licensed image via Wikipedia Statewide school bullying laws and policies in the United States, especially as they pertain to sexual orientation and gender identity (check link to see if changes made)
- DARK PURPLE: Law that prohibits discrimination against students based on sexual orientation and gender identity
- DARK BLUE: Law that prohibits discrimination against students based on sexual orientation only
- GREEN: Law that prohibits bullying of students based on sexual orientation and gender identity
- LIGHT PURPLE: School regulation or ethical code for teachers that address discrimination and/or bullying of students based on sexual orientation and gender identity
- TURQUOISE: School regulation or ethical code for teachers that address discrimination and/or bullying of students based on sexual orientation only
- RED: Law that forbids school-based instruction of LGBT issues in a positive manner
- PINK: Law that forbids local school districts from having anti-bullying policies that enumerate protected classes of students
- DARK GRAY: Law that prohibits bullying in school but lists no categories of protection
- LIGHT GRAY: No statewide law that specifically prohibits bullying in schools
"About a quarter of high school students were bullied at least once during the 2008-2009 school year, and about 7 percent were bullied online by other students, according to new data released Monday by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Alarmingly, 4.1 percent of students ages 12-18 who were bullied—approximately 289,000 students—reported bringing a gun, knife, or other weapon to school; 7.4 percent of students who were cyber bullied reported bringing a weapon to school."For years homeschoolers have been accused of having poorly-socialized children. Our emerging conversation about bullying is only the beginning of a bigger conversation about how poorly designed our mass schools are for human beings as social animals.
Mass schools run in sorted and graded hierarchies run against everything the 20th century learned about human nature, evolution, psychology, neurology, and more. Mass schooling was about ease and centralization for administration because administration has no structural limit, no check and balance. Most businesses have to please customers (corporations that capture regulatory functions of the state are exempt from checks and balances also) but schools have a captive audience.
The parents are the natural source of push back against an administrative structure that wants to extend itself without limit but parents are completely disempowered by compulsory attendance laws. Parents have absolutely zero to say about what, how or when their kids "learn" even though parents know the kids the best. This is the schools way of removing the people who would limit their power.
The overgrown school district grew over many years, the extension of compulsory schooling also grew longer over many years, and the decay of wages, communities, and support for families and kids has grown in the past 30+ years as centralization and concentration of wealth and power continue to flow to the top. Real change is about understanding what the problem is and the core problem with our mass coerced schooling model is compulsory attendance and how that has prevented families from working with schools to get what they need.
A New Model
I have written before how moving toward a voluntary model is hard but understanding the function and consequences of compulsory attendance is critical to moving in the right direction. States that want to save money but ensure a high-quality education is available will have to start learning these facts in order to make policy that actually works and to build a sustainable model of providing learning services for families and communities.
Changing our model, ensuring that we have a substantial connection between the lowest level and the top, means anchoring administration to what families and kids need rather than allowing the top to design and administer programs downward. Changing our model will also change our lives and communities as we begin to use our social natures in a positive way.
When you stop pouring chemicals and fertilizers on crops and begin building the soil, you can start to grow food that is qualitatively different and healthier. Poisonous pedagogy and mass institutionalization allied with weakened families and communities mean that outbreaks of bullying, like insect infestations, will be frequent and hard to control. Strengthening our social soil: dropping grading and hierarchy-based sorting, as well as lessening stress by moving toward families customizing schedules will be the way real social health begins.
background
voluntary attendance
make public schools truly public
what's wrong with the schools?
understanding school funding
related
1 comment:
There is a free information-website for victims of bullying in school or elsewhere.
It's at http://BullyJustice.webs.com
Anti-bullying programs are futile without the threat of lawsuit behind it, it's like "anti-murder" or "anti-theft" programs without the threat of jail.
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