I’m a male high school teacher. I’m a conservative and a veteran with over twenty years service in the military. I’m no bleeding heart or shrinking violet and I deplore the left wing’s genuine influence on so much of education.
But this activity doesn’t strike me as having anything major wrong with it. It’s a very standard anti-bullying exercise and it’s one that I’ve seen work.
Kids have a right to not be bullied at school, and for schools to do something to try and stop it happening.
I do agree that parents should be informed about such exercises in advance - that’s a different matter. Parents have every right to know what is going on in their kids classroom, and in most cases to exempt their kid from it if they choose to. But this activity doesn’t seem like a problem to me - and I’ve seen a lot of things that I do regard as big problems in schools.
Thank you for your service both in the military and in the school system. I do not agree that this is a positive exercise.
#1 The scars from bullying part is anathema. Human beings grow throughout their lives and change in response to stress, experiences etc. Being challenged often spurs children(and adults) to grow in understanding of themselves, of others, and to develop their ability to withstand stress and to use the experience to excel. Promoting that growth is the parent’s and teacher’s job and opportunity. The emphasis should be on developing self reliance, finding a way to work through situations not a pity party that makes a the target a damaged victim, that tries to shame unshameable bullies who obviously have deeper problems. The message to the class is deeply flawed and damaging to the children.
#2 This is a story about 4th grade children and desensitizing them to curse words and making them participate in mock aggression is wrong in so many ways that it is abuse. The exercise may have been typical yes, even standard, unfortunately, but was very wrong. Thinking through the situation makes it obvious that teachers are going to seminars and being wowed by the presenters and they are not filtering what they are told through their common sense meters. I would have been up in the schools faces for bullying my child and for sending the wrong messages about how to live and grow through adversity.
I am confident you can direct all us “non-educators” to where in the Constitution we can find “Kids have a RIGHT to not be bullied”.
No argument that no kid should be bullied, but sometimes a kid has to stand up themselves to the bully to stop it.
I am also 100% for treating bullying the same as any other assault, charge the perpetrator, separate them from the kids. A big part of bullying is that public schools are so focused on the gubmit money for daily head-count that they let anything go on in school. Kick out the bully? Hell no, the school wants the head-count money.
Regrettably, public school has become, at best, worthless to many kids and “educators” are seen with same skepticism as are used car dealers. Who’s fault is that?
There are nuances that can take things from reasonable to outrageous...
...but this seems pretty innocuous while getting a reasonable point across.
..at least by itself.
“I’m a conservative and a veteran with over twenty years service in the military.”
Maybe it’s something in your water then. Here in the states, conservatives have a BIG PROBLEM with who’s exactly running this “anti-bullying” campaign. We’d rather they stay in the bathhouses, versus our schools.
Why teach our kids to grow up to be candy-assed sissies?