€Å"tattle-telling†. Rather than being sheltering children should be out learning how to behave. Instead of being thrown straight into the sharks at the age of six when school starts, the transition from home to school would be less of an ordeal for children if the basic foundations of good communication were already in place. Queensland Government Department of Education and Training, Code of School Behaviour requires that schools provide a safe and supportive learning environment. When asked about her thoughts on this in regards to the current bullying issues Alison exclaimed â€Å"It’s not the schools fault! Parents need to teach their children acceptable behaviour through example† Studies have shown that with effective communication between the school and home in most cases is able to stop the bully and help the students move forward. On the other hand when the student is too afraid to reach out for help the result can be fatal. On the 15th of February 2010 a young boy encountered a terrible fate. Elliot Fletcher, at just 12 years old was stabbed in the chest. This story was met with shock Australia wide as the reality of bullying in schools was realised. The well-established Catholic school, St. Patrick’s College, recorded 380 absences out of 1100 after the news of Elliot’s passing had spread. The reputation of all Private schools was further tarnished as several more violent attacks were reported. Parents are now questioning how the government is handling the bullying epidemic. Alison Heder concurred that the government’s current handle on the bullying situation is as ineffectual as it is inadequate. Whilst bullying may never be truly eliminated from society the aim of new bullying campaigns is to inform the victims of bullies of the various resources each school has to help them stop the bullying and move on from the traumatic experiences. Hotheaded, savage and ungovernable; dread, panic, terror; from covert and subtle to openly ridiculing. Natural or not, bullying is not something to be pushed away to the sides where it festers and thrives. The culture of society must first change if we are to eradicate this practice. Bibliography Personal Interview †¢ Heder, Alison. 1961. Working. Local School Bus Driver, interviewed 19th February 2010. Newspaper Articles †¢ Tomazin, Farrah. â€Å"3/4 of Australian Households have at least one Person who has been Bullied†, The Age, 20th March 2010. †¢ Ironside, Robyn. Vogler, Sarah. â€Å"Boy, 12, dies after being stabbed at St. Patrick’s College Shorncliffe†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Scott, Edwina. â€Å"Hundreds Gather for Suicide Teen’s Funeral†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Chilcott, Tanya. â€Å"School Bullying Shame: Three Children a Class Bullied Daily†, The Courier Mail, 20th March 2010. †¢ Ironside, Robyn. Chilcott, Tanya. â€Å"Pupils Struggle with Heartbreak after Boy Stabbed to Death in Brisbane School†, The Herald Sun, 20th March 2010. Websites †¢ Anon. 2000. Code of School Behaviour. http://education. ld. gov. au/studentservices/behaviour/bm-codebehav. html. (Accessed 20th March. 2010) †¢ Anon. 2007. Child Protection Act 1999. http://www. childsaftey. qld. gov. au/legislation/child-protection/child-protection-act-1999. html. (Accessed 20th March. 2010) †¢ Field, Evelyn. 2003. Bully Blocking. www. bullying. com. au/school-bullying/. (Accessed 21st March 2010) ———————– â€Å"Children are terrified to go to the school guidance counsellor because they are afraid that the bully will find out they’ve been tattle-telling,† tells Alison Heder How to cite Survival of the Fittest, Papers Survival of the Fittest Free Essays Survival of the Fittest To eat or to be eaten. Survival, everyone needs to survive when you are away from civilization. To survive longer there are factors like being handsome, tall, physically fit and smart. We will write a custom essay sample on Survival of the Fittest or any similar topic only for you Order Now You need food and fresh water in order to survive in the book â€Å"Lord of the Flies by William Golding. † You also need to build a fire to stay warm and to ward off predators. In this book they all come together when Ralph blew the conch. Survival is an important theme in Lord of the Flies by William Golding that the audience can explore and without it you could not write this style of book. Order is important in all civilizations, without it we would have anarchy. When you are on an island you need order. In this book the group of kids have a vote and Ralph is picked as leader not just because he has the conch but also because he is handsome. Ralph decides to give Jack power over the choir group and they’re name was â€Å"the hunters†. People who are not fit cannot fend for themselves as well as fitter people and will die off so they may not reproduce. The fittest survive. The role of survival of the fittest was best described on (pg. 8) â€Å"I can’t swim on account of my asthma†. Piggy was already going down in the food chain of the island because he wasn’t fit or handsome. You don’t just need to be tall or handsome to survive you also need to be logical about what you need like building a fire. In chapter 2 they climb up the mountain tho make a fire. Ralph shouts â€Å"Piggy got any matches? † Piggy shakes his head no, then Jack points suddenly at Piggy’s spec. We can use them as burning glasses (p40). The boys get the fire started and they started to dance around it. To keep the fire going they needed to get lots more wood. The boys lets the fire go out because they couldn’t keep up with the rate it was burning. Piggy said â€Å"we haven’t made a fire. What’s any use, we couldn’t keep a fire like that going even if we tried. Jack yells at Piggy â€Å"fat lot you tried. † But fire isn’t all you need there is food and water to. Food and water are essential. The body can only survive 3-4 days without water but can survive 4-6 weeks without food. When the boys on the island resorted to killing pigs Jack hesitated and did not kill the first pig because he was not that hungry and he had probably killed anything before. Some of the boys tried fishing, they caught some fish but it wasn’t an efficient way to catch food. They have found fresh water to drink (p33). It takes Jack a couple tries to kill the pig and every time he doesn’t kill one he makes up an excuse. Everyone needs to survive when away from civilization. As we all know order is very important in surviving because we don’t want anarchy. Fire will keep you from freezing, starving and being eaten by predators. Water and food are probably the most important thing you need to survive. Survival is the most important theme in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. How to cite Survival of the Fittest, Papers