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Although being told that "life isn't fair", or "there is nothing I can do", or "I have to believe the teacher's word" hardly gives you a feeling of justice.
What might give a sense of justice is to see and hear the offending administrators explain themselves, take questions and act like a human being rather than like a faceless robot.
What might give a sense of justice is to see and hear the offending administrators explain themselves, take questions and act like a human being rather than like a faceless robot.
One thing they reported that hit me was the fact that in many school districts it is against the rules to defend yourself if someone assults you in school. According to the twisted logic of modern school administrators if a school yard bully attacks a kid on campus the person being attacked is wrong if they fight back! They will get in as much trouble as the kid who did the inital attack if they fight back and defend themselves. Is this crazy or not?
Not in my day. Teachers didn't attend our fights and did make amusing comments in class to bullies that came to class with black eyes and bloody noses.
Interestingly, two decades later I had a son who was a super geek, but who was protected from bullies by the star football player (and class president) in his class due to their combined science and cross-country interests.
Not in my day. Teachers didn't attend our fights and did make amusing comments in class to bullies that came to class with black eyes and bloody noses.
Interestingly, two decades later I had a son who was a super geek, but who was protected from bullies by the star football player (and class president) in his class due to their combined science and cross-country interests.
frihed....great post..
ive always thought you could cut bullying in half very quickly... enact a "mentor" program in the school systems,,, just as that football player protected your son,,,,,
give extra credit to the older kids..
in high school I bullied the bullies...and 6 times told a bully if you mess with this kid,,,you are messing with me...and guess what??
they left them alone...
one particular sophomore made two geeks cry behind the school,,,, I jumped out of my car and
tackled this big kid pinned him down........and asked the geeks if they wanted to pyss on his head..... they said no
I told the geeks to scram and had a good talk with that bully.......
never again did he mess with anyone-
implement a mentor program of older kids looking out for younger kids and it will cut bullying in half..
ive always thought you could cut bullying in half very quickly... enact a "mentor" program in the school systems,,, just as that football player protected your son,,,,, *******
implement a mentor program of older kids looking out for younger kids and it will cut bullying in half..
A variation on that might be to quietly encourage the mentally stronger and more constructive students to engage with the victims, as I posted in Post No. 271 (link).
I have no way of knowing for sure but I suspect that when my days of being bullied came to an end at the beginning of 10th grade, the band leader of the marching band that I had just joined did exactly that. Ditto the coach of the Junior Varsity soccer team. Also, on his won someone who I am friendly with to this day 44 years later made a point not only of befriending me but making it known in the three activites we shared in common: 1) Weather club; 2) Social studies/European History; and 3) School newspaper. Most bullies are too cowardly to risk the wrath of other students who are both more popular and in many cases stronger as well. The latter person I mentioned was around 5'10" even in 10th grade. He was an honors student and exceedingly (physically) gentle. No one would have wanted a sucker punch from him. And on the soccer team, I was a fullback and the most conspicuous friend a goalie. He was another one who rarely fought but no on e in their right mind wanted to tangle with.
In other words what is needed with bullying is not policies but activism and imagination.
Do you agree that the letter of apology was so that they would have on record that I admitted to doing something wrong in case the situation was to be escalated somehow? Otherwise, what is the purpose of forcing a letter of apology when the person forced to write the letter is obviously not remorseful? Dazzleman thinks it was just to waste my time and keep me from doing something more fun. But if that was the case, wouldn't they have just given me detention, and/or required me to write something 100 times?
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Why do you think I was still not allowed to use the computer room for the rest of the week? Again, I think that in order to avoid admitting that they were wrong, they had to keep some minor punishment on the books, and they assumed that given what I had been through, I was unlikely to fight that punishment.
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They think they are "teaching you a lesson" by forcing the letter of apology but they are establishing dominance.
And no, you can't sue over it. But what you can do, which is what many do, is vote in school board elections, and fight against pay raises for teachers, and exclaim that teachers have too much time off and are over paid. Teachers wonder why so few in the community support them. Not hard to understand at all.
They think they are "teaching you a lesson" by forcing the letter of apology but they are establishing dominance.
You very well may be right. But if you don't think that they were forcing me to admit guilt, then why was my punishment to write a letter of apology, rather than to write something 100 times? Remember, writing 100 times that you will not do something does not admit that you ever did it, just that you won't do it in the future.
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And no, you can't sue over it. But what you can do, which is what many do, is vote in school board elections, and fight against pay raises for teachers,
Normally I would agree with that. But, at least in my state, the public does not vote on pay raises for teachers. The teacher's union is extremely powerful here and guarantees their raises. We do get to vote for school board members, but unfortunately, they very often run unopposed, so we have no real choice. We can vote against the school budget, but then they just put it up for a vote again, in the extremely unlikely situation that it fails.
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and exclaim that teachers have too much time off and are over paid.
I often post that on City-Data, but it just results in me being flamed by those who claim that teachers are the hardest working people and that they are underpaid.
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Teachers wonder why so few in the community support them. Not hard to understand at all.
Exactly! The generation of teachers that I had that made it clear that life isn't fair, and that they don't care if we learn or not since they have tenure, led to a generation of people like myself who distrust teachers and authority figures in general. That is something that they overlooked.
And no, you can't sue over it. But what you can do, which is what many do, is vote in school board elections, and fight against pay raises for teachers, and exclaim that teachers have too much time off and are over paid. Teachers wonder why so few in the community support them. Not hard to understand at all.
I often post that on City-Data, but it just results in me being flamed by those who claim that teachers are the hardest working people and that they are underpaid.
I happen to be of a believe that teachers are underpaid. What is needed is to make their employment closer to "at will." What that means is that their only protection from firing should be racial or religious discrimination, for standing up for bullying victims or a proven violation of academic freedom. Otherwise teaching jobs should be hard to get, quite well paid, and easily terminated. I think that relatively low pay attracts people who are not the brightest. Sometimes former bullies, sometimes just dullards.
I happen to be of a believe that teachers are underpaid.
Whether or teachers are overpaid or underpaid depends on the geographic area. Where I live, teachers make far more money than other professionals who work far longer hours. But I do realize that is not the case nationwide, and you likely live in an area where teachers are underpaid.
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What is needed is to make their employment closer to "at will." What that means is that their only protection from firing should be racial or religious discrimination, for standing up for bullying victims or a proven violation of academic freedom.
That I agree with! Unfortunately, the teachers union will never allow that. And I am sure that the teachers here will be posting about how that "can't" be done.
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Otherwise teaching jobs should be hard to get, quite well paid, and easily terminated. I think that relatively low pay attracts people who are not the brightest. Sometimes former bullies, sometimes just dullards.
Teachers should have pay, benefits, and working conditions comparable to other professionals. If the pay and benefits are too good (as they are where I live), teaching attracts people who don't care about their job, but just want to make as much money doing as little work as possible. But if the pay and benefits are too poor, it will then attract only people who can't make it in any other field. If the pay and benefits are comparable to other fields, it will then attract people with a legitimate aptitude and interest in teaching, rather than people looking for an easy life or people with no other choice.
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