Bullied who becomes a teacher

Bullying is a common case happened here and there in the school environment. However, only recently does this phenomenon become a global concern. Well, forgive me if it has been discussed widespread since long time ago, but for me, bullying has been unearthed only this several years.

Well, most people said that bullying gave bad impact for the children. That's true! They mentioned many things to stop bullying, to prevent bullying from happening over and over again. Yet, everything is just stopped in their own mouth. Some said that the teachers should participate in eliminating bullying from school. Some teachers even said that they tried their best to get rid of bullying from the education field. N.A.T.O..... No Action, Talk Only! Yet, we cannot deny that there are some teachers trying to focus on their attention to the bully. Trying to stop them from bullying others.

Uh, I'm not saying that those actions are all wrong. But the problem is, they don't really know how the mechanism of bullying is. Nope, they placed themselves as a higher authority, thus trying to use the position to stop that. Ummm, that's not how it works, dude!

To be honest, I know only a little theory on bullying. But in my teaching activity, I'm always trying to pay more attention to the bullied and marginalized students. Well, departed from my own experience as a student, I know how does it feel to be alienated and bullied. Yes, I'm standing here as the ex-bullied. In fact, I've been bullied until my graduation from Junior High School.

When I started teaching, I recalled those feelings of being bullied, of being alienated just because I was different then (I'm still being different until now, though!). I decided not to let others feel the same way I felt. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the chance for practicing that came right under my nose. One of my students back then was a big bullied. Marginalized and alienated by many others, including most teachers. GAWK! That certainly was no good...... (Having no friend is still far more okay than being alienated by your teachers - or parents!)

I gave him chances to do things, trusted him, and approached him personally. It worked! He gained his confidence. At the same time, I tried to approach his friends, convinced them that disliking him is okay, but alienating and bullying are NOT OKAY.

Another memorable experience also came when I handled Matriculation program for Mimika students. Got to admit that they were hard to handle. One of them was VERY BAD in studying (ummmm, another word for ST***D!). Hated by most instructors, destabilizing the class, and never showed seriousness in learning. Most had given up on him. I started implementing the same strategy. Helping him personally, approached him, and gave him the chance to participate in the class. It worked, dude. For the first time, he bid me his thanks.

So, for the teachers out there who have never tasted the bitterness of being bullied, here's a quick suggestion for y'all. Help the bullied regaining their confidence, please. It means a lot for them, showing them that someone is still paying them attention, that they are not alone. In some cases, it will even give them strength to break free from the bullying. When one is hardly bullied, one will think that no one cares. So, show them that you care for them!

Do not know how to recognize bullied? Well, they are usually the one kept silent in the class and ignored most of the time.

Good luck, and if many teachers do this, we can eliminate bullying together!!!!