To boost graduation rates, some Michigan schools place freshmen in a separate building, hoping to insulate them from older students and build class morale. The Detroit Free Press writes about a Detroit high school, Southeastern, that six years ago graduated 60 students from an initial class of 500, and last year graduated 199 from a class of 800.
Casandra Murff was one of about a couple dozen parents who stayed with their freshman kids through their first morning in school, filling out emergency contact cards and getting class schedules. She said she felt relieved that her daughter, Antoinette Jackson, will be housed in a separate building and won’t have to dodge upperclassman bullies in the halls.“This is the most important time for her to find herself, and I don’t need anybody pulling her down,” Murff said. She understands why some teens don’t end up graduating with their classmates — her 16-year-old son refused to go back to Denby High last year after a melee broke out in the halls.
“I think some of the kids could be scared of what’s at school, the violence, the picking on each other,” Murff said. “But they’re not having it here.”
Of course, if the program succeeds, students will go on to the upper-grade building, where apparently bullying is tolerated.
My recollection of high school, I attended 3, was bullying was worst among peers. The older and larger students wanted nothing to do with the younger and smaller ones. I had no trouble dealing with upper classmen. The ones with the worst bullying problems were new, the mentally slow or the uncoordinated. The small ones were usually left alone because it would have been like kicking a puppy. Of course I could say the same about the stupid and uncoordinated, but that is not how my peers saw it. I don’t see this proposal as useful.
In the end it comes down to what Joanne pointed out…without correction of the problem at the HS, no real change will occur.
My recollection of high school, I attended 3, was bullying was worst among peers.
Same here.
The older and larger students wanted nothing to do with the younger and smaller ones. I had no trouble dealing with upper classmen.
In my case, some of them respected me enough to at least try to protect me from my same-age peers.
The ones with the worst bullying problems were new, the mentally slow or the uncoordinated.
And the mentally fast, of course - especially if they happened also to be freethinkers and visionaries. And the teachers encourage such behavior.
I don’t see this proposal as useful.
Neither do I, but it’s typical educrat* thinking. For them, everyone must absolutely be crammed into classrooms with “peers” who cannot be more than ten months older or younger.
* - Bullies, at least the smarter ones, go into college and graduate as educrats. It’s the only explanation.
“And the mentally fast, of course”
The smart ones were protected in special classes in my experience. It would not surprise me if the smart ones bullied each other.
“At least the smarter ones, go into college and graduate as educrats. It’s the only explanation”
That is a terrifying thought!
“At least the smarter ones, go into college and graduate as educrats. It’s the only explanation”
That is a terrifying thought!
The public educational system is pretty much built upon bullying, at all levels, and the teachers and administrators have their own pecking orders. It it any wonder, that despite what they say, they are unable to really “do anything” about bullies?