Bullying

Image from:- http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~jgamble/No%20Bullying%20circle.gif




Bullying is something that all children dread. The usual place for a child to be bullied is at school, by other children. However, there are other, potentially more serious places where I believe a child can be bullied, and that is at home by their parents.

According to the NSPCC, 31% of children have been bullied at school by their classmates. This number in my view is unacceptable. Although you could argue that at a young age children know no different other than to bully, this age figure would range from about the age of three all the way up to sixteen, where they are no longer children. By the age of around twelve, I believe that a child should know basic right from wrong, and that it is wrong to bully another person, for whatever reason. I have personally experienced the ultimate scenario that bullying can cause when a girl in my year at school killed herself due to being bullied. The amount of heartbreak that bullying can cause is unexplainable, especially to a child. It can not only damage them physically, but also mentally. If a child at such an age can cause so many traumas by being a bully, it makes me question where the rage and need to bully comes from. Can we really blame parents? Or is it just how the child feels they need to express themselves?

With modern day technology, bullying is a bigger problem than ever. Bullying can not only just now occur in the classroom, but also online, via text message, and phone. Research carried out by the NSPCC showed that 20% of eleven to nineteen year olds had been bullied though e-mail at least once. I believe this makes it difficult for schools to crack down on bullying, as it is not actually occurring in their premises. The question here is how can we combat this? Is there any way in which we can prevent it?

The NSPCC also shows that 60% of children who were physically bullied by their parents were also bullied at school. For many bullied children, home is a release from the everyday trauma they face at school, so I can only imagine what these children feel when they have no 'way out'. What is also alarming is that one quarter of children bullied also found it to affect their adult lives, which in my view is disgusting. It is something that definitely needs to be caught early, with the NSPCC estimating that on average, 54% of primary and secondary schools see bullying as a problem at their schools. This is something brave to admit, as it is estimated that 30% of children aged eleven to fourteen do not admit to being bullied. This causes a problem as years of abuse can often cause teenagers to lash out, or do serious harm.

Overall, obviously, as more or less everyone will agree, bullying is a terrible thing. What do you think we, teachers, and the government can do to combat this? I have included a picture of the NSPCC website below with interesting but startling figures that go into this.



Link:- http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/statistics/bullying_statistics_wda48744.html