Recently, I watched a video where some boys were bullied in school by their seniors; those ahead of them in class. It was disturbing, considering that the victims must have suffered some injuries that would require medical attention. It's not an uncommon sight, I must also say. In some schools, things like that happen. Maybe not in that magnitude. And even with life's general occurrences, people are bullied, beaten or maltreated by others, with them able to do little to nothing to help themselves.
I understand the situation where one could be overpowered by a group of people. Whatever the case, whether one versus one, or one versus a group, it calls for a need today in our society; self-defence. The act of self-defence lets people to protect themselves against the harmful actions of others, who are mostly attackers. When we look at the world today and some of the stories of how some people were attacked, with little or nothing they could do, we can agree that learning self-defence is an advantage.
Should the act of self-defence be taught in schools? I don't disapprove of that. I think this is happening in some schools. Well, in foreign countries rather than mine. There are extracurriculars on martial arts or judo and the like that teach students self-defence, or some fighting skills in the general sense. Though fictional, I've seen in movies how learning such skills has saved kids from getting bullied in school and even adults who might have learnt something about self-defence or fighting skills to defend themselves in the face of attacks.
Perhaps, when people get this self defense skills, it could reduce and curtail some of the vices we see emanating from attackers. Some of the things we watch online show how much self-defence needs to be learnt. Even if it's the basics. People have been attacked and they could literally do nothing about it. Or bullied and all they did was to take the bullying, constantly hoping it would stop. But no, we all know the bully doesn't stop until he or she gets confronted, and the most effective way is to stand one's ground, with self-defence.
We've been confronted with situations that required us to stand up for ourselves, not being trampled upon, bullied or beaten. I might not have had many of such but I've had my share when self-defence was necessary. Sometimes, it could involve taking a courageous stand towards the other person, without even the need to go physical. That could be all the self-defence needed in some instances. In other situations, it involves getting physical as we know.
Sadly, there was this case of a man in my country who was imprisoned for self-defence. In his bid to defend himself against one of the criminal elements known here, he overpowered the attacker, took his weapon, and in his defence, the situation went bad for the attacker resulting in the loss of his life. The man got arrested and was imprisoned, with a probable sentence of life imprisonment or death. I've seen some similar videos of foreign situations too. This itself shows the need for self-defence in this time, era and my part of the world very well.