Next week, we find out the name of my daughter’s third grade teacher and get a sneak peek of who her classmates will be for the upcoming academic year.
I’m dreading it like a bout of head lice.
Truth be told, I’m not too worried about the teacher; rather, it’s the potential classmates that give me the hives.
I really, really hope the school took my bullying concerns to heart and decided to separate my daughter from some of the children who spent the better part of last year tormenting her.
For my part, I spent the better part of the summer trying to provide my child with tangible (non-violent) tools that will help her when she gets cornered by “the mean kids.”
“But, Mommy,” my daughter rationalized during one of our tutorials “the teachers always say you have to be friends with everyone and that you have to love your enemies.”
Ugh.
My kid attends a Catholic school, but even Jesus knew there were times when He had to reconcile prudence and charity.
How do you teach that to a 7-year-old? Especially one, who classifies the children that taunt her as “friends,” because the teacher insists everyone in the class be buddies “no matter what”?
Too bad we don’t live in Boston.
If we did I could have gotten tips on ending toxic relationships and shared them with my kid.
Fortunately, for teens in Beantown, government officials are not relying on teachers (or even parents) to help students learn the ins and outs of healthy relationships. Instead, this summer, Boston’s Public Health Commission partnered with local social service agencies to host a “Break-Up Summit” for teens.
In other parts of the country the $18 million initiative is known as “Start Strong” and is aimed at teaching teens how to prevent dating violence, though some of the tactics could just as easily apply to ending bad relationships across-the-board.
Staff at the “Start Strong” seminars note that children involved in bad relationships are more apt to suffer from depression, low self-esteem, poor grades, and even unwanted pregnancies in cases where kids are in a dating situation and one partner tries to manipulate the other.
I suggested that my daughter “take a break” from being around the kids who “really don’t act like friends.”
Only time will tell if she follows my “break-up” advice.
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