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Posted by Susan Carney Feb 4, 2008 |
In order to be successful in school, students need to feel safe. I’m not only talking about physical safety, but emotional safety as well. What does that mean? It includes:
- feeling safe to take risks and make mistakes without fear of ridicule or humiliation
- feeling respected for who they are as individuals, rather than being made to feel inferior or inadequate because they do not meet our expectations
- feeling that their ideas and opinions are worthwhile, even when they disagree with us
- feeling a sense of power and control over their lives
- feeling that adults will listen to them, help them, and protect them
Another important piece of school climate is the social power that exists among and between student groups. We may try to pretend that they don’t exist, but they do.
Bullying is often the result of unequal power distribution. Students with large amounts of social power may feel superior to others and therefore believe that their mistreatment of them is justified. On the other hand, students who feel powerless may use the bullying as a way to temporarily blot out negative feelings they may have of themselves. It may be the only way they know to experience a feeling of power.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do I overtly or subtly encourage or support rituals and practices that favor or value certain social “power” groups over others?
- Do I align myself with “popular” kids at the expense of other students?
- Do I ever excuse behavior in “favored” students that I would not tolerate in other kids?
- Do I treat students differently because of their social status?
- Do I try to provide opportunities for powerless students to feel a positive sense of power and control?