Free From Fear

Cherry

By forest_for_ever

Thu, 21 Feb 2019
  • 1544 reads
6 comments
 

Free From Fear

Blackboard, chalk scored

Whiteboard, black marked

The jungle’s just as forbidding

A harsh remark

A sly under-table kick

A pellet spat and flicked

‘I’m only kidding!’

 

Lurking in the shadows

Hidden from periphery

The coward misery bent

stalks a lonely victim

Only those who won’t fight back

Are suitable as prey.

 

Playfully they reel them in

A hopeful promise

Of friendship just out of reach

Then on a piece of tormented string

The mocking and the bullying begins again.

Certificate U
Poem
Suffer Not The Little Ones
Spiritual

Comments

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Very perceptive. I guess the bullies sadly are often really lonely insecure people, and making matters worse for themselves.

Only those who won’t fight back Are suitable as prey. and those who show they're hurt by it?

Rhiannon

 

Submitted by forest_for_ever on

Very true, but it is often the case that the victim tries not to show humilation.  The bully knows all to well they are succeeding.  Few speak out and it is an ongoing issue we are tackling head on at my school.  We target the 'silent sufferers.  One tactic is to engage silent, anonymous guardian angels.  It's not about defeating an enemy, but self belief and respect to the quiet ones to ashamed to cry out.

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

A knotty and complex problem, Graham. The eradication of bullying should be a priority for the education authorities. If not stopped at source it will develop in later life into hooliganism and criminality. A lot is already being done by schools to tackle gender issues and negative attitudes such as racism so it make sense to me that bullying should be part and parcel of the curriculum in teaching social intercourse and behaviour.

Best, Luigi

 

Submitted by forest_for_ever on

I agree and in my school we know we have problems and prioritise the studen'ts happiness...how else will they want to learn?  We make it the core of our efforts.  Thanks for the comments.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Was very interested to read this, and the comments. When I was classroom assistant it was much easier to see problems than for teachers. Also children seemed to see us as a go between for them and teachers. But there were lots of cutbacks so there was only money to have special needs assistants only for individual children. Do you have someone in every class just to help generally and listen to problems?

 

Submitted by forest_for_ever on

Classroom Assistants are vastly underated and underpaid.  Their value to any truly colaboratively minded teacher is invaluable.

I always listen to their advice and observations; they have a much clearer picture of the individual student and have rescued me from mistakes on many occasions. It was such an assistant who enightened me on a tragic situation for a particular individual.  I reflected and modified my approach and met with real progress and it was all down to having listened to advice.

We have a policy of 'children first' in all things at my school and that includes using such invaluable human resoruces as classroom assistants.  That extra pair of eyes and the intuative judgement they bring should not be underestimated.

forest_for_ever