Education Reform
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Bullying will always occur in schools as we know them. Some adults bully, so why would we expect kids not to? Old-fashioned physical assault can be reduced because it's observable. But emotional bullying, the sort that causes most of the misery, cannot be removed by policing. Emotionally loaded gestures are too subtle for that.
Interpersonal abuse is exacerbated in a typical school because it is a ghetto situation. You have hundreds of children crammed into a small area, grouped mainly by age. Each individual has much the same needs and much the same to offer. A large school is a worse-than-average set-up for personal recognition and emotional support.
The school environment is artificially devoid of a natural balance of adults and children - the context in which people behave most humanely.
Schooling is a convenience to society. Children are out of the way. They're being minded. Enough of them are learning enough to be employable. They are also learning to function in an emotional desert. They become citizens who are more easily regulated and socially engineered. If the little ones resist too much, we dope them.
What we need is more teachers to break out and start their own schools, smaller schools, especially at primary level, schools where some parents and some friends can come to help out and make up the adult numbers. Places where a child can be somebody, be noticed and be known.
Philip O'Carroll