Recent reports of schoolyard bullying at Taoyuan County’s Bade Junior High School (八德國中) have shocked the nation, especially the story that one student threatened to shoot teachers.
After looking into this last story, it turns out that the student in question was well-liked by staff and students alike, voluntarily picked up litter for a whole year and was generally very helpful around the school.
A number of months ago, however, a senior teacher who had been very supportive of him retired, leaving him feeling that there was nobody in the whole school who accepted or understood him, and he became involved in a gang.
It was this latter influence that caused him to go crashing into the staff room, declaring that he would shoot staff members.
Schoolyard bullying is really just the tip of the iceberg. A more widespread problem in elementary and junior high schools at the moment is exclusion and prejudice.
Many “good students” outside of the more mainstream educational institutions often find themselves ostracized or looked down on by their classmates and, in some cases, by members of the teaching staff.
It’s not that this is a new phenomenon, it is just that since the advent of globalization and the polarization of rich and poor in society, social exclusion has become more entrenched, through unemployment, poverty and the disparity of wealth. As a corollary, we are seeing an increase in the number of people being marginalized and consigned to the bottom rung of society.
In schools, this ostracizing and prejudice has reached a new level of intensity, and problems such as the rise of single-parent families, children being raised by grandparents and declining social cohesion have all contributed to a situation in which children find themselves feeling lonely, helpless and increasingly at odds with the schools they attend. Turning to gangs or bullying are an inevitable extension of such exclusion.
One could say that this exclusion and prejudice are the product of economic realities, and there is certainly something to this.
More important, though, is the dynamic of the school environment. If this is allowed to become monolithic and preoccupied with academic performance above all else, to the extent that other talents or abilities are dismissed out of hand, there is little room for pupils perceived to be “bad students” to find acceptance or recognition.
The trick is to reintroduce pluralistic standards into education that allow the special talents and abilities of each and every student to shine through. This is how to foster self-respect and self-confidence in students.
In a truly pluralistic school environment, students are empowered to find their own niche and be accepted in their own right, which facilitates a significant decline in exclusion and prejudice.
The problem is that today the only kind of success to which schools give any priority is that of academic results.
Even subjects such as music, art and sports that are officially part of the curriculum are not really accorded all that much importance, so forget skills that are not part of the curriculum, such as physical work, acting and performing, community work and physical aptitude.
There are also other aspects of student behavior that are not always visible, such as courage, candidness, a positive outlook and forthrightness.
In other words, many positive aspects of student behavior simply go undetected and under-appreciated, left undefined in terms of the school curriculum.
How teachers, within official classes and mainstream school culture, recognize individuals’ abilities and interests and seek to create a more pluralistic study environment and set of values, in which students recognize and respect each other, is the key to turning rejection into acceptance.
The polarization of society caused by the large disparity of wealth and the vast differences in standards of living only goes to make interaction between students more difficult. It also makes exclusion and prejudice more marked.
One approach worth considering is for schools to provide more opportunities for study exchanges, to break down the barriers between groups, foster familiarity and reduce mutual mistrust.
Favorable student-teacher interaction is the key to a pleasant learning environment in the classroom. Teachers need to treat students in a more democratic way, allowing them equal freedom of expression and access to class discussions and activities.
These are the core elements needed to build positive peer relationships within the classroom setting. Equality, democracy and participation are more than just slogans, they are practical imperatives and if applied properly they will gradually, over time, become an inextricable part of people’s lives.
Another good way to create a pluralistic environment is to have students do things as a group, what we might call -“collective implementation.”
This could involve asking classmates to put on plays, sing together, read a novel together or collaborate on painting a mural or some other kind of art project. They could collectively cultivate a patch of land, or engage in a group activity such as cross-country running, river tracing or roaming in the countryside.
Other ideas include assembling a bicycle as a team, or taking part in some kind of community project.
All of these activities are designed to help nurture students’ participation skills and build up self-respect and self-confidence.
During the process they will also learn how to work as a team, delegate tasks, work with other members, trust others and share — all valuable qualities. Again, this is particularly conducive to creating good relations between teachers and students and among peers.
Of course, all kinds of systematic elements need to be addressed for educational reform to happen.
The above suggestions simply require the cooperation of parents, and can be implemented on the level of the school by teaching staff.
I would emphasize once again, bullying is just the tip of the iceberg, and if we are to get to the root cause of the problem we need to start by respecting the multifaceted nature of each student.
This will promote favorable teacher-student relations and provide the proper foundation for a pleasant school environment. If such a foundation is not first established, all the other improvements are unlikely to amount to much.
Lii Ding-tzann is a professor of sociology at National Tsing Hua University.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
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