Thursday, September 12, 2013

THE SCHOOLYARD



There once was a boy who lived in a small town with his family.  His father  ruled over the household as a tyrant, and all who lived there feared him.  The father died, which left the eldest son as the “man of the house.” Having only the example of the father to mold his principles, the son, too, became a tyrant.  Soon, the household feared him as they had feared his father.
The boy’s tyrannical approach carried over outside the house to every aspect of  his life. In school, he was feared in the schoolyard by the other children.  His teachers thought him to be an exceptional student and placed him in leadership roles whenever the opportunity arose.  To the administration, his ideas were well thought out and seemed to have the good of the school at their base.  To the students, they knew it was a matter of time before he had complete control of the school and all would have to do what he said or suffer the consequences.
Soon, some of  the other children began to rebel against the boy because of the his “rule” over them. One by one they were expelled from school.  They decided to enlist the help of another boy who had a great deal of influence in another schoolyard.  The other boy kept promising that he would help them, but nothing was ever done.  The expelled children got some other friends from a rival school to come to their schoolyard when they knew that the boy would be outside.  A fight began, and soon, the schoolyard was filled with children pushing and shoving each other and bickering back and forth. 
Some of the children thought the boy was right and some thought he was wrong.  Some of the other children did not want to get involved in the dispute and left the schoolyard to find another place to play.
The other schoolyards were filling up with children who just wanted to play in peace, while the boy, along with his friends, fought against the expelled and those who had come to help them.  The administration took no action to stop the dispute because the boy had convinced them that getting rid of the other children would be the only way to make the school better. 
Those who were expelled were loyal to the school and did not want to go to any other school.  Those who were loyal to the boy were also loyal to the school, but felt that the boy had good ideas and wanted the changes the boy had outlined.  So the conflict raged on, not going unnoticed by the other boy that the expelled children had tried to enlist to help them. The other boy told the expelled that as long as the fight was being fought with fists and rocks, he would not get involved.  The other boy knew that the boy had guns at his disposal and said,  “As long as the boy never uses the guns, I will have to stay out of the fight.  But, the minute the boy brings out the guns, my friends and I will get ours out, and there’s going to be a showdown.”
When the boy realized that the expelled were gaining ground, as expected, he brought out the guns.  Many of the expelled and their helpers were gunned down in the battle that ensued.   There was no way that the expelled could fight against the weapons used by the boy. The other boy was outraged.  He began calling on his friends at other schools to stand up against the boy, but they were unwilling to help him.  “Fine,” said the other boy, “I’ll go against the boy with my own guns.”  The other boy started gathering his friends from his own school to go into battle against the boy, but even they were reluctant to get involved. 
“Our school has helped other schools in the past and we end up coming out looking like the bad guy,” his friends told him. The other boy insisted that he needed to help the expelled, but his friends kept telling him that the expelled had too many helpers who didn’t like the other boy’s school and, if they got involved, it would not come out good for them no matter who won the battle. The other boy knew the risks but kept insisting that they get involved.
The boy, though fully engaged in a battle, knew that if the other boy got involved, his cause would be lost.  He decided to tell everyone that he would not use guns again, and, if the administration could get into the schoolyard to take the guns, they could have them.  The other boy thought this was a grand gesture on the part of the boy and decided to step back and let the administration handle it from there.
No one really knew where all of the boy’s guns were hidden.  The boy knew that when the administration came to take the guns, the expelled might try to steal them and use them against him, so he began hiding the guns in new locations so the administration would not find all of them. The expelled were too busy fighting against the boy to worry about what the boy was moving, and the other boy was looking the other way while the administration was preparing to go in after the guns.
Meanwhile, the other boy was sending over a load of rocks to the expelled to help fight against the boy and his friends.*****UPDATED 5/21/2015*****
 The other boy knew that the expelled would be working hard to take control of their part of the schoolyard and, eventually, take over not only their schoolyard but the surrounding schoolyards but he wanted to look like he was doing something to help out.
Later, the expelled became the bullies of all the surrounding schoolyards but the other boy chose to ignore them while they imposed their rules on everyone else. Now the expelled bullies are looking to erase the other boy's school from history along with anyone who stands in their way. The other boy just says they are bullies, and bullies never really win.       
Why can’t these children learn to play together?
© MC Andrews, 2013.                                          

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