Being a teacher is
not an easy task. Teachers aren´t only professionals who teach something, a
teacher is a role model for their pupils, someone who inspires them to give of their
best, as learners but mainly as people. The social responsibility of teachers
requires a maximum of training and information in the social field. It´s for
this reason that this post deals with a serious problem to such an extent than
many children and teenagers are afraid of going to school: bullying.
This aggressive
behavior which is intentional and which involves an imbalance of power or
strength is likely to end in a disaster as in Spain happened a few months ago:
There is no single
cause of bullying. There are lots of factors in a child´s environment that can contribute
to bullying behavior, some of them could have links with family challenges,
academic failure, lack of tolerance with others, lack of empathy, low self-steem,
the need for power, etc.
Besides, bullying can
take many forms. The most important are three: physical bullying, which
involves kicking, hitting or stealing the victim´s belongings; verbal bullying,
when words are used to hurt, name-calling or threat a victim; and relational
bullying. This last one is more complex cause the bully will convince others to
reject, abuse or exclude victims from a group activity or game. Likewise,
cyberbullying is commented to be a recent kind of attack in which the bully
uses text messages or social networks to hurt the victim. It does exist passive
bullying as well, when some students turn a blind eye; I mean, they observe
this behavior but they neither engage in the bullying nor help stop it, due to
several reasons. 
If we had known how
to look for signs, this wouldn´t happen; so it´s important to know what to look
out, to be able to spot when someone is being bullied. Although most victims
keep it to themselves, a victim will usually display signs. First of all, we
can notice the child´s refuse to go to school and unusual moodiness, as well as,
a decline of grades, bruises…
The truth is that
researches suggest that victims may suffer from mental health problems later in
life, such as depression, low self-esteem and anxiety. If you wish to solve the
problem, the first you should do is treading lightly it, because the victims
may be scared to talk about it because of shame, annoyance or a sense of
guilty. You had better assure them that you will work each other to make the
bullying stop. To make them be aware of a possible solution, tell them some
examples in which victims found a solution and how they´re successful people,
for instance, Michael Phelps, who was bullied at school for his long arms. What
nonsense!
Education is the key
to change such attitudes and the only way to create a better and more peaceful
society and, partly, this lies in our hands.
Some links of interest when you can find more information:
In my opinion in cases of bullying the most important thing is prevention.
ReplyDeleteTeachers and parents must work together to prevent this kind of abuse that can come even to the death as in the case of Diego.
It is shameful that have to happen terrible cases like this in order that the government and the schools begin to act.
On the one hand, teachers must promote the education in values between his pupils.
On the other hand, it would be a good idea that experts impart conferences on this topic to sensitize teachers, parents and students.
In addition, the school should be opened to receiving complaints and suggestions. The managers of the school might place a mailbox to receive anonymous complaints of parents and pupils in order to avoid possible cases of bullying.
In short, as teachers that we will be in the future we must be very attentive to any sign of harassment and not to ignore any sign of rejection or discrimination.
From my point of view as a teacher I think that this point is one of the most important in a school.
ReplyDeleteSometimes bullying cases are obvious but in other cases are too difficult to find them. For this reason, it´s important to talk to children about bullying problems at school. In addiction the values have to be teach too but remembering that the most important education is from parents.
As Carla said, some cases of bullying are obvious but others are not so obvious.
ReplyDeletePersonally I've been bullied when I was in High School for a few months and it was a not-so-obvious case. A few girls bullied me and my friend. I really had a bad time and when we went to the school supervisor, he didn't believe us and did nothing about it. One day, those girls beated my friend. That day, the school supervisor and the headmaster didn't, once again, do anything about it. They only reunited us in a classroom to talk, and the only solution was that me and my friend have to leave the school and not the other girls.
So, it's important to be aware of the signs of bullying, but it is also important to know how to deal with it in a right way, not just talk to avoid the problem as soon as possible.
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DeleteI think traditional bullying is terrible for people, but nowadays it is still worst the cyberbullying. Bullying stops when the victim finishes the school, but in the cyberbullying the persecution is 24 hours, it´s more public and sometimes the victim doesn´t know who the stalker is.
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ReplyDeleteI think it's important that we as future teachers create an atmosphere with confidence and no judgement in our future classes. Students should not be scared of being themselves or expressing their opinions. We should teach our students not to be judgmental and to be respectful with each others' lifestyles and beliefs. This would help a lot preventing bullying.
ReplyDeleteGood job with the article! It's very good! I really like it!
I like this topic . I think that we as teachers or potential teachers must be very attentive to any violent attitudes between students. it is a very sensitive topic. Today there are many stories in the tv, newspaper about the bullyng , but these cases of bullying always existed in schools, just that there are now more aware of it. therefore, from my point of view, I think that as parents or teachers , we must educate this type of behavior. It's more important for the development of children.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great topic that you have chosen, Noe and Josué, and I totally agree that our responsibility as teachers goes beyond just transmitting information and includes also a duty of what in the UK is referred to as “pastoral care”. I think the UK article you found about the tragic case of Diego González and the US websites just go to show what a universal problem this is. Good work!
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