What do you think can/should be done about bullying??

[xXNovaxX]

Thats so weird stonecold.

I think u were saying ur school was crappy =S

U may be right, sorry no offence but u said it =S

Because we had at our school Anti-bullying WEEK, and also we had people/social workers come in and talk, and I think former alcoholics.

And yes, when I hear of young people becoming pregnant, I think to myself, what has become of our world....(this excludes of course people being pregnant due to rape etc, which is totally different, and I sympathise with them it would be so hard)

However, if it's any consolation, smoking has gone down to one of the lowest levels ever, I don't know where I saw a chart but it's soooo low. Oh, but u didnt mention smoking ><

Drugs I always hear of getting worse, and worse, and worse people are just to LAX about "recreational drugs" and stuff, like there's too much tolerance to them

[stonecold]

Yeah Nova, my school was shit.  Catholic schools for you I guess.
All they told us was the best way of preventing STI's/pregnancy was to abstain from sex.  Total bull shit.
Never got spoken to about drugs/alcohol and smoking.  I do know that smoking is going down in society, but I think that it is rising amongst youths, and sadly not just tobacco.
Drugs are what shit me up the walls the most. It's like a domino effect.  One person does it, tells another to do it, then they tell another to do it, and it just grows.

That is why I think the govt should take control and make a uniform plan for all schools , as I know that when it came to social justice, my school was/is one of the worst.  They simply turn a blind eye and don't care.  It's like they put it in the too hard basket.

And don't get me started with the rape thing.  I am catholic and when I heard the pope say condoms cause AIDS and the priest say that an abortion was a far worse crime than rape,  I was absolutely disgusted.  How could someone say such a thing.

[xXNovaxX]

I agree with everything you said, and it wouldn't just come down to Catholic Schools, so don't go into that mentality =P
Trust me, a lot of schools are far worse.

But I have to say, you cannot blame a Catholic School for saying the best way to prevent pregnancy is to abstain from sex, after all it IS part of the Catholic beliefs I believe :/ like they have the right and SHOULD put across that message since it's "morall correct" in their religion. But as we know MANY people do not follow religion 100% and so ADDITIONAL alternatives should be described and made available as a GENERAL way to avoid becoming pregnant, like if Catholic teachers were worried kids will start having sex at a young age thinking they can just "pop on a condom" (wow, that sounds so weird to say) they can teach about contraceptives as part of like a "health" or "science" lesson if you want.

But like I don't know, but the original reason why Catholic schools, and Muslim schools, and Jewish schools were established is so parents can send their kids to schools where their VALUES and MORALS and TRADITION is carried out, if that makes sense?

But in regard to STD'S i think that was wrong, abstaining from sex shouldn't have been taught as the only way, because it's a serious health issue which causes death etc, and so ALL options should have been explained.

I know you may think im off, but yeah at leats in ALL public schools u get taught it.

[xXNovaxX]

She's dead o.O

[stonecold]

That is the thing though, barely anyone who I know that is Catholic follows their religion that much.  I hate to say it but they really do need to get with the times and change things, because the current system is 100% broken and doesn't work.  Even the nun at my school was bagging out the church.  I can't really comment for other faiths.

As I have stated previously, I would like the government to take control of what is taught to students in ALL schools in the , independent and Catholic sectors in regards to what is acceptable socially.  Additionally, religious schools can also educate students in their system of religion if they desire, and then leave it to the students to decide what is right and wrong.

monokekie, some people should just never be allowed to be teachers.  At my TAFE this year, there was a disabled student who was partially deaf and was ridiculed by some of the teaching staff.  Yes Nova, at RMIT. 

[ZachCharge]

As I have stated previously, I would like the government to take control of what is taught to students in ALL schools in the , independent and Catholic sectors in regards to what is acceptable socially.  Additionally, religious schools can also educate students in their system of religion if they desire, and then leave it to the students to decide what is right and wrong.

What kids are taught at government regarding the three big issues (bullying, drugs and sex, in order of when they come) at schools isn't exactly helpful - or a deterrent. All I got from school was half a science lesson with a condom per table, a Styrofoam dildo and a hot teacher saying "Hmm...I DON'T think any of you are ready". Sex, drugs and bullying are dealt with horribly IMO. My school haven't done any anti-bully or drugs are bad lessons.

On topic, a sad thing about bullying is, if you are bullied for so long you start thinking everyone is bullying you badly. I have an anonymous friend (dropped out because of...err..."bullying") who stayed home 70% of the time as he/she was afraid of bullying - which in all honesty never really happened minus...umm...well a kid once made graffiti on his pencil case and got in quite a bit of trouble for it (it took me five minutes to think of something lol). It's hinted that he/she was really bullied in primary school and I think he/she came into high school with a feeling that everyone is out to get him/her.

Bullying needs to be dealt with at primary school, some anti-bullying lessons with videos and testimonials EACH year, harder punishments etc. Stop it their and it won't be that bad in high school (pre VCE). How about an anti-bullying van like the smoking one with a giraffe? They where fun and a good deterrent. (Heck for 6th graders they could do a anti-drugs van...(why is my mind telling me they do but my school didn't do it?)

[Eriny]

How to HTFU: Have confidence in yourself.

[xXNovaxX]

How to HTFU: Have confidence in yourself.

Ah, that is clearer. But still, I stand by my other points in many cases people are confident with themselves but are still put down and abused daily/weekly, it is impossible to survive that long regardless of the confidence within urself without breaking down.

However, if you're talking about the simple stuff like "your're dumb", "you're scared of the dark" etc then YES you do need to harden up, you cannot "dob" on tiny things, but by year 7 these cases are no longer applicable,  and you start entering un-charted territory when it comes to bullying relating to dangerous verbal and sexual abuse as well as physical.

[stonecold]

As I have stated previously, I would like the government to take control of what is taught to students in ALL schools in the , independent and Catholic sectors in regards to what is acceptable socially.  Additionally, religious schools can also educate students in their system of religion if they desire, and then leave it to the students to decide what is right and wrong.

What kids are taught at government regarding the three big issues (bullying, drugs and sex, in order of when they come) at schools isn't exactly helpful - or a deterrent. All I got from school was half a science lesson with a condom per table, a Styrofoam dildo and a hot teacher saying "Hmm...I DON'T think any of you are ready". Sex, drugs and bullying are dealt with horribly IMO. My school haven't done any anti-bully or drugs are bad lessons.

That is my point.  There is absolutely no control over what is and isn't taught, and it is entirely based on which school you attend.  Also I would like to point out that I never said what the government was doing at the moment was working.  If anything, it obviously isn't working for the better part.  Some descent money needs to be spent and progammes developed that will be effective in curbing the social issues faced by students.

I agree with your stance on bullying.  It should be made clear in primary school, that physical and emotional abuse will not be tolerated.  Students need to be made fully aware of the side effects of bullying, including depression and suicide.  Furthermore, empty threats telling students "not to bully others" by staff members in front of the entire school assembly doesn't cut it, nor does it work.  The problem needs to be dealt with regularly in small groups where students can feel comfortable to discuss any questions or things that they may have experienced that made them upset.  It could be as simple as discussing a disturbing news story.  It is all about educating students to behave in a socially acceptable manner.  I get the feeling that most parents believe that it is the schools responsibility to do this, whilst many schools believe it is the role of the parents to control their children, however I won't open that can of worms as that is a whole other argument.

[QuantumJG]

My dad went to a catholic school and he said the teachers were big bullies. He had schocking stories like when the class dux forgot his bible and the teacher smashed him over the head with a textbook or when my dad was into his tennis and his teacher told him that he would never win some cup or if he did the teacher would run around in his underwear.

[stonecold]

My dad went to a catholic school and he said the teachers were big bullies. He had schocking stories like when the class dux forgot his bible and the teacher smashed him over the head with a textbook or when my dad was into his tennis and his teacher told him that he would never win some cup or if he did the teacher would run around in his underwear.

Teachers can be awful.  This is a bit of a generalization, but I believe it is worse with older teachers.  The most of them just seem to be bitter and twisted with their lives.  Not saying it is all older teachers,  but I much rather prefer younger teachers.  They are so much easier to relate to.

[xXNovaxX]

I'm going to make a thread on younger vs older teachers!!! I was going to post here, but it's a good talking point

[Eriny]

How to HTFU: Have confidence in yourself.

Ah, that is clearer. But still, I stand by my other points in many cases people are confident with themselves but are still put down and abused daily/weekly, it is impossible to survive that long regardless of the confidence within urself without breaking down.

However, if you're talking about the simple stuff like "your're dumb", "you're scared of the dark" etc then YES you do need to harden up, you cannot "dob" on tiny things, but by year 7 these cases are no longer applicable,  and you start entering un-charted territory when it comes to bullying relating to dangerous verbal and sexual abuse as well as physical.

I think it's true that constant torment would be dreadful for anyone, but perhaps confident people are more likely to do something about it like tell a teacher or whatever. If the kid knows that they don't deserve to be treated so badly, then I think they'd be less likely to be completely victimised.

[amirite?]

Teachers can be awful.  This is a bit of a generalization, but I believe it is worse with older teachers.  The most of them just seem to be bitter and twisted with their lives.  Not saying it is all older teachers,  but I much rather prefer younger teachers.  They are so much easier to relate to.

This.

Older teachers bitch and moan about their "shitty" pay (which really isnt too bad) so much. They all seem to be bitter and depressed.

[QuantumJG]

Remember that this was over 30 years ago and it was much different back then. Basically I'm sure that is why corporal punishment was removed because teachers were abusing it.

At school I preferred being taught by older teachers, since the younger teachers were usually crap and never really taught anything. In year 10 we had a young maths teacher for half of the year who didn't really teach anything and then when we did pre-methods we had an older teacher who was just brilliant.

The quality of teachers (IMO) are dropping.

We know a professor of education (very passionate about her field and reads all the time - btw she hates the VCE English curriculum). Anyway she was telling us about her students and their assignment was to write an assignment for year 8's in SOSE (obviously not a real assignment). Anyway she said that they all lacked originality.