Values & Choices

1. Think about a time you witnessed bullying/ostracism/peer
pressure/exclusion/discrimination/violence. How did you respond? How you wish you had responded? What stopped you from responding that way?

I have experienced pressure in my last school back in Colombia. There was a fight going on between my two best friends. They couldn't stand each other and I was forced to chose who I will be friends with. I didn't want that, so I decided to be friends with both of them. It was very challenging because both of them would talk bad about the other and I they were not the same. I just decided to take a break and let this all get better by it self but it never did. And soon they both hated me for not being on their side. I had lost both of them. I wish I had tried to stop their fight and try to fix things but instead I just stood by and watched our friendship collapse. What stopped me from responding that way was that I was scared that they both would go against me and that I would lose them as friends.


2. Where have we seen examples of bullying/ ostracism/exclusion occurring in texts studied so far this year- factual as well as fictional?

In the boy in the stripped pajamas there was clear ostracism towards the jews. In the Hunger Games it gets a bit tricky, I think there are examples of exclusion towards District 12 because they are considered to be weak and not so important. And in the shadow of the Minotaur, the boy (I don't remember his name) was being bullied by Adams.