This is a guest post by Jane Smith.
School bullying has become the latest issue to challenge the traditional schooling institution. More prevalent than any other topic related to school violence or crime in recent memory, bullying has taken center stage in media outlets as the problem that threatens the very safety of many vulnerable children. Most recently, school bullying has been discussed in the context of gay students being victimized by fellow classmates that harass them for their sexuality. The bullying behavior has no basis in logic or reason; it’s a sad example of a few students being selected and ridiculed for their perceived differences.
Bullying has figured so prominently in the national dialogue of late that the topic factored into the presidential campaign. Specifically, there have been allegations that presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney himself bullied a gay teen when he was in high school, allegedly attacking a classmate with scissors simply because of his haircut. It’s a sad portrait of an institution that hasn’t much changed from the times that the candidate was enrolled in high school, and only further makes the case that high schools do little to foster real education in students.
More and more schools—not just high schools, but middle and elementary schools as well—report cases of bullying. It’s an acknowledged “part of growing up” for less sympathetic parents and administrators who have long since been written off the behavior as just enough facet of the school experience. But what these willfully ignorant individuals don’t seem to realize is that bullying takes a real and permanent toll on its victims. Just the other day a gay teen in Iowa committed suicide as a result of excessive bullying in a trend that has become far too prevalent in our society. What has to happen beyond teen suicide for the systems that govern public and private education institutions to realize that more needs to be done?
The bullying issue draws to attention the fact that schools have virtually no control over the social norms and trends that occur there. One of the most common defenses for public/private schooling is that it subjects a child to the social world, but how can a parent accept that assertion in good conscience when children across the country are choosing to end their lives rather than go to class? Is this the environment where you want your child to learn social norms?
I feel like it’s not enough to tell children, particularly bullied children, to just keep their head down and bear with the terrors and anxieties of school until they graduate. Telling kids, “It gets better” is a brave campaign that lends hope to those lacking it, but that message implicitly tells children to ignore their aggressors while they’re in school because a better time will come later. Why does traditional schooling have to be an experience synonymous with misery and a just-grin-and-bear it mentality? I don’t think it does, but administrators, teachers, and parents will have to come up with some pretty radical reforms if they want to change it.
I think the school bullying issue is one that needs to be addressed in our country, and fast. It simply isn’t acceptable to let our children go to school knowing that there are bullies out there who will mercilessly harasses them for no good reason. This is among the many reasons why homeschooling seems like such a promising prospect for more and more families.
What do you think about the bullying epidemic in American schools? Do you think it makes a stronger argument for homeschooling?
Byline:
Jane Smith is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes about criminal background check for Backgroundcheck.org. Questions and comments can be sent to: janesmth161 @ gmail.com.