Job Discussion Forums

[edbuch]

Do bullies make the worse teachers? I only ask this because I think they do and I think some people on this site show the same characteristics as bullies.

I think this is important because a bully teacher can have a serious effect on a student. I taught in the UK before I came here and bullying would not be allowed, as far as I know.

I also have a feeling that if someone had the characteristics of a bully, it might not be noticeable until they came to China. In fact, some people may genuinely not be aware that they are bullies.

I also think that if there were fewer bullies on this site, there might be more posts. The last post I made was carefully phrased but still managed to attract unhelpful and unnecessarily critical responses. And when another person defended my post he got the reply "Who are you, his older brother?" This is exactly what a bully would say.

[DirtGuy]

edbuch,

Learn to tune that kind of stuff out as this site is full of it. Sift through the info and pay attention to those who post in a rational manner. You'll get more useful information.

Need an example? I put off going to China for a long time because so many people posted about how you can't save any money. Once in a while, I came across postings where someone stated they were making money and doing just fine. Now that I'm here and saving some serious bank, I wish I had tuned out the naysayers long ago.

DirtGuy

[Javelin of Radiance]

[rogerwilco]

The teachers that I have seen bully students are those that lack the confidence to properly manage a classroom.

A lack of skill or experience can cause someone to be very nervous in the classroom, and that nervousness often comes out in a lack of patience and sometimes in anger. They bully the students to try to prove to themselves, and the students, that they are in control.

[kungfuman]

being a bully on the internet is fairly easy and common.

being a bully in real life or in the classroom is another.

I seriously doubt many posters are really bullies in real life.

[zactherat]

OP you mention characteristics of a bully, but list none. I think this discussion would need a definition of "bully" before it could become meaningful.

I mean.. think about:

a) how much bullying do you have to do to be "a bully"?
b) is there anyone that has never been a bully?
c) has anyone ever needed bullying?

Personally I think bullying is part of human nature,
like gambling. And spoken language, I suppose, as well. Let's create a working definition (post your own if you disagree)
say a bully is someone that takes away the "free-willed choice" of others through force.

But what if this was done in a way that was not outwardly aggressive?

I'm thinking about 'psychological bullying' here, and how subtle that can be..

But what if, say, a History or Sociology teacher forced students into aligning their opinions/worldview with certain learning outcomes, by using carefully selected evidence? Because that happens all over the world, all the time, and whether or not you agree with the outcomes, if they are reached then that is successful teaching.

Ever spoken to a Korean about the war? Jeez, those guys are taught!

My elementary school principal bullied me into learning my multiplication tables, which are still totally automatically recalled,
meaning I'm a wizz at geometry and page layout, among other useful things.

TL:DR - do "bullies" make the worst kind of teachers? Are there bullies on this forum? How useful are answers to these questions in the absence of a definition of such a porous term?

[GeminiTiger]

OP: "boo hoo, hoo"
/runs off with your lollipop

[spiral78]

I'm also quite curious about the definitions of 'bully' being applied here.
Seems there are two genres under possible discussion, as kungfuman points out.

First, what characteristics of posters here come across as 'bullying?'

Second, what consitutes a bully in the classroom, in your definition... (lmiited to teachers, I mean - could take thousands of posts to describe student bullies!).

[wonderingjoesmith]

From the thread, I infer that rude, inconsiderate, roaring, odious and cocky teachers are unsuitable for the job and forums. Difficult to disagree with that. My opinion is that it all isn't as crystal clear as suggested. It is important to be open-minded and to know when to draw lines. Varieties of characters spice up our private and professional lives.

[xiguagua]

cyber-bullying does NOT mean said person will be a bully in real life. Would a bully make a bad teacher? Probably, depending on the extent of it. I see bullies as people who constantly put others down, trying to take away the happiness of others. Sometimes I might come across as a cyber-bully, IE when scrubs make posts like "YO YO YO DAWG I HERD DAT IN CHINA ALL DEM GIRLS BE WAITIN FOR ME TO GIVE EM WUT DEY WANT AND I"M COMIN TO GIVE IT TO EM!" Which we definitely have seen before although not as eloquently written as I have, so these people yeah, deserve to be called idiots in my opinion.

But I would never do anything to put a student down or make them uncomfortable. Some say that you might be "unaware" of doing it, but it's pretty obvious to see that you've affected someone from their body language and facial expressions. That has happened in the past due to some misunderstandings or whatever, and I am always very fast to give a sincere apology and try my best to avoid such situations in the future. I would assume most people on here are the same, even if they want to look like know-it-all-china-badasses.

[it'snotmyfault]

A lot of the jobs here provide the perfect environment for a bully, you're "in charge" of a class full of impressionable young people and nobody really checks (or cares!) what you do. I know that's not the same situation for everyone here.

When I meet young people I usually ask them about their foreign teachers. A few times they've told me how they were always shouting at them, always seemed angry, never answered their questions etc. This is just anectodal so who knows what was really going on!

But if you don't have procedures in place to deal with such (any) problems, then undesirables will always exploit them.

As for the people who come on here making sniping childish comments from behind their computer, they've probably spent most of their life having sand kicked in their face.....by bullies!

[NoBillyNO]

One guy I worked with years ago would not only bully students but also butalize them to an extent that they hated him but years later, some of them have admitted to me (on the chance encounter), that it was his lessons that they still remembered.

[Sashadroogie]

The great Stalin was bullied by his father as a child, but that didn't hold him back! On the contrary, it made him the great man we love and revere today!!

A great teacher of nations!