One solution won't fit all…

Yet another academic is bullying schools. This time the bullying is about bullying. She said it’s not only kids who are nerdy or overweight who are bullied. Quite right sister, nerdy and overweight teachers are bullied too.

But teachers don’t just know about bullying from their first-hand experience, we’re the ones doing something about it every day. Instead of writing articles in American academic journals, teachers are in schools, mingling with the bullies and the bullied, dealing with the problem, and learning what works and what doesn’t.

She wants one system and one strategy to deal with all bullying. That’s not just naíve­, it’s wrong. There are a bazillion different types of bullying, just as there are a bazillion different people doing the bullying. One solution won’t fit all. Bullying is about one person hurting another. It can be physical violence or even threats of physical violence. It can be emotional assaults such as name-calling or isolating, and it can be damaging the victim’s property. One solution won’t fit all situations.

She said that NZ encourages bullying by telling the victims that it’s all part of growing up and learning how to deal with society. NZ is an ugly, brutal and angry place. Read the newspaper, count the murders, or go to a PTA meeting. NZers need to be tough, cynical and robust. This doesn’t mean we should encourage kids to taunt and beat each other. But we do need to teach them how to cope with bullying – because it’s not going away.

Bullying is inherent to our whole culture, not just in schools. If this country gets serious about school bullying we’ll see it first in the decrease in the amount of pre-school child abuse. We’ll see it in Parliament when they begin showing more respect for each other. We’ll see it on the sports fields with people accepting the referees’ decisions. And we’ll see it when we read academics praising schools for all the good they do, rather than focusing on the few failings.

No, hugging cushions and scented candles and trust falls are not part of the solution. NCEA credits for pretty-looking wikipedia-sourced projects on bullying won’t help either. Similarly, articles in academic journals won’t help either. More teachers will help though.

Bullying is human problem. More teachers in schools, with more time to spend on intervention, talking, and role-modelling will help. But for more teachers to be employed, we need a country that’s willing to pay. And NZ doesn’t value schools or teachers. I know this because every day I hear and read about NZers bullying teachers and principals.

— Peter Giddens