On the eve of the new school year, children were divided into two camps. Some gladly anticipated the meeting with classmates, others thought about the upcoming months of study with growing horror. These children know: they will have to endure the injury and bullying from the part of not only peers, but also teachers. Sarah Berlton shares its history.
In elementary grades, the school was one of the safest places in the world for me. The only corner where I could take a break from my mother for at least a few hours. I knew: they will not beat me here, here I have at least some chance to talk with someone normal.
I remember several stunning teachers who were able to inspire, motivate, help me feel significant and whose lessons I was looking forward to the whole week. But there were also such teachers for whom it was more important to go for their popular guys. They did not punish those who called me, but grinned with them themselves. The teacher should be an example of a responsible adult for children, but some of them were even more immature than my classmates.
One teacher with me “gave five” to the boy who poisoned me because of shaved hair. The other giggled, seeing that they glued a piece of paper on my back with an offensive inscription. Another said before the whole class that I thought of all the bullying to go to the office of the school psychologist and take a walk of the control.
Many
teachers made it clear: they do not believe that I would achieve something in life. I did not correspond to their stereotypes – I did not go in for sports, I was not a cheerler. The children who poisoned me were secretly allowed to humiliate anyone who was not like them, even in the presence of a teacher. Sometimes such behavior was even encouraged.