Students Bully Teachers
So reads the headline on an article printed yesterday, reporting results from a province-wide survey of 1,217 teachers and support workers in the public and catholic schools. Grades 7 to 9 pose the most risk with 50% of the staff in these grades reporting having been subjected to some form of bullying, including persistent incidents of abuse, threats, insults or humiliation intended to hurt, either emotionally or physically.
In November, results will be released dealing with bullying of teachers by parents and principals. Somebody ask me about all this, please. Been there, done that, got the goddamned T-shirt. I worked in grades 7 & 8 for years and I was out there on the front lines without any back-up or support. People who haven't been on the front lines make announcements every once in a while about their idea for the latest magic fix to the problems. There is no magic fix, but there sure as hell is a major overhaul needed. It is a massive problem, and there will be a great many more casualties before it is all turned around, but it is exactly right to refer to our classrooms as the front lines. For far too many students and teachers, surviving their days in those rooms feels like surviving a battle.
In November, results will be released dealing with bullying of teachers by parents and principals. Somebody ask me about all this, please. Been there, done that, got the goddamned T-shirt. I worked in grades 7 & 8 for years and I was out there on the front lines without any back-up or support. People who haven't been on the front lines make announcements every once in a while about their idea for the latest magic fix to the problems. There is no magic fix, but there sure as hell is a major overhaul needed. It is a massive problem, and there will be a great many more casualties before it is all turned around, but it is exactly right to refer to our classrooms as the front lines. For far too many students and teachers, surviving their days in those rooms feels like surviving a battle.
2 Comments:
I wrote a similar article about bullying last week on my blog. It's written from a student's perspective, however, and it's about bullying between students, not between teachers and students.
Isn't it something how we call this sort of treatment "bullying," but when adults do it to each other, it's "harassment" or "assault?" I don't see how it's any less harmful when kids are involved. In fact, I would suggest it's more dangerous - in that children who are bullied can develop any number of mental health problems later in life.
-Steve
I wonder how often kids who are bullies, inherit their behaviour from their parents ...
I also greet some of the news with a bit of cynicism. So the teachers' associations have finally discovered this -- so what? Just what are they going to do about it? When it comes to giving teachers any kind of support, the associations are gutless. When it comes to making life easier for the victims (teachers and students alike), the school administration -- read the principals -- are impotent. This problem didn't recently surface. It's been on going for years. The administration and the teachers' association are as guilty as the bullies for their inaction. I don't see this latest effort as amounting to much.
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