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Sunday, May 10, 2009

Sam Steele Believed in the Militia

The following is an excerpt from HistoryNet.com Sam Steele: North West Mounted Police Inspector:

"Samuel Benfield Steele was born on January 5, 1851, at Purbrook, near Orillia, Upper Canada (later Ontario), the son of Royal Navy Captain Elmes Steele and Anne Macdonald. Men of action had run through the Steele clan like water down Niagara Falls — young Sam’s predecessors had fought on the Plains of Abraham before Quebec in 1759, at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and at Waterloo in 1815.

It was none too astonishing, then, that a fair-haired, slender 15-year-old Sam Steele would enlist in the Canadian militia in 1866, as an ensign in the 35th (Simcoe Foresters) Battalion of Infantry. His unit participated in the defense of Canada against the Fenian raids of that year. After Canada became an independent member of the British Commonwealth, he joined the 1st Ontario Battalion of Rifles on May 1, 1870, to serve in the Red River Expedition to retake Fort Garry from rebellious Métis (Franco-Indian mixed bloods) under Louis David Riel. In 1871, Steele was one of the first to enlist in the newly formed A Battery, Royal Canadian Artillery, the first unit of the new Canadian Permanent Force.

In 1873, Steele left the army to join the newly organized North-West Mounted Police as a staff constable. The commanding officer of the paramilitary body was called ‘commissioner,’ and the command was divided into troops. Steele was still only 22, and so wiry that he wore a sash under his jacket to add some manly bulk to his appearance, but he already had a solid military record under his belt."

Male Aggression versus Female Aggression

http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/bet01229.htm

Bullying styles are generally considered to fall under two categories, direct and indirect. Direct physical bullying is to, hit, shove, kick, trip, push, and pull. Direct verbal bullying can involve name-calling, insults, threatening to hurt the other. Indirect bullying, also known as social or relational aggression (Crick 1997) involves attacking the relationships of people and hurting the self-esteem. It is subtler and involves behaviours such as spreading nasty rumors, withholding friendships, ignoring, gossiping, or excluding a child from a small group of friends.

There is no doubt that stereotypically, males are more physical and direct in their bullying styles and females more manipulative and indirect (Olweus, 1997; Bjorkqvist, 1994; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995; Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist & Peltonen, 1988). Boys in our Western culture are encouraged to be tough and competitive and as they maturate slower and develop social intelligence at a slower rate they will use physical aggression longer than girls (Lagerspetz, Bjorkqvist, & Peltonen, 1988; Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz, & Kauliaien, 1992). However there is no reason to believe that females should be less hostile and less prone to get into conflicts than males (Burbank, 1987, in Bjorkqvist 1994; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995). As females are physically weaker, they develop early in life other bullying styles in order to achieve their goals. Indirect aggression in girls increases drastically at about the age of eleven years (Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz and Kaukiainen, 1992) whereas physical aggression among boys decreases during late adolescence, to be replaced mainly by verbal, but also indirect aggression (Bjorkqvist 1994).

There is a growing body of research in gender differences of bullying and other adolescent aggressive behaviours. There are hundreds of studies dedicated to the topic, many placing the emphasis on boys or the forms of aggression, more salient to boys. Forms of aggression more salient to girls has received comparatively little attention (Crick, 1997; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995).

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Also read my related article: Male and Female: Equal but Different