Bullying by teachers in Singapore's schools.

Singapore has a bullying problem. Disturbingly, however, the bullies are the teachers.

I have heard many examples of bullying, in Singapore, by teachers. I shall detail a couple in different posts, in due course. Today, I will begin with one I found most shocking.

In one of Singapore's best known schools there is a teacher whose personality can only be described as sadistic. This teacher loves to humiliate students. In this teacher's class there is a young boy who has dyspraxia. This is a disorder of motor co-ordination.

One day, this boy forgot his school books. Instead of arranging for the boy to share his books with a neighbour, the teacher responded to the situation by getting the boy to stand on his desk, for one hour. Recall that he has a disorder of motor co-ordination and that standing on the desk is not easy for him...he could easily fall off.

The teacher wasn't satisified with that. The teacher told him: "Your name is Stupid. What's your name?" He asked the boy this repeatedly until the boy said: "My name is Stupid.", before the whole class. Thereafter, for the rest of the year, this boy was called "Stupid" whenever the teacher addressed him.

The parents of the boy complained about the teacher's behaviour but absolutely nothing was done to stop it.

Finally, the year passed (he had been in Primary Five) and Primary Six began. The boy's parents thought that this would be a better year, because he would no longer have contact with that teacher.

On the first day of P6, the boy's new teacher pointed out the boy in class, as he welcomed the new students and said: "I know your name: you are Stupid!" - and so it began again.

This is the truth of the Singaporean education system. This is what so many students have to endure - tales that echo this one. I have heard quite a few. Teachers are bullying students all over Singapore. Yet, nothing is ever done to stop it: the parents are always ignored.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Creative students in the classroom.

Are creative students valued in the classroom? Do teachers like creative students or do they move against them, at every opportunity?



From my own personal observations, I would say that it depends on the teacher. Some are open to creative students and others are positively hostile to them. However, that is just a personal sampling of the situation - what does the research say?


Well, I found an abstract of a most interesting article in the Creativity Research Journal, from the January 1995 issue (Volume 8, Issue 1). It was entitled: "Creativity: Asset or Burden in the Classroom?" by Dr. Erik L. Westby and Dr. V. L. Dawson. It is, basically, a direct answer to my question.



These two researchers used prior research that described the characteristics of a creative person. They then got the students in a school to rate each other on these characteristics, so as to identify those that fit the model of what a creative student was like. The teachers were asked if they liked working with creative students: they said "yes". Then, not taking their word for it, they got the teachers to reveal which students they liked and which they did not. Rather worryingly, there was a negative correlation between creativity and being liked by the teachers. There was also a positive correlation between being creative and being disliked by the teachers.



Something strange was going on. The teachers SAID they liked creative students, but the ones who had been identified as creative were actually the ones that they DISLIKED. A closer examination of the situation revealed that the teachers thought of creative students in a different way. The ones teachers thought of as creative had a different set of characteristics to the ones research had identified as being associated with creativity. So, it seems, that teachers don't know who the creative students are.



Erik Westby and V. L. Dawson reexamined the situation in the light of the new understanding of the teachers' view on creative students. It was found that there was a nonsignificant correlation between being a favourite student and fitting the teachers' idea of what a creative student was. The favourite students tended to be more like the teachers' stereotype of what a creative student was. (Though, of course, this was unlike what a creative student actually is.)



This paper struck me as deserving of more attention. People really should know that it has been shown that teachers tend to dislike creative students (even though they think they like them). This finding rather accords with my own observations of school life.



This situation presents a problem. If creative students are actively disliked by their teachers, then school will be, for them, an unpleasant experience. They might experience active hostility from their teachers (as I did sometimes, myself). Their ideas might be attacked, simply because they are ideas. (Just like my essays meeting a hugely hostile response from some Cambridge University staff). Indeed, it may be that the creative student would not benefit from school in the way that non-creative students do.



Teachers should be professional. They should not allow their personal likes and dislikes to influence their behaviour in the classroom. So, the remedy to this situation comes down not only to instilling an understanding of what a creative student is, in the teachers - but in training them not to respond negatively to ANY student, no matter what they do or how they are. It is not the teacher's role to be partial. They should be fair to all and unkind to none. That should be a basic tenet of any teaching life.



The schools of the world are a long way from coping effectively with the challenge ( I won't call it a "problem") of teaching gifted children. Many gifted children are under-challenged in school. This paper, however, points out a different problem: the creatively gifted child might not just be ignored by the school (as many gifted children are) - but experience active hostility from it. This particular minority, therefore, deserves greater attention and protection. For, is it not so that it is the creatively gifted who ultimately have the most to offer our societies? They are also the ones who may be least well served by the educational systems that presently exist.



A good step forward would be simply to teach teachers to identify such creative children - and treat them well and welcome them. That, alone, would cure most of the ills that the creative put up with, in school.



(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.



We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.



This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

The biggest bully in the school

Who is the biggest bully in the school? Is it the oldest kid in the classroom? The heaviest in the class? The one with the nastiest temper, most given to anger? Think about it for a second or two.

Perhaps you have thought of it, perhaps you haven't. Sometimes it is the teacher who is the bully.

What do I mean by a teacher who bullies? Well, sometimes a teacher takes a dislike to a student, often a gifted student, and engages in directed attacks. They might be in the form of remarks at the expense of the child, it might be shouting, intimidating, social isolation, expulsion from the class, or more simply, but just as harmfully, ignoring the student: never choosing the student to answer a question and ignoring that student's question.

Why would a teacher pick on a gifted child? Sometimes the teacher is somewhat insecure or inadequate and feels threatened by the gifted child who always asks questions she cannot answer. Sometimes, the teacher takes offense when the gifted child seems bored and disinterested in the class: this teacher might punish the student in some way - yet what is the student's crime - it is the teacher who is being boring by teaching below the level at which the child could work.

Sometimes the teacher simply cannot understand what the student does or says. This teacher is usually not very bright and can react with anger at the actions, words, thoughts and questions of the gifted child. One such teacher has bullied the gifted child of a reader of this blog. I have answered her in the post beneath "A confederacy of dunces", below, at: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/confederacy-of-dunces.html

The teacher shouted at the reception class student (aged 6) who had made a model of a nephron, part of a kidney, in class, on his own initiative, having been asked to do something else, along with the others.

For this display of creativity and technical skill, memory and knowledge, the teacher shouted at him, "Not to be so silly", when he told her what it was, dismantled his model in front of him, told him "It is naughty to lie to me and waste material." and sent him to stare at a blank wall for the rest of the afternoon.

That action is many things, but one thing it is most certainly, is bullying. Just because the perpetrator in question is a teacher, it does not alter the status of her action: it was the act of a bully. It also demonstrated very clearly that his teacher is far from bright - she is probably not bright enough to teach the average kids, never mind the gifted ones.

How common is bullying by teachers? I can only go by those who have confided in me. My wife experienced it. I experienced it, my brother experienced it too. My reader's gifted child experienced it. I would say, therefore, that it is not uncommon for the teacher to be a bully.

I will speak more of my own and my family's bullying experiences in another post. For now, ask yourself, as the parent of a gifted child: is my child being bullied, by his teacher? Would you know if it were happening? Teachers are in a position of responsibility and respect: the student is conditioned to accept whatever they do. Some teachers abuse this position - and their students. Tell your child that the teacher has no more right to engage in destructive behaviours towards them than anyone else has. Ask your child to describe any incident in which the teacher upset them. Judge if the teacher was engaging in bullying. If so, speak to the Principal and ask for a different class for your child that would not expose him or her to that teacher - or find another school, if the behaviour is chronic. The most damaging bully of all, is a teacher - for the student has no protection from them and no help from anyone against them. Naturally the teacher is supposed to protect the child from bullies, not be bully.

Remember it is the gifted child who is more likely to be bullied because they will stand out as a target in the classroom, so if your child is gifted, be on special guard.

If you have experience of bullying teachers, or your children have, please share your experiences in the comments.

(If you would like to learn about Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, a scientific child prodigy, and his gifted brothers go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html )