Poverty, Bullying and Child Abuse

Although I found the topics of poverty, bullying and child abuse interesting, they each left me with a strange feeling of helplessness. There are many things that I can do as a teacher to try and stop these things from remaining part of a student’s life, but there is fairly little I can do to prevent them from happening in the first place, except maybe for bullying. The reality of the poverty that some of the children in our schools face was sobering. This is a social problem that I so often regard as something that is far away from me- something that happens in big cities and in third world countries. However after class and especially after hearing Mr. Reub speak, I was really struck by the fact that there are children in every community that live in poverty and this has a profound effect on not only their personal life but also on their ability to succeed in the classroom. This brings many questions to mind, but it especially increases my motivation to take the effort to get to know the families in my classroom and be able to respond to the needs of each child. As Mr. Reub spoke on the fact that even though some children are living in poverty, they still want to be able to dress nicely, etc. so they don’t stick out, I became more aware of how important it will be for me to not only help my students who are in need, but also be sensitive to the fact that they don’t want to be singled out because of their needs. This could be a difficult task, but I think it is well worth it.

I found the statistics on rates of child abuse startling. I had no idea how many children are victims of this! Our discussion in class seemed to leave many unanswered questions. The discussion on what types of things to report especially left me searching for what the expectations of teachers are. As an elementary school teacher, I suspect I will often see children come into class with bumps and bruises, and I can't even imagine trying to follow up on every one of them. However, the thought of the one time a child does come it with an unexplained bruise and this is the child who really does need my help- yet I pass it off as an accident is something that really bothers me. I don't want to be the broken link that keeps a child from getting out of an abusive situation! I would imagine that how well you know the parents, how often things like this happen to the child, and the over all demeanor of the child would also play a huge role in determining if this is something I need to report. I am curious to learn more about what the expectations are for teachers.

I think of all the topics we have discussed so far, bullying is the one that has struck me the most as an area in which I can really make a difference. I think my motivation level for being proactive in this area is even higher because I went through much of what the videos we watched described. I remember well that feeling of helplessness and the painful decisions as to whether or not I should talk to my parents or teachers about what was happening because I was afraid of what the consequences might be. I want so much to be able to be available to my students so that they know that they can talk with me if needed about difficulties they are having with their classmates. However, it still seems to me that, while there are many options for helping the victim, the bullies can find so many other was to attack this student in ways and places that I cannot control. This only solidifies my conviction that bully prevention must be more proactive than reactive- children must be educated at a young age that bullying is not okay and taught other alternatives to handling their anger.

Our discussions of these topics has lead me to a much greater appreciation for administrators, since often our response to what the best course of action is is to talk to the principal about it. This only reinforces my motivation to be as supportive an open with her as I can be.