Task 4
Case bully in schools.
Statistically, case bully has rose significantly in recent years. In 2014, there were
2900 cases but in 2016, the total number increased to 3400 cases. Actions must be taken
immediately for our child’s betterment and future. Getting bullied is a traumatizing
experience especially to the young undeveloped minds, this would cause a high hit of
depression rates in our nation. Somehow affect our future workforce or bright mind of ours,
thus directly risking our nation’s economics.
To solve a problem, one must know the root of the problem. Bullying has two major
form, physically and verbally. Both are very humiliating and causing students to become
petrified whenever they are in school. The causes are usually because the perpetrators are
insecure about themselves. This is mainly because from a harsh family background or the
other way around. To make them feel good about themselves again, they must show
dominance towards the innocent ones. Hence, the victims are usually powerless to defend
themselves because nobody would ever expect such thing would happen to them. Plus, the
perpetrators are usually in a group of 3 to 5 bullies that is to ensure the process are
successful and fulfilling to them. The victims sometimes are too afraid to call for help or
being threaten not to seek aid, and this is exactly why there are so many unreported bullying
cases in Malaysian school.
Children from abusive homes are more likely to bully than other children because
aggression, violence and manipulation are modeled for them. As an example, when an older
brother or sister puts a younger sibling in a head lock or twists an arm behind the back, this
creates a sense of powerlessness. It also is sibling bullying. To regain that feeling of power,
these kids then bully others sometimes even emulating the older sibling.
Besides, kids with low self-esteem are prone to bullying because it gives them a
sense of power and control, which is something they find lacking in their own life. They may
also brag about their exploits and abilities in order to cover for a low sense of self-worth.
Remember, even though bullying attracts negative attention, it is still attention. Bully-prone
kids often make negative comments about a person's appearance, intelligence or abilities.
They may also be intolerant of other races, cultures or lifestyles. Much of this prejudicial
bullying comes from fear, a lack of understanding and is often learned at home. Work with
students to learn how to be more accepting of one another.
Moreover, there were verbal bullies or ‘keyboard warriors’ so to speak. Such type of
bully usually does more critical than physical bullies, because physical wounds would heal
over time, but a wounded heart might never. Words are usually the deadliest weapon
mankind ever own, similarly the bullies are envious towards someone for having an ordinary
life, or insecure to see how he or her victim are doing fine in life. So, they start verbally
attack their victim and ruin their reputation. This might potentially cause victims to be gloomy
and lost faith in life, possibly taking his/her own life. There were many cases regarding
campus suicidal, its very disturbing to understand that our child are suffering mental illness
in a place of intellectual knowledge. Mass media like Netflix recently had a TV series called
“13 Reasons Why” Main concern here is how should we stop it?
As an educator’s perspective, or as an adult, we somehow unaware of the
seriousness of bullying cases, might jump to conclusion saying that getting bullied is usually
part of growing up. Fact is those are not all false, growing up is probably tough because of
the people and challenges you encounter, and incidents can enhance your certain skillsets
and led to a more rational individual. But we must understand not all kids are the same,
another convincing example is workplace bullying. By implementing the same causes and
issues to our students’ case, they are pretty much the same. In other word, educators must
understand what is going on, and thoroughly aware that bully is causing more harm than
good. If that succeed, we are on the right path, and we should start giving more concerns to
our students. Forget about the traditional teacher and student relationship, we should start
treating the child as our own, and try to understand them more. Be motivational and inspiring
to our students and let them understand the true intention of studying and learning. Easy to
say than doing it, to me, I think we can start giving more attention to our students and try to
revert their interest to learning and making the best out of their childhood and educate them
any way of hurting people are bad and should never be done. Let them understand how
precious and unique each life is. By the end of the lecture, they should know that every life
matters and cannot be harmed in any way. Besides, by enforcing school rules regarding
bullying is recommended. By doing so, every student is aware that they are protected by the
authorities and clear punishments should be included to let the bullies realize the
consequences of their action. Thus, when encountered with a bully, they know who to rely
and trust, which greatly improves their confident to stood up against the bullies. We simply
cannot get out there and start catching all the bullies, but what we can do is to equip our
students with a positive and correct mindset in their life.
Bullying must not be taken lightly, there is so little we can do to prevent it from
happening, but we can always mentally support our students in that case by giving positive
vibe in schools will greatly reduce any bullying or social issues. As a future teachers, If we
recognize the risk factors in your students, do not ignore the signs. Ignoring the risk factors
won't help the situation nor will it improve your school climate. Remember, addressing
bullying behavior early can prevent serious problems later. Anyway, parents and schools
should work together to give this issue an end for good.
(1020 words)
References
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Allen, K. P. (2010). Classroom Management, Bullying, and Teacher Practices.
The Professional Educator,34(1), 1-15.
Ammermueller, A. (2012). Violence in European schools: A widespread phenomenon
that matters for educational production. Labour Economics, 19(6), 908-922.
[Link]
Bauman, S., & Del Rio, A. (2006). Pre service teachers’ responses to bullying scenarios:
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without Exceptionalities Master of Teaching thesis. University of Toronto,
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