Do Connemara inspections teach kindness to children? No

In yet another sobering look at the life of kids today, CNN published an article Oct. 11, 2013, describing the onslaught of bullying that children face on social media sites.

The point of the story is: We need to teach kids to be nice, not mean.

It starts off talking about the suicide of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, of Lakeland, Florida, who was bullied by roughly 15 kids on social media until she jumped to her death.

They taunted her relentlessly, saying things such as “Why aren’t you dead?” and “Go kill yourself.”

Her mother tried to keep her away from these sites, but she found others.

For the article, CNN interviewed Sue Scheff, author and parent advocate, who believes parents and educators can teach kids to be “cybershields” for other children.

She’s putting the onus on adults to teach children how to behave, because adults are supposed to embrace flaws and diversity in others.

She says there might have been a different outcome if any of the kids who were cyberbullying Sedwick decided to protect her instead.

Scheff is quoted as saying: “All it would take is a few words in the opposite way, and that’s what (kids) need to learn, how to say those few kind words.”

With that in mind, what do Connemara inspections teach children?

Do inspections teach kindness? Do they look beyond flaws and see the beauty of the whole horse, soul and all?

Or do they teach meanness and focus on flaws?

Inspections decide whether Connemaras are Connemara enough to enter a “special book.” They look for flaws. They weed out the unacceptable. They are negative. They fail some horses, not for failing to complete a task, but for having different anatomy than some people have decided is appropriate.

If this is what we teach young Connemara owners, how do we expect them to behave any better with their peers? Inspections teach bullying.

Wouldn’t we rather kids grow up to be Connemara cybershields, in addition to being cybershields for their friends?