Letter of the Day | When the teacher is the bully

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Throughout my life – from infant school through to university, most of my teachers were not only effective educators but also genuinely decent human beings. As a parent, my interactions with the education system have largely confirmed this. Yet, not all teachers live up to that standard.

When I speak with young people about overcoming adversity, I sometimes share a troubling personal experience from Grade 5 in primary school. During a class recitation of Robert Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin, I laughed at the vivid imagery of rats pouring out of homes as we read in unison:

“… out of the houses the rats came tumbling.

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,

Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,

Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,

Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,

Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,

Families by tens and dozens,

Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives--

Followed the Piper for their lives.”

Without warning, the teacher hurled a metre-long blackboard ruler across the room. It slammed into my desk – an inch from where my head had just been. “Come out of my class,” she shouted. “You are over there laughing like a damn idiot!”

The next day, she reassigned my seat from near the front to the back of the room, where noise from the street and an adjoining classroom made it harder to focus. Thankfully, I had access to books and was already used to independent reading, so I continued to do well academically.

However, I was not her only target. One of my classmates, a stocky, dark-skinned boy with a noticeable overbite, was constantly humiliated. Her most unforgettable taunt: “Fenton, shut your mouth. I can see last year’s Christmas dinner on your teeth!”

Today, discussions around bullying often focus on students or online interactions. But we must also examine the role of teachers who engage in verbal abuse or humiliation. Their behaviour not only damages the targeted students but also shapes how peers treat them.

Are school administrators taking such complaints seriously? Do they turn a blind eye, or worse, play favourites?

Any campaign to reduce bullying in schools must address all sources of harm, including that which originates from the front of the classroom. While it is true that some students are grossly undisciplined and some parents are overly indulgent, none of this justifies the abusive conduct of educators.

COLIN STEER