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: