Bullying

Bullying is so prevalent in our society today, especially in schools, and my child is no stranger to the endless lists of victims. For the past couple of years, my child has endured bullying in the form of isolation, back stabbing and dirty looks by some classmates. My husband and I know that we cannot protect our children all the time from the ugliness of society, and we often talk to our children about their problems and encourage them to try and deal with the situation themselves.

Late last year my child came home from school one day soaked in tears, because it was too much. It was the first time I ever saw the stress and heartache that my child has hidden all this time. My protectiveness kicked in, and so I emailed my child's teacher explaining the situation, and that I would appreciate it if he could intervene. I had a brief response stating that bullying is not uncommon among young children, but that the matter will be dealt with. My child told me that all this teacher did was make the bullies apologize and that was that.

Unfortunately, making the bullies apologize wasn't enough as my child endured the whole scenario again. It seems to me that there are teachers who will see bullying as a minute problem (I put it down to lack of awareness and understanding of the consequences of bullying), and as such an apology (with or without sincerity), is sufficient.

This year, my child wrote an email to her teacher and told him that making the bullies apologize is really not enough. She proposed a solution to conduct a class project that will educate the students about the effect of bullying. This teacher agreed to conduct a project and in doing so, empowered his students, giving them a voice to express their feelings and thoughts about bullying, educating them about the effects of bullying, and how to deal with the problem. This very same teacher could have stopped at the class level, but instead, he encouraged his students to help educate the whole school through hanging posters around the school and giving presentations. Now that, is a teacher worthy of respect!

I'm not deluded to think that bullying will be stamped out indefinitely at ISK (or any school for that matter), but I liked that a teacher took the initiative to be an advocate for his students by being proactive in trying to change the mentality of the school.

Action speaks louder than words, that's what all teachers should instill in their students!

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online poll by Opinion Stage

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