An observation Monday February 24th

This post is about an observation that I saw on Monday February 24th 2014. It is around 8:00am I am walking behind three young ladies and a young boy. The girls are around 12yrs old . The boy as about 8yrs old. The boy appears to be a brother to one of the girls. They are walking and talking . The boy is trying to keep up with their speed so he is actually be pulled along. He is not moving fast enough . Now I am trying to get a head of them. I passed on their right side where the boy is. As I passed the sister said" you need to walk up and don't argue before I beat you". I turned my head back and looked at the sister wanting her to see that I was paying attention.

 My eyes got stuck on the little boy for a few moments. His jacket was not zipped all the way up, he has on no scarf, or gloves and his face was dirty ,as if he  woke up and got dressed.  The girls stopped for a minute and his sister said "see you are walking ahead of us so I will just let you walk to school by yourself. I look around again . I wanted to ask why are you treating his like that?  She allowed him to walk up the steps and enter the school yard alone.
As I continued on my journey . I reflected on what lesson that young boy is learning from his sister and what she is learning from home. The care give and his sister are this young boy's mirror to the world. The reflection that he is seeing what a  horrible message he is getting.
This experience  may be teaching this young boy that the world is hard people  do not really care and why should he. He will have no empathy or respect for himself and others. He will learn that beating is one way of resolving conflicts . His self-esteem will be shattered as I can be almost sure that a child will be teasing him about his appearance or the teacher may send him to the bathroom to clean his face ,if she notice. It is obvious that no one has taught this boy  how to take care of himself. This boy may be heading for the cradle to prison pipeline.