Real big school

A few months ago I watched the movie documentary titled 'Bully'. It not only touched me in a way no other movie has ever done before, but has stuck with me ever since and will for the rest of my teaching career. The issue of bullying is a monumentally looked over element of our schools and to see it in such a confronting way that this documentary presents again reiterated to me something that I had realised long before. Bullying is and will always be a part of our schools no matter how many anti bullying policies a school puts in place, if the teachers and staff do not follow through on these policies they may as well cease to exist. I realised by watching this documentary and by my own experiences at prac, internship and now casual teaching, bullying of a wide range of students is extremely common, and surprisingly I realised it is very easy to let a few comments or snide remarks blow over as the teacher in charge. These little comments, no matter how small, leave a scar. As Rigby, (2007) explains “Some people regard bullying as a trivial problem, either because it seems to affect so few, or because its effects are seen as quite short term and readily shrugged off” (pp. 48). The situations I witnessed as a student teacher taught me more than any lecture at university ever could (no disrespect).

It is not until you get out into the real world when you start to realise unfortunately those situations that happened in that sad documentary you watched one night, balling your eyes out, aren't fictional Hollywood stories. They are real. Without sounding too silly this really opened my eyes. I was not prepared to be confronted by so many situations of bullying as I was in the different school settings I was a part of. I realised even more the valuable role we play in each student's life, not only to their lives of learning and growing, but also learning to become confident in themselves, our responsibility to keep them safe, provide them with the socially just environment that Gewirtz, (1998) identified, “the subject matter of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which social institutions ... distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the distribution of advantages from social cooperation (pp. 470)”. Letting that little snide remark go creates a domino effect. You will let the next one go, and then the next, by stopping, handling the comment with fairness but using it as a tool to not only teach that particular student a lesson, but also their peers can be a very undervalued process.

A few times I used this technique, and by handling the situation with care, the student that was initially in the wrong honestly realised what they had done and quickly apologised for their comment. I also then noticed a monumental change in these particular students in my following weeks. The identity of not only the student that had said the comment, but also the identity of the student that the comment was directed at was completely changed. More confidence in both was displayed, and even a new friendship was formed.

I know what you’re thinking. Now this is starting to sound like a Hollywood movie. Well yes maybe, but I can assure you it happened and was told by more experienced teachers it’s not uncommon. Without getting too ahead of myself I started to think about the path these students would have taken if I hadn’t pulled that comment up. Could have been luck, or a huge coincidental Hollywood story moment, but I won’t be accepting this next time I'm put in that situation again. Although it was a simple ending and I'm well aware most bullying experiences don’t end this way, I at least will try in every instance to get this ending, because the path leading from an ignored snide remark is not one I want to be a part of no matter the starting point.

Clevver Movies. (2012 March 16). Bully Trailer Official 2012 [1080 HD]. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUy2ZWoStr0

Gewirtz, S. (1998). Conceptualizing social justice in education: mapping the territory. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), pp. 469-484.

Rigby, K. (2007). Bullying in Schools and What to Do about It: Revised and Updated. Aust Council for Ed Research.