To Bully or Not to Bully

This story came to my attention via Spirited Kenny.  The Manitoba Teachers Society is apparently up in arms about the game Bully.

 

Perhaps MTS President Pat Isaak should actually play the game before she chooses to ante up an opinion on it.  I would hope she expects students to read a book prior to doing a book report on it - procedural fairness dicates she should therefore do a little homework herself.

 

Were she to play the game, she would find that the preferable course of action is to DEFEND students from other bullies and ATTEND classes.  Gameplay difficulty is actually harder when you skip class or beat up students.  Besides, attending class in the game is actually fun - it is part and parcel of the gameplay missions.  And giving a bully a wedgie to stop a bullying in progress is so much more fun than beating up on a helpless kid.  In real life, kids must make choices – the game shows them that if they make the wrong ones, their “missions” become infinitely more difficult.

 

Rockstar’s games have always contained a level of social satire – Grand Theft Auto constantly pokes fun at our fascination with mindless violence – just listen to the AmmuNation ads in the games.  In Bully, things are no different.  It mocks the cliques that made getting through high school so tedious.

 

Perhaps the Manitoba Teachers Society should be teaching our teens the critical thinking that will enable them to see the bigger message video game companies sometimes impart.  Instead, it is unfortunate that Ms. Isaak sets such a poor example to students by opining on something she obviously knows nothing about.

 

For that, I give Ms. Isaak’s “book report” on the game Bully an F.  Never judge a book solely by its cover, Ms. Isaak.