Bullying in Schools

I'll be up front and say that I was bullied in school. I had someone kick the back of my knee (to make me stumble and fall) as I was walking down a set of concrete stairs, but I have a very good sense of balance, so that didn't work. I had one girl tell me repeatedly that, "one of these days, I'm going to beat your head in." My response was to look her in the eye and say "Yeah, yeah." I wasn't a very good victim. Too independant to act intimidated by these girls. My friends, however, were terrified. This was over 20 years ago. I shudder to think how someone like Tracey would act in today's schools.
Maybe she would have had a hand in what happened last week. This morning, hubby was listening to ABC Radio this morning (Mornings with Madonna King - not sure if the piece will be podcast) who was discussing bullying, and gave the statistic that "today, 3 children in your classroom will be bullied. By the end of the week, 1 child in 5 will be bullied." Just what you want for your school-going children. And what can be done? When you have a ratio (in class) of 25+ children to 1 adult, and in the playground of hundreds of children to a few scattered adults, what can realistically be done? Are we to expect children to exert positive pressure on their peers to behave themselves, and not bully others? That's not how it works. Peer pressure generally exerts towards the lowest point. You will not (without significant outside influence, eg a strong parental figure influencing the leader(s)) get a peer group promoting positive behaviour, but, rather, whatever they can get away with. Young people will test limits and boundaries, and the result may be horrendous, like last week. Oh, and at the end of the report was this quote: "Mullumbimby High School has about 920 students and 75 teachers, and an anti-bullying policy." (Emphasis is mine.)
So what are your options? Private schooling? I only ever went to private schools - Catholic girls-only schools from Year 5 onwards, Catholic mixed school for Years 1-4. A 'nice' State School? How do you figure that out? Depend on the official word? Not helpful when they play 'blame the victim' to avoid reporting bullying. (I have enough anecdotal evidence of this happening locally - where you live may be different.) Haunt the school to make sure everyone is behaving themselves? Teach your child to be the bully, not the victim (because that will make Grandma so proud!)
Homeschool. Keep your child in the nurturing, natural environment, where their education can be tailored to their personalities and learning styles, where someone, at least, will be able to repeatedly tell Junior to put pencil to paper now! (Sorry - ADD child would rather play WWIII with his pencil than do maths ;) If we sent him to school, he would be sent to the overloaded Special Education class where they barely have enough teachers and aides to keep things relatively sane, let alone have the time and energy to ensure he actually does work.) Keep your child at home, where you can make sure that your stressed child gets the attention they require for mental and/or physical health. Keep your child at home, so they can do their work at home, rather than schoolwork and homework.
Keep your child at home. That's it. May not always seem possible, but if you really want to, you'll make a way.

Photography as a school subject

The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers is coming up (3rd week of September, approx.) and the annual photography competition closes tomorrow. It has three levels of competition - Open (over 18 years), Student (up to and including 18 years) and Historical (no age limit, except on the photos ;) ) Well, when I told Beth about this, she wanted to enter. So here are her items for submission to the competition. I'm also thinking of entering them as part of her Yearly Report for next year. I think she would also have to do another set in a few months for comparison purposes, but then, I'm not sure how I would put it in the report. Anyway, it's vaguely learning oriented, and she's happy with the results. She chose the subjects when she took the photos, and she chose which of the photos she wanted to submit. They were all taken at Toowoomba's Botanical Gardens, Queens Park.

Motivation

Well, it seems like the moment I put my blog addresses in my e-mail signature, I lost all motivation to keep going. Funny, huh. Anyway, I'm trying to get things going again, and have now updated my other blogs. As for homeschooling, we are getting stuff done - nothing to write home about. We have joined a local group - took our own sweet time doing so, but the children have found friends, and are enjoying the outings, and I'm enjoying meeting other homeschoolers.
It's funny - just last weekend I was sitting with a group of mothers, listening to them complain about school uniforms (uniforms are the norm in Australia, and one mother mentioned the variety of uniforms they had to have, and how very strict their school was with enforcement!) as well as start times and late slips. I'm just so glad I don't have to deal with any of that, or bullying, or peer pressure, or any of the stuff you get when you get masses of children spending inordinate amounts of time together, with minimal supervision or control. Socialisation - do I really want my children to be socialised into a pack mentality? Ah... No!
So, anyway... We're keeping on. I'll try to think of something more interesting to talk about later.