It is time we give bullying the attention it deserves in our classrooms
I try to be a good teacher. Compassionate. Understanding. Encouraging. But I am also human. Sometimes I lose my shit. I have noticed one thing that can make me lose my shit more than others. It is witnessing bullying among my students.
I know why. It is because it tears open a big wound from my own childhood. Every time.
After 16 years of teaching, I conclude that our stance on bullying in society has not improved much.
But it must change. Bullying causes trauma. Whether we like to admit it or not.
Unfortunately, we still shy away from taking our responsibilities to protect our children. And we still make a lot of excuses. Here are some of them.
Bullying Among Children Always Happened.
It is an argument I still hear from colleagues from time to time. And it is a bullshit argument.
There are a lot of things we thought were normal once. Like putting lead in our paint. Or drinking on the job. There was a time when we did not put on a seatbelt when we drive.
But we don’t do it anymore. Because we LEARNED about the negative consequences. So we decided to do something to stop it.
Maybe the research wasn’t so clear on the negative effects of bullying when I was a kid 30 years ago.
But it sure is now. So we can only use this argument as a lame excuse for not taking our responsibilities as adults.
