Who’s the Bully?
Thursday, 17 January 2008 by Elizabeth
Local Schools Continue Efforts to End Bullying
I only wonder when lawmakers are going to get to the root of this problem. Students learn that bullying is okay by watching teachers bully students. I saw this happen frequently throughout my elementary and high school education, a few times as the recipient from my 5th and 6th grade teachers. I saw this happen to children in my children’s public school classrooms when I volunteered there. I saw a teacher encourage and applaud the jocks in my driver’s ed class in their bullying. Admittedly, I am hyper-aware of the situation by nature, but the instances are so numerous that I am certain that every single person who has been in a traditional public or private school setting has witnessed a teacher bullying an unpopular (or sometimes even popular!) student.
Maybe I should call the NEA and ask for them to address the issue….. You think?
I grew up in a Lutheran school before Special Ed was really around or incorporated into it, and watched the kids that struggled with reading and lessons be bullied by the teachers. It was clear the teachers didn’t like them because they didn’t keep up and they didn’t know what to do with them, other than hold them back, which they had already done in many cases.
Through their attitudes, we learned not to like them or have patience with them either.