Words Matter

It’s “back to school” time again and that means shopping trips for new school clothes, buying new notebooks, pens and erasers for the backpack and complaining about how early the first class bell is scheduled to ring.
Of course back to school backpacks these days also carry student cell phones and other electronic and computer devices. The days of passing written notes in the hallways faded long ago. Now, the buzzing we hear on the exciting first day of school is actually real buzzing, emanating from a thousand smart phones with Facebook and Twitter messages.
With local school doors opening this week and next, we want to add our best wishes for a safe and productive year of learning, exploration and social advancement — both the old fashioned kind and the too-new computer assisted ones, too.
It’s occasions like back to school that remind oldsters how much more complicated the lives of school children, teenagers and young adults have become. Text doesn’t mean a book anymore; it’s what you do with two thumbs instead of talking or passing notes. Teachers don’t just write homework assignments on chalkboards; they also send out nightly email reminders.
Communication at school keeps changing, maybe even faster than in our workplaces, our shopping habits or in our homes. Snapchatting, tweeting and ‘txting’ are taking control over our own words and thoughts.
Here’s this year’s back to school message: words matter.
Whether we use our tongues or our thumbs to communicate, words matter. Thoughts or feelings, uttered or tweeted, have consequences. Words can help or hurt, they can share love or hate. Good students will learn the differences and all adults must strive to be positive role models.
Our desired lesson is not getting any help from the nation’s presidential campaign where one candidate insists on name-calling and tweeting hateful attacks that are sometimes racist and bigoted.
Donald Trump is the school campus bully that school principals ought to call into their office. In a public school, Trump’s words and temper tantrums would get him suspended from class. His personal attacks on women, racial minorities, Muslims and the physically disabled would get him banned from the sports team or the debate team.
Words matter. And they matter most in busy and close social environments like a school campus. Physical violence and behavior that threatens the safety or acceptance of others is never allowed. Nor should other forms of verbal abuse such as cyber-bullying be tolerated.
We don’t know what Mr. Trump’s psychological problem is. And we don’t know why he has to verbally attack the mother of an Iraq War hero, but we know we don’t want our students to repeat his words.
Why? Because words still matter. Every syllable has power and consequence.
For students, teachers and parents heading back to school, let’s all practice mindful speech. Think first before you retweet. Don’t be a Trump.
Parents need to be engaged with their children’s online social media habits and communications. Don’t pry, but insist that everyone is practicing respect.
Get up to date on school policy about student cell phone use, social media boundaries and anti-bullying programs. Get connected with school groups like the PTA or Boosters. Visit school, or better yet, sign up to volunteer.
Whenever bullying, hate language or anti-social cliques take place, there is no such thing as an innocent bystander. There should be no such thing as a code of silence.
The injury to our nation’s politics and public discourse being caused by the hate-filled spittle of Mr. Trump will take a long time to repair, if ever. He doesn’t use words to matter; he uses them to shatter.
Written, spoken, memorized, chiseled in marble, inked, texted, tweeted, whispered or screamed — all words matter. That’s why we have schools in the first place, isn’t it?
— Rollie Atkinson