I was just watching a news story on Good Morning American about bullying. They said that schools need to take more responsibility. I agree that those who have children in their care should be ever watchful, but if schools continue to grow without increasing the number of teachers and staff, the problems with bullying will just get worse and worse. You can't fill a classroom with 20-30 children, require that the teacher actually teach them, and expect that the teacher will be able to stay on top of kids’ relationships. Teachers have become the dumping ground for all the social ills. Not that I don't think we should try to be aware of bullying situations, but everyone seems to expect the teacher to know all about it and have it all solved before it escalates. Let me tell ya, kids know how to keep teachers from seeing it and when there are so many in each class, it is very easy to hide it.
Look, I know it’s expensive, but it is common sense that there is only so much responsibility one person can handle. If you want all the potential bullying situations to be seen and taken note of, then you have to put more people in place to watch for it. The question is: Do we want to protect our kids or not?
I really don’t believe that children want to be bullies. I think that kids just want to make themselves look better and sometimes use belittling others as a means to do so. I think it is rare that the intended aim is to actually do harm to another. Peer pressure to follow the group in singling someone out is another reason kids bully. I think that one key to preventing bullying is to encourage empathy. Presenting what-if scenarios and making children aware of how their words can make another person feel. Most children involved in bullying, I believe would tell you if you asked, that they didn’t know what they were doing would have such profound effects.
It is the fault of teachers’ that kids don’t learn. Teachers are the reason for American children not being up to par with the rest of the world academically. Teachers are at fault for kids not doing their work. Teachers should know every single thing their 20 plus students each period are thinking and saying.
Wow, she turned her back, for whatever reason (maybe to help some students, maybe to get something out of her desk, maybe to grade a paper (oh no, that is something she has to take home and do on her OWN time, whoever says that teachers have such wonderful schedules has NO IDEA what goes into preparation for lessons or grading papers and keeping records!) and one kid walks out of the classroom unnoticed. She is responsible for anything that happens to that kid while he is gone! I don’t know about you, but I am not going to automatically know someone is missing from a group of even 10 without counting every five minutes, but she has 20 or more and has to teach too!
The kids are doing their work, but as soon as the teacher looks away, someone has told little johnny (small j to indicate it is generic) that he is ugly sending him into deep depression that he kills himself over. Granted that is extreme-there are usually many more signs leading to something as horrific as a child suicide, but the point is that it is impossible for teachers to see EVERYTHING. We don’t even ask where the parents of the bully are because we know that parents don’t actually teach bullying, kids just DO it. But if the parents were making little jeff do his schoolwork instead of the teacher having to constantly remind him, that would be one less job for the teacher to have to do.
Common sense! Why don’t we use it?
Cause mama and daddy have to have someone to blame. The justice system isn’t happy without holding someone accountable.
Things happen. Sometimes there isn’t a thing you can do about it and no one is to blame. Just accept that. Instead of pointing fingers, let’s find solutions.
