Shane Koyzcan's To This Day

Bullying is very common in most schools in the United States Around three million United States students miss class every month just because of bullying. When Alex Libby shared his story he gave a voice to millions of children who suffer from bullying, because he shared his story it changed the way most people think of the effects of bullying. An example of bullying is there was a girl named Kelby Johnson who was mocked by teachers and students because she was a lesbian, she had to stop playing basketball because her ignorant teammates didn’t want to be near her. Alex Libby is one of the 13 million school children in the United States that is being bullied. Alex’s mom said “ Kid’s back in the day, could go home and be safe you can’t do that a lot now, now you can get bullied online.”

In the poem based on his own true life events, Shane Koyczan writes "To This Day". The poem shares his life experiences through poetry. To give a summary, the young boy is continually getting bullied in school. Within the poem, symbolism of the army tank resembles an enemy at war. To add, another symbol in the story is spit balls which represent bullets. These symbols are used to show the relationship between bullies and victims. The tank represents an enemy at war because the tank is large and out of place in the school halls. These out of place characteristics are what make the army tank an enemy. The other symbol of bullets represents the spit balls. The bullets are “shot” toward the enemy, or the victim. At school it is not safe for him

The video “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan based on the poem of which shares the same name, reveals the permanence of the emotional damage bullying causes to the victim. In addition, two interviews with this poet reveal his personal experiences with bullying. To begin with, Koyczan has had a lot of experience of bullying, and the poem shows that a small accident can lead to something that could be life changing. Koyczan reveals in his poem/video that he had fallen out of a tree at home, giving him bruises; and it ended with him being taken away from home for 3 days, the story going through the school, and his fellow classmates gave him the nickname around the story: “porkchop”. Because of that, he believed that he didn’t have a childhood; that his childhood was too sad and dark for him to call it a “childhood”. Also in an article Koyczan reveals that he became a bully himself at the ages of 14 to 15, because he saw a chance to reinvent himself. He also says in the poem that he wasn’t the only one to be bullied, that some classmates were bullied as well. His reason of making this poem being to say the bullies are wrong, and to share his story (and to possibly reach out to those who relate).

Many kids all around the world are abused by their parents, peers or even by complete strangers. One of these types of abuse is bullying. At a first glance, we might think that it is an older kid beating/teasing a younger classmate however; bullying consists of much more than this. The basic definition of bullying is when your behavior hurts or harms another person physically or emotionally. There are many different types of bullying, which may lead to a victim becoming violent later on. There is teasing and name calling, there is also picking and shoving the kid. However, the most extreme one would be beating up the child, hurting them physically and mainly, emotionally.

Bullying is a problem that is on the rise in society; however, many individuals have a distorted view of what bullying entails. Usually when someone thinks of bullying, they assume that it is a standard part of a child’s life. This view, on the contrary, is erroneous. Bullying is actually abnormal behavior, many times, leaving victims with a dismantled self identity. Since some people do not understand the consequences of bullying, the actions of the bully often go unnoticed and are perceived as “kids being kids”. The issue of bullying goes deeper than that nevertheless. Despite the erroneous views that many individuals hold towards bullying, it is still a distortion of normal behavior in children.

To begin with, Koyczan’s bullying experience started when his teacher discovered bruises that he had gained from falling out of a tree, then, word got around(as mainly all things do at school) about the incident and he received his first nickname, “Pork Chop”. As Koyczan grew up through the years he witnessed others being bullied, some of them were just students to him and some of them were his friends. He knew a girl, when she was 8 years old who was bullied for a birthmark on her face that she had no control over. There was another boy who suffered from depression and all the other kids were being ignorant and just thought he was feeling sorry for himself because they had not lost everything he did. Schools normally are somewhat social based,

Have you ever been a target of an individual’s cruelty and hatred? It does not necessarily have to be physical, but more like being verbally degraded or publicly humiliated. The effects bullying can have on its victims is something that may last throughout their lives, or something that may end their life(Braithwaite, Hyde, Pope, 2010).We all are well aware of childhood bullying but as evidence shows bullying does not stop on the

For a very long time, bullying has been a problem. Many wonder, are these people born that way, or were they turned into a bully from the factors outside of them? This centers around anything from a school shooting to calling fellow peers names and even to a group of firefighters getting into an all-out brawl. The article, “A Bully’s Future, From Hard Life to Hard Time”, written by Jane E. Brody and the novel, Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, prove that bullies are not born, yet they are made. Children are frequently forced into acting certain ways and dressing in certain ways so they can “fit in”. Many kids can feel alone and turn to bullying because they do not want to do what people expect of them. “In a videotape, the young gunmen attributed their acts to retaliation for years of taunting that they said friends and relatives had

Society judges those who are different both physically and mentally and those that don’t fit in with the social norm but it is up to the individuals to look past that and rise against their judgement. Shane Koyczan’s ‘To This Day’, is a poem about those who have been bullied throughout their lives and its long term impact it leaves. The poem tells multiple stories of the victims of bullying due to their physical appearance or their mental state. The poem begins with a personal adecdote talking about how he earned his first nickname. The anecdote is used to allow the readers of the poem to relate as it doesn’t rely on the abstract logic as the anecdote provides proof. He tells his story about how he used to love pork chops, and didn’t know the difference between pork chops and karate chops, until he was called pork

Poetry is a form of an impactful and influential style of literature, purposely emphasizing and expressing an author’s voice and message. After experiencing firsthand bullying and witnessing others being bullied, Shane Koyczan has become a forceful advocate in spreading awareness about bullying. He writes emotion evoking poems that he will produce on stage or in videos in which he includes a visual background and music. Vancouver’s Olympics included a performance of one of Shane Koyczan’s famous poems that moved the world watching the opening ceremonies. Two of Shane’s most stunning poems are “To This Day” and “Troll.” “To This Day” was published February 19, 2013 as an introduction to his new anti-bullying project in hope that the, “message (will) have a far reaching and long lasting effect in confronting bullying” (2013). The later poem, “Troll,” was published September 14, 2014 as another poem to confront bullying. Both poems are brilliant and full of heart grabbing moments that spread an understanding of bullying and why it should be stopped. There are also many differences between the poems that make each unforgettable. Shane Koyczan is passionate about spreading awareness to stop bullying and he uses his talent of creating powerful poetry to make his message impactful and memorable.

When children are pushed to commit foolish activities or suicide because of bullies, one can tell there is something wrong with the way situations are being handled in our society. The documentary, Bully, presents countless examples of the effects of bullying and how poorly circumstances are managed. Through instances resulting in juvenile detention or taking one’s own life, the documentary displays various ways kids deal with torment. As we follow the lives of five different youths suffering at the hands of their peers, we see just how much these kids go through with little to no support.

In the poem and video to “to this day” it explains how Shane Kocyczan had a rough childhood and that bullying hurts. Shane had a very rough childhood ,during his childhood he had an accident and then CYFD investigated him .Then he got taken away from his grandma and word got around school and the kids started to call him “porkchops”. In his video and poem he wants people to know how children get affected from the bullying and how it should make you feel..

This article looks at every aspect of bullying and it effects now and later on in life. Although, the article argue how many people who were bullied as a child end up living a total life in physiologist believe rather than some who hasn’t been bully and is in a good mental state. Bowerman reveals that, “Chances are some people still remember the name of that bully who stole their lunch money or pushed them down the stairs 30 years ago.” This details that more of that most people never forget what happen and often have flashbacks that bring back a painful memory. Bowerman also proclaimed,

“I was the shortest child in every grade, cursed with crooked teeth, thick glasses, and a permanent frown. Yet despite (or because of) my “Wednesday Addams” mien, I was never bullied. Except for once. My first week of high school, some older girls stomped around the cafeteria at lunchtime, picking out Grade Niners for mild hazing. Three approached me. Their leader proffered an egg, trembling on a tablespoon. “Walk this from here to there,” she told me, nodding toward the far wall. I swatted the props out of her hand. The egg smacked on the floor. “Clean that up,” I snapped flatly. No one bothered me again for four years.” Kathy’s experience with “bullying” was by no means severe, as such she could believe that every case of bullying can be solved by merely asserting against the opposition. Bullies search for weaker, reserved, more isolated victim, because of this few victims speak out. Bullying is rarely stopped by one instance of aggression against the Bully. Kathy used her personal reflection to add credibility to her article, but this only created a lack of understanding to victims because of her diminutive experience with

Bullies in School Kathleen Berger 1 Bullying was once commonly thought to be an unpleasant but normal part of child's play, not to be encouraged, of course, but of little consequence in the long run. However, developmental researchers who have looked closely at the society of children consider bullying to be a very serious problem, one that harms both the victim and the aggressor, sometimes continuing to cause suffering years after the child has grown up. 2 One leading researcher in this area is Dan Olweus, who has studied bullying in his native country of Norway and elsewhere for twenty-five years. The cruelty, pain, and suffering that he has documented in that time are typified by the examples of Linda and Henry: Linda was systematically