Do you remember back in like 2nd and 3rd grade when we all had crushes on people and thought the most acceptable course of action was to pinch/hit/bush/make fun of etc. him/her? If you don't remember that, you either have very bad memory or you were a freaky perfect kid. For the rest of us who remember this unfortunate stage in our development, I have something to share with you/ask of you.
I was at work today mentoring young minds (insert laughter here) when a little girl came up to me crying. It appears that one of the boys had been picking on her for a while now and she had reached her holding capacity. Naturally, being the great mentor I am, I called them together and asked what the issue was. After some probing, the little boy asked to talk to me in private at which point he told me he had a crush on the little girl. Now as funny as this is, and as cute as it is, after talking to these kids for a little while and helping them "solve" their problem...at least for the day, I realized something about human nature.Now I know none of us pinch/hit/bush/make fun our love interests anymore...or at least I HOPE none of us do that, but we seem to have more sophisticated and complex ways of inflicting pain on each other.
So my question is this, What is it about humans that pushes us to hurt the ones we love? What is it about our nature that makes us hurt others so easily? This has been nagging at me all day and if anyone has an answer I would love to hear it. Using our personal experiences and my students as an example, I think it's safe to say that even at our most innocent stage as children, when we "love" someone we can't seem to stop ourselves from hurting them...Why is that?
