Bullying in The Schools: Yet another reason to homeschool
From The Toronto Star, April 27: Tales out of school
Who started it?
The age-old question
“He started it!”
But did he? A new study shows teachers often struggle to recognize when bullying is taking place among their students, especially if it’s the psychological kind, rather than the physical bullying for which teachers often get less training.
In a University of Toronto study of 157 Grade 4 and 5 students in Toronto, researchers interviewed 18 students who had been bullied — but their teachers were aware of only 10 of the victims, and they tended to be children who had been bullied physically, rather than through other methods such as text messaging.
The study, led by U of T social work professor Faye Mishna, found teachers sometimes don’t recognize bullying if it takes place between friends, and that students often don’t report bullying to teachers early enough to allow for intervention.
“Most teachers would like more training to provide them with better intervention strategies,” said Mishna. “To understand bullying, we need to examine not only the behaviours of children who bully and the children they victimize, but also teachers who may be present when bullying happens.”