Feature Article March 20, 2002
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Commentary Bullying, the community, and the schoolsby David BrisonBullying seems to me to be a part of a larger problem that is on the rise. Large numbers of youth are alienated from their communities and their parents, who are often working so hard in their jobs that there is little time left over for their kids. There is a youth culture that is difficult to penetrate and understand, and which seems to have little respect for authority. Further, that youth culture is in many instances modeled on urban sub-cultures, whose anti-social values are glorified in the media.
The problem of alienated youth is a very serious one. The youth culture that has evolved as a result presents very serious problems for parents, teachers, and all of society. Solutions are not simple.
I do not think that Barry OConnors comments on the bullying at Prince Charles Public School were constructive. His stance, in my opinion, carefully protected the schools, directing any potential blame away from school administration, and putting the onus for doing something about bullying on individual students.
However, I can understand why he responded as he did.
The reason that I can sympathize with educators in general, is that I think most of us are perfectly willing to hand the problems of youth over to them without much support. I have been in enough schools in the last ten years to know that the job that teachers do is very hard; they are expected to do too much. Their energies are often drained from the effort of trying to teach and keep order in the classroom in the face of the disruptive behaviour of some students. Furthermore, most parents and other adults have no idea of the real difficulties that teachers face. Parents dont in many instances know what their children are doing and thinking inside - or outside of school; they dont know what they are looking at on the Internet, watching on television, or talking about to their peers electronically; and if they did they might be profoundly upset.
The problems of youth are too serious to be left to the schools; yet, that is what we are doing. Educators generally feel that when push comes to shove, they are gong to be left on their own without too much support from parents or the community. One should remember that Mike Harris has personally attacked educators in a series of paid ads over the last few years. Many of them are demoralized and hurt as a result, and have been retiring as soon as possible.
The climate makes it difficult for educators to say, Yes, we could have done a better job. We could have learned from those experiences [like the Verona one] that we have to take bullying more seriously, find out if it is occurring, and deal with it immediately. But remember - this is only a part of a larger problem that we need help with.
I dont like to paint an overly gloomy picture. There are all kinds of examples of contributions that youth, assisted by their teachers, have made to our society. We regularly cover them in these pages. However, I do think that there are general trends that are disturbing and have to be addressed. Our communities and are a good place to start; but I dont pretend to know how to start that process. I do know that we shouldnt leave it to the schools.
