Japanese Nicknames

How odd. Mainichi reports how a school in the Ibaraki prefecture has been trying to teach school children to recognize individuality in a human rights class by asking them to call each other by their real name and not their nick name.
Among opinions exchanged in the class were things like "one should not make fun of peoples names" and "one should be called by their real name."

Most of the Japanese folks I know have a nick name and I don't see why they want to prevent nick names from being used unless its "you smelly bastard." Have a friend caled Setsuko but she asks us to call her Secchan.
My hairdressers name is Kouta but we all call her Kusu. She calls herself Kusu too.

I personally didn't have many friends as a kid so didn't have the luxury of being called names of any sort.
When I think of my childhood, one thing always comes to mind. Its when I got in an argument with another guy in class. Cant remember what it was about but remember that I wanted to "be accepted" by his "clan." I asked him "go ahead and punch me." He punched me in the stomach as hard as he could and left me very hurt on the floor.

I also recall clearly him saying "If I was to hit you in the head with this metal bat, you would die and I would go to jail. But it would be worth it."

Being dragged along the gravel, being rushed and beaten by 15 kids outside of school is another lovely childhood memory - no name calling but a lot of beating.

Used to get quite down when thinking of my childhood but realize that thinking about it doesn't do any good. Just focus on enjoying the rest of my childhood as an adult.
Went off on a tangent as I was writing ^^; Photo reflects how I'm making up for my lost childhood ^^;