08-03-2023, 08:05 AM
Teachers are in a position of power in a classroom, and no matter what the class, bullying will happen now and then. I was very taken aback a few years ago, to discover one of my teachers in a post grad programme at an Auckland university was a dedicated tantrum throwing bully and worse, well known among the faculty and outside for being so. The strange thing was he had received awards for his teaching within the organisation and was a very talented teacher on his good days, but on his bad days he was an appalling monster who delighted in tearing down a vulnerable student with a screaming rant to which there was just no adequate response.
I learnt a hell of a lot from being in his class for a few short weeks, very little about the subject he taught, but a great deal about what happens when you make a formal complaint about someone within an organisation that has no procedures and pathways in place to support such a process. Everytime I read of a child who has been bullied, or abused by an authority figure, I understand all too well just what it feels like to be first assaulted by that person, and then repeatedly hurt by the system hellbent on protecting not the victim, but the bully.
My professor still teaches that class today. And I was most definitely no child during my time in that class.
I learnt a hell of a lot from being in his class for a few short weeks, very little about the subject he taught, but a great deal about what happens when you make a formal complaint about someone within an organisation that has no procedures and pathways in place to support such a process. Everytime I read of a child who has been bullied, or abused by an authority figure, I understand all too well just what it feels like to be first assaulted by that person, and then repeatedly hurt by the system hellbent on protecting not the victim, but the bully.
My professor still teaches that class today. And I was most definitely no child during my time in that class.