Editor’s note: I had planned to keep with this month’s theme of sound, with a piece about a friend’s hearing impairment, but news has overtaken me.
Hello Reader,
Got breaking news?
Just when you hoped teachers could learn?
BREAKING NEWS:
Bullying Report Merits Contempt says Sean Crawford
This week, the Calgary Herald newspaper page 3 headline (Thursday October 17) goes,
Staff training urged in CBE bullying report.
(CBE stands for Calgary Board of Education) Right below is the “kicker,”
Critic charges board review ‘dismissive’ of parents, students facing difficulties.
As it happens, although I graduated from the department of disabilities at the local university’s Faculty of Education, with due respect for my fellow alumni, I must agree, not with the school board that made the report, but with critic Barb Silva, the spokeswoman for the Support Our Students advocacy group. The context is the suicide of a bullied nine year old girl in March.
History repeats. I sympathized with parents and students back in mid-2015, in my essay Saving Tomorrow Land (regarding a movie about George Clooney wearing a jet pack) where I noticed that Bully Solutions, with 40 case studies, gave little hope because nearly all of the solutions had come from parents: Teachers with university degrees seemingly knew less about bullying that an untrained parent with common sense. Hence my contempt. I am of the opinion—let’s hope I’m wrong—that the tragic death of that nine year old, and the many tragic deaths at the Columbine School, have been in vain. In tomorrow’s land, as astronauts soar into space, the bullying down here will go on and on.
Please forgive me for voicing this distressing opinion. In February I reviewed What We Want You to Know by children from a good affluent area of southern Ontario, subtitled Kids Talk About Bullying. Of all the stories told, (think case studies) the teachers were effective only twice. May God and parents help those poor children, because nobody else will.
The fresh report by the CBE (Calgary Board of Education) says teachers need more training. Really? Where have I heard that line before? Oh yes, in South Vietnam and Iraq, remember?
Experts told us that with “more training” those well-equipped armies would bravely take on, face to face, ragged insurgents and ISIS forces which are without training, only common sense. Rubbish! Soldiers will not risk their sacred lives, nor teachers risk their sacred comfort, unless they feel mutual trust in each other, having confidence that the “hearts and minds’ of everybody else are in agreement. In February I documented, from practical U.S. for-profit hospital meetings, how such a “win” is indeed possible—without reliance on classroom “training,” while noting it might take a year or more for teachers to trust each other. The founder of those for-profit meetings is living right here in Calgary, a former Calgary Alderman and Member of the Legislative Assembly, (think US state government) Brian Lee. (Note: Lee’s plan takes three years, not ‘one year and then stop,’ lest confidence, attitudes and momentum be lost)
The school board, through Kent Donlevy, interviewed 150 CBE staff. Donlevy said there was no time to interview parents and students since the research was done over the summer months. Silva asked, “So why not do this important research over the span of a year?” The Herald article by Eva Ferguson notes, ‘But Silva argued the language being used in schools is too vague and serves little purpose:’ “Why use well-being or wellness? Why not call it what it is? It’s bullying. Where is the discussion, action and initiative around conflict resolution for students? Where does the board address emotional resilience?”
Long ago a philosopher said, “If a goal is true and good and beautiful, AND if it is not being reached, then there is an obstacle in the way.” Want to stop bullying, unrelenting misery and suicide? There is an obstacle here, and it’s not the parents.
Sean Crawford
Wetaskiwin
October
2019
Footnotes, for those with hardy stomachs:
~A field tour of Vietnam stopped after one year. (Six months for officers) Unfortunately, children may be in misery for years, plural, according to those Ontario students.
(Reminder: There’s no excuse for being surprised anymore—It was back in the early 1970’s that Women’s Liberation, to society’s big surprise, discovered that even drab nuns in shapeless clothing can be assaulted, with rape being not from arousal, but from the joy of violence and bullying)
Three news links from the BBC, from this year:
(link) A wife and mother, even though (sarcasm) ‘kids will be kids and you should just ignore them,’ has Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
(link) A young girl was repeatedly sexually assaulted by bullies on the playground but her teacher didn’t believe her until she was too sore to sit down.
(link) A boy is no longer the same since he was raped by a bully on a play date.
Three essays of mine, archived from this year:
Human Warmth and War of the Worlds includes a part regarding a U.S. school shooting, and teacher’s CYA response, May 2019
History repeats. During Vietnam, angry young soldiers observed that army paperwork was not to advance the war effort but “to cover your ass.” (CYA)
Bullying Still, is regarding teachers at that Calgary school not changing their culture after suicide, and a girl, with an award from the prime minister, having to change schools, May 2019
Bullies and Teachers, regarding practical advice for teachers, beyond “try harder,” February 2019
For folks “archive challenged,” here’s (a link)
Posts
This may not be the best solution but it is one that works. My mom was bullied a lot in school as was I. After many attempts with school admin and meetings with the parents of said bullies to try to stop the bullying - bullies weren't deterred by punitive measures; she advised me to try my best to get up the courage to clobber the hell out of them. It worked for her when she finally punched her bully in the face and same for me. I got up the nerve to deck one guy in the privates with a hefty kick of my new leather shoes. A second I was now bigger than he having started puberty first and after a really bad day with him I body checked him into the brick wall at school and he got a lump on his head and a black eye for his troubles. Neither bothered me again.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, SuzieQ (Now that song is in my head)Herald: "...the review did not include feedback from parents or students and collected no information statistics around the frequency of bullying."
ReplyDeleteOf course not: The teachers will NEVER collect stats because they know the school admin will always be useless, and so the stats would NEVER change.
There will never be any time to train because, as a teacher friend explained, the "professional development days" will ALWAYS be useless for training.
I wrote the above because the school board review said there was no time to train: "With regard to training, there is insufficient time for teachers to learn how to deal with bullying."
ReplyDeleteThere is a Bob Dylan line that ends "...pretending he just doesn't see?" The answer, to Bob, was not about needing more time.