The first three days have passed, and quite honestly, I feel like I'm walking on water. I keep wiping my eyes to make sure they don't have wool pulled over them because after only three days, I feel like we have our very own Disney magic going on here. All of the components seem to be in place for us to have a fantastic school year! The better I get to know these kids, the better I think our year will be.
Now, normally I would take some time to tell you about what's happened during the week, but it's a little early in the year to have any substance to the writing if that is all I were to talk about. Rather, I would like to take a proactive approach on something that is a huge problem in modern society; something that cannot be if our classroom is to remain as synergetic as it started: bullying.
Let me start off with a story. It begins in about the third grade with a young boy who was a bit on the larger side, but very smart and very friendly; one of the nicest kids you'd meet. None of that mattered. He was picked on by just about everyone for various reasons: his looks, his size, his glasses, his smarts; it didn't matter. People found something to tease him about. There were very few people this student considered his friend. In fact, there was really only one person in his class. The rest of them just looked down on him. "Fatty, fatty, two by four." "Four-eyes." "Nerd." "Loser." He had pretty much heard it all. He worked hard to convince himself that names couldn't hurt him. He would ignore the antagonists. This just provoked them further to the point that he would get beat up at recess, or on his way home. It got to the point that he felt like there wasn't much for him in this life.
When he got into junior high, he took up wrestling, a sport he was pretty good at. He made himself some friends; enough that he felt that maybe life wasn't so bad. Until the realization that this sport gave the bullies more rounds for ammunition. His weight continued to be a factor: wrestling heavyweight, he was the "fat one" on the team. Being a wrestler, he was immediately gay. He was picked on and teased his entire school career, elementary through high school, even though he graduated near the top of his class as a two-time state placer with his wrestling.
That final line should be a giveaway if you've read my bio. This is my story. I was the bullied one back in school. I was picked on and teased for every reason you can think of, and no matter how hard I try, to this day, I can't find a reason for it. I never did anything to deserve it. I was simply myself and that wasn't good enough for the other kids. I've now worked through most of my self-esteem issues that came from it. I feel pretty successful with where I am in life. However, not every bullied child shares my success story.
1 out of 4 students are being bullied. 1 out of 4...let that sink in. In our class of 27 students, 6 of them are being or will be bullied. In our school of roughly 900 students, 225 of them are victims. Take this to a nationwide level, and it leads to approximately 160,000 students a day staying home from school for fear of the bullies. The statistics only get more grim when you think that 15 to 25 students a year will commit suicide due to being bullied at school. To even type these statistics makes me physically ill. My question would be, "How can a young child feel that there is nothing left for them in this life?" but I don't need to ask, because I know the answer. I have been there. I have been the bullied child who often thought that his life had nothing left to offer.
This needs to stop. There's really no other way to put it. There is no reason for bullying. There is no reason to put down other students. There is no reason for students to go home feeling hated. There's just not. The bullies need to stop, the bullied need to make their voices heard, and most importantly, the bystanders need to take a stand against it. Be a friend. Step in and stop it. Tell someone. I don't care what you do, but do something that sends a message to the bullies that we will not have this anymore.
Bullying is something that I have no tolerance for. I will not let it happen here in my classroom. Students should have a desire to be at school, rather than a fear of coming to it. No more poking fun, no more just kidding, no more bullying.
I hope to make this my best school year yet, in turn making it the same for the students in my class. I will play a large part in this with my lessons and activities, but I believe the students play an even larger part. There may be 27 students, but we are one class. For the next year, we are a family, and we will treat each other as such. We will carry each other for our successes, and we will pick each other up when we are down. We may not always be best friends with every student, but we will always treat them with the respect we would want, with the respect they deserve. Hands down, zero tolerance, NO MORE BULLYING.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment