Reading this book Thirteen Reasons Why makes me think a lot about my time throughout high school. I went to a fairly small high school where only a little over 200 kids attended and most of the time everyone knew everyone because of the most part we all grew up together. I mean my school was like every other school, we had fights, bulling and what not but nothing to the extent that happened to Hannah Baker or even a lot of the stuff you see on TV. I think that all had to do with the size of the school, with less student in the school it made us get to know each other more. Just thinking of the possibility of something like that could have happened to someone who I have had grown up with is a little frightening. I mean how would one even pick up the signs that something is wrong with an individual? I mean it must not be that easy to pick up on because no one even had an idea that something was wrong with Hannah. With Phoebe Prince people were stunned that it went so far or that she would take it to that extreme where she would take her own life to make her pain end. I think this book is a good eye opener for kids. It shows how things that you do to others that you might consider as harmless fun but to the victim of bully it could be construed as harsh or painful.
Yes, I think it is a good eye-opener for teachers, too. Have you read Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes? Now, that's an eye-opener.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that your high school experience was less dramatic. Sometimes the gossip/rumors/etc. in small towns can be even more brutal.