Bullying

I'm aware that I am talking about a context in Costa rica, where let's face it, the whole question of bullying is only recently starting to be taken seriously. An aggressive attitude towards the other, in many contexts from the staff room to the highway, is taken as almost normal, so obviously, in the class such aggressive attitudes are often taken as "normal".

Recently, an education psychologist and parent told me that during the past year one of her sons was nicknamed unpleasantly throughout the year by his teacher. She managed to discover the problem towards the end of the year. The school in question is attended mainly by middle-class families, with a certain religious background in most cases. The same person commented that it´s quite common to hear aggressive vocabulary used among the teachers themselves in the staff-room. Is it surprising then that many such teachers are unaware of or simply ignore what must be considered as bullying among their students? Nobody can afford to continue ignoring the damaging affects of bullying in whatever context, now increasingly common also in the social networking websites.

Even though earlier posts in my blog have referred in more detail to the question of bullying, the underlying problem of creating classrooms where tolerance, acceptance and respect for each individual is the norm, is still unattended to in much of our local context. Admittedly, it often receives lip-service, but where the high school year begins with no training and planning on the part of teachers for classroom behavior, it is only inevitable that serious behavior problems will continue to exist in our schools, whether or not they are recognized as such. I am aware that there are many demands on the teachers' time prior to the beginning of classes, but there is no need to repeat what has been stated and enlarged upon many times in earlier posts, that planning is necessary for pro-active behavior (positive and preventive) measures in order to avoid reactive behavior, both by teachers and students, in class management, with its undesired consequences.

It's never too late to start, so once again may I dare to invite all teachers, especially here in Argentina, to consider seriously starting this new school year with planned objectives with respect to class!.c3eb0633c27e70b7efa20a2363a9f818.jpg management.