As an educator I deal with children every day. The hardest part of the job is when conflicts arise among them. As the only adult in the room, I am always evaluating when and how to step in. At what point do I say “Enough is enough!”? Lately, this has become an issue both during and after the school day (when I come home and catch up with the latest news from home).
The boys in the two Primary classes have been rambunctious lately. To make matters worse, it has been raining non-stop for quite a while, which means they can’t go outside and run off their aggression during recess. So petty bickering quickly turns into obnoxious taunts and threatens to deteriorate even more. If this keeps up, I won’t be surprised to find these children in an outright brawl.
The latest tussle was started a while ago by little Donny (who is a bit of a bully) running around and calling all the other boys names. When anyone protested, he just doubled down and tried to get the rest of the kids to laugh along with him. Unfortunately there were a few who did. Donny’s favorite victim was Johnny Ellis whom he picked on mercilessly. Johnny’s reaction was to turn around and pick on his younger neighbor, Marco. That made Marco go after his rival Raphael who ran to the teacher to tell on them all. Little bully Donny called Raphael a liar and then turned around and started mimicking and ridiculing Marco. Johnny gave up the fight and left the classroom, leaving the other three to duke it out. Donny started squirting water around. Marco retaliated by telling everyone that Donny is a bad speller and that he wets his pants. Enter Davey in his neat white hoodie. He says he likes Donny and will be on his side. And he’s got a lot of friends who know how to take care of people like Marco and Raphael. A trump card, so to speak – something Donny wants to keep up his sleeve. That’s where things stand today.
Tomorrow is Tuesday and we’ll see what happens. To be honest, I am almost dreading it. There is more rain in the forecast – nothing super about that. I’m not sure how much more of these childish conflicts I can take. Enough is enough!
Election 2016. My Year of Mortification.