If You Really Knew Me...

If you really knew me, you would know that ....... (fill in the blank)

If you were to utter those words out, what would you fill in the blank?

This is a phrase adapted from a programme called 'Challenge Day' , a workshop which was conducted  by an organization (Challenge Day Org) at high schools around USA. I first knew about this programme through  the Oprah Winfrey Show, oh yeah my favourite talk show of all time. Now it is aired on MTV with the title 'If you really knew me'. 

"On March 5, 2001 at 9:20 a.m., 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams pulled a .22 caliber pistol from his book bag at Santana High School in Santee, California and fired more than 30 shots into a crowd of students in and around the boys’ restroom." (source: here, a report prepared by Richard D. Reo, Jr.)

"According to The 2003 National School Climate Survey, more than 800,000 students are verbally harassed every year in American high schools because of their race. "Last year we had a whole bunch of fights between black people and white people," says Dorian, a junior at Monroe. "They had the police at the school." (source: here, regarding Monroe High School and the other high schools in USA)

Challenge Day programme was created to curb high school killings (which involved shooting), suicide,students' depression, bully and racial tension. To curb this,  the wall that separated  the students through the typical labels such as 'popular clique', 'class clowns', 'athletes', 'nerds,' and  'emo kids' has to be broken.

So have you ever bullied someone, hated someone, or loathed someone just because he or she is different from you? Have you ever teased, made fun of someone merely because of the way he or she looks?

photo source: here

  The picture depicting students from different cliques opening up to each other.. ;) 

So if you think you have done the things above, you should watch this programme. It is aired on MTV, but you can also watch the video online at this link or know it briefly through this video..

The effectiveness of this programme to change the students can be found here.