John C. Flackett

This week a news story broke that a primary school here in South Australia had banned hugging between classmates (8-13 years). Given that Hugging now seems to be the normal way of greeting friends (certainly here in Australia and especially for the sub-twenty age group), this decision seemed harsh…at least on the face of it.

Typical Reactions?

The story quickly spread through radio and TV and other media outlets with predictable comments for and against. Given the average Australian’s relaxed view of the world, most crys seemed to favour “The world’s gone mad” camp and “This is PCdom gone crazy“. From what I heard, the TV & Radio networks certainly took the “banning hugging is as ridiculous as banning walking” stance.

But, was all what it seemed? I’d have thought that most people would find it strange that any school would try to enforce a complete ban on friends hugging – after all, even though schools have had to ban certain [possibly] dangerous activities because of possible lawsuits, Hugging hardly falls into this category!

Find Out For Yourself

I don’t want to go into too much more detail on this story, except to say, it’s not a general ban on hugging, rather it’s a ban on displays of affection between boyfriends and girlfriends – so as not to set a bad example to younger children (you can read the statement from the school principal on The Advertiser’s website). Now that doesn’t seem quite as ‘mad’ does it?

My Point?

Well, I’m always so amazed at how many people are happy to believe whatever is put in front of them (via TV, radio, newspaper, internet, colleagues, friends, etc.) without questioning it. Ok, so people who know me would say I never believe anything until I can prove it *, but think about it. How often do you just believe something (and repeat it) without finding out if it’s really true?

Most things you can get away with not verifying before you rush on in e.g., “I heard there was a sale on at such & such“. After all, the exercise it takes to get to such & such might do you good even if there isn’t a sale sign in sight when you get there.

But what about all the things that do matter? Surely believing a story such as “School bans Hugging” doesn’t really matter? Well, I think it does…and it matters a lot.

Failing to question any story that, when you think about it even a little bit, goes against what you feel is right, simply enables the endless sensationalism that comes our way each day.

Without questioning what we hear & see, we allow politicians to work for themselves rather than us, news to be just stories, and governments to do what they want rather than what the nation wants.  Without questioning what we hear & see, we allow people to be hurt by hearsay, convicted by what we think they’ve done rather than what they’ve actually done, and suffer when they should never have suffered (e.g., WMD).