This week’s readings made me think a lot about what is going on in your average public high school in the States. I last taught in a USA public high school in 2002…about 10 years ago. At that time, I can’t remember any students having cell phones or texting. Come to think of it, I barely had a cell phone then. One thing that led my career overseas was my dissatisfaction for dealing with issues within public schools. Lack of respect from students, lack of respect from parents and constantly feeling like I was banging my head against the wall was what made me think about teaching in private schools overseas where students come from good families that value education. Wow, I wonder what it must be like today. I have to think that its a bit out of control with teachers and admin spending way too much time policing cell phone and computer use. The more I think about it, the more glad I am to have made the switch overseas.
Dr. Larry Rosen’s youtube video is what really got me thinking about public schools back home. When he describes how a teenager’s social interactions are completely online, it made my skin crawl. And this is normal these days. Kids lives are completely online. Remember the commercial “Real or Memorex?” At the time of that advertisement, “real” was regarded at a higher level. Now, I’m afraid “memorex” or digital lives are regarded more highly.
With the onslaught of digital devices in our student’s lives, it is not a surprise that online bullying has become such an issue. I am so curious about what is going on in public schools back home regarding this. I teach at an international school full of privileged kids raised by educated parents. My first job was at an under-privileged school with some students even homeless. I can imagine that social issues are much more prevalent at such a school. We just had some online bullying issues at my current school. It was a huge deal and students got suspended for their behavior. Now, things are pretty tame. Does this online bullying still exist? Yes, of course, but students do it in smarter ways. They realize the breaking point and then learn to fly under the radar. Considering the lack of respect shown towards teachers in the USA, I can imagine that there is so much going on digitally that it becomes a challenge to actually teach. Again, did I say I was glad I took my career overseas?
What can be done with this so-called bullying pandemic? Well, there is nothing we can do about a student’s home life. If a child gets mistreated physically by their parents, teachers are charged with calling social services. What if a student gets mistreated mentally or emotionally? This could include subtle interactions that give a student a negative mindset which could lead to bullying. There is nothing a teacher can do about this. And I believe this is where the root of the problem lies. We can give talks on bullying, express the importance of empathy as a core value and spend a lot of time in advisory explaining that bullying is wrong. But until social issues get help at home, all of that verbage will fall on deaf ears. The root of the problem is at home and teachers are left to deal with it in the classroom.
I liked Danah Boyd’s article “Bullying Has Little Resonance With Teenagers“. Her suggestion reads ” We need interventions that focus on building empathy, identifying escalation, and techniques for stopping the cycles of abuse” and until parents teach empathy at home, teachers will continually be faced with bullying in the schools. It will never go away and unfortunately teachers and administrators must waste valuable time to deal with these issues when they arise in school. Dealing with bullying is the teacher and administrators duty by default. What can they do? They can’t let negative behaviors disrupt the learning environment. So they have to do something.
In my humble opinion, schools are a reflection of society. Bullying will never go away and technology will continue to advance. I’m not sure there is anything educators can do but to develop protocol that deals with bullying when it effects the educational process. The whiz educator that develops a program that eradicates bullying will be a jillionaire. Unfortunately, a teacher needs to be a disciplinarian with tendencies towards law enforcement. Bullying is an issue we will always have to deal with and thanks to technology, things are getting worse.
I will report back to let you know what my stateside colleagues have to say about technology and bullying back home.