No Name-Calling Week
February 2, 2010
Filed under Random
No Name-Calling Week was featured January 25-29 to help start off the new year.
According to nonamecallingweek.org, it is an annual week out of the year in which educational activities are targeted at ending the negative name-calling of all kinds.
This website provides the option of purchasing a resource kit which has tools and inspirational items that are helpful when wanting to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in communities.
A major inspiration for No Name-Calling Week was young adult novel “The Misfits” written by James Howe.
The book features four best friends in seventh grade who are tired of bullying in their class. The friends create a new political party aimed at wiping out name-calling of all kinds, and even though they lose the student council election, the principal’s support is won and “No Name-Calling Day” is created at their school.
The idea for this day was taken out of the story and brought into schools in 2004. Its main goal is to gain the recognition that there is a problem with name-calling among all ages and that it must come to an end.
Some students do not believe that a week dedicated to the abolishment of these crude sayings would help eliminate them all together.
“I don’t believe that it will follow through,” junior Jordan Burgess said. “Name calling is just a part of our society and takes place on a day-to-day basis. It’s just a bad habit now and even if I tried to stop, I don’t think I could.”
Junior Leigh Reynolds agreed with Burgess, saying that although No Name-Calling Week is a good idea, successful participation by many would be very unlikely.
“I think that I would go through the process for a couple of hours and then forget about it,” Reynolds said. “I definitely don’t think that a whole week of no name calling would last when one day’s hard enough for some people. I feel bad saying it but I don’t think that No Name-Calling Week will go over very well.”
Even though some don’t think the week will be very affective, others think that the effort of the recognition of the problem is important.
“I think it’s a good idea because people need to be nicer,” freshman Jacob Bickle said. “There’s a lot of name-calling that goes on and it’s definitely not necessary.”
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