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Bullying

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souxi:
I,d like to ask you lot a question re bullying if I may. I,ve posted this topic on another message board I use and stired up quite a hornets nest. My daughter has just started senior school.she,s 12. A new kid, from her old school, was having a maths lesson. Now apparantly, the kids were told to line up afterwards in alphabetical order. Now whether or not the poor kid was so nervous he didnt understand or maybe he just got it wrong, I dont know, BUT, as "punishment" she MADE the poor kid do 10 pressups!! in front of the entire class, who of course laughed at him. He meanwhile was in floods of tears. :'( AND she had the gall to say it was a joke!! FFS. Now IMO, I think thats bullying. It was all about power..she did it because she could, and the kid couldnt answer her back. It was his first day for crying out loud! Discipline in school yes of course..teaching kids to respect their teachers, yes of course, BUT making the kids terrified of them NO. I,m appalled I really am. Some people think I,m being too soft and some people agree with me. What do you lot think?

Aussie Chris:
Hmmm, this is an interesting question souxi.  First of all I can understand why you feel strongly about this.  It certainly seems excessive to use a military-styled punishment on a 12 year old on the first day of senior school.  As it turns out, the punishment was embarrassing and humiliating and it is this fact that is controversial, but you'd have to know that humiliation was the objective before it could be assumed to be bullying.  Of course it is also fair to question whether push-ups are a reasonable punishment in the first place.  Personally, if I were this child's parent (or a classmate's parent for that matter) I would want my child to learn from this experience and not to be emotionally or socially damaged from it, so I would want to ensure that any humiliation was an accident and that punishments were consistent for all students.  If either of these is not true then I would expect an apology from the teacher and school. Just MHO.

Lynne:

--- Quote from: souxi on September 13, 2006, 08:20:19 am ---I,d like to ask you lot a question re bullying if I may. I,ve posted this topic on another message board I use and stired up quite a hornets nest. My daughter has just started senior school.she,s 12. A new kid, from her old school, was having a maths lesson. Now apparantly, the kids were told to line up afterwards in alphabetical order. Now whether or not the poor kid was so nervous he didnt understand or maybe he just got it wrong, I dont know, BUT, as "punishment" she MADE the poor kid do 10 pressups!! in front of the entire class, who of course laughed at him. He meanwhile was in floods of tears. :'( AND she had the gall to say it was a joke!! FFS. Now IMO, I think thats bullying. It was all about power..she did it because she could, and the kid couldnt answer her back. It was his first day for crying out loud! Discipline in school yes of course..teaching kids to respect their teachers, yes of course, BUT making the kids terrified of them NO. I,m appalled I really am. Some people think I,m being too soft and some people agree with me. What do you lot think?

--- End quote ---

Souxi,

I have some very strong opinions about this one.  It's only my opinion, BUT I think that physical punishment and humiliation have absolutely no place whatsoever in a school environment (or any environment for that matter - again just my opinion and a whole different can of worms).  There are plenty of other options for punishment that do not damage a child's self-esteem...time outs and writing essays and doing extra homework come to mind just off the top of my head.

Furthermore, the incident sounds like an honest mistake on your child's part, not even willful disobedience.  WTF was this teacher thinking?  If it were my child, I would file a complaint with the principal/admin/whomever that teacher reports to and demand my child be placed in a different class with a teacher who respects the students, which is just as important as the children respecting the teacher.

-Lynne

Fran:
Souxi,

It sort of makes me wonder how that teacher might react if a child presented a real discipline problem.  My heart goes out to the boy who had to endure the humilation of his classmates on the first day of the new school year.  (And then we wonder why some kids just don't like school.)  Even though your child wasn't the victim here, next time she could be.  I think a brief note to the school principal (headmaster) expressing your concerns is in order.

Lynne:
Souxi - I misread that it was your child's classmate, not your own child.  I still stand by my ideas, tho.  It could be your child next time.

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