The Real Antidote to Bullying Is Private Education

Video of a thuggish rant (transcribed at the next link) by a union boss has gone viral. Said union boss, Michael Mulgrew, who heads a teachers' union in New York City is "defending" the "Common Core" curriculum mandated for government schools by the federal government. I found the following part of psychologist Michael Hurd's analysis particularly worthwhile:

Consider the chronic emotional state of someone entrenched in this public school monopoly, particularly as a union official. They're angry, and they're frightened. On some level, some better part of them (if it exists) knows that they haven't earned their status, power or income. They're only garnering it because the government guarantees it by funding and legislation. When people criticize or question them, it reminds them that they haven't really and honestly earned what they've got. While not all public school teachers or even union officials are necessarily like this, the fact remains that they hold their jobs as a protected monopoly. As a system or enterprise of education, they're never going out of business. Year after year, the worse they perform, or the more questionable their practices (as in imposing political views via Common Core), the more money and power they attain.

This thuggishnes -- part of the nature of government schools as Hurd explains -- caused me to recall that one of the biggest current fads among such "educators" is, ironically, a crusade against bullying.

Out of curiosity, I decided to see what thought, if any, Mulgrew has given to the subject. As it turns out, he has written "Teaching to End Bullying" a short essay (appearing in a book on the "bullying crisis") about his union's efforts in this crusade. Amid an embarrassing amount of self-promotion, I gleaned the following insight, which he seems to have forgotten, assuming he actually wrote it:

The kids who are bullies ... don't see the other child as a real person; they see only their own anger and frustration. But once they get to know the other kid and see him or her as a person, they start to empathize.

This plainly goes for the adults who are bullies, although many of them have developed enough guile to hide such an attitude from others. I would add that such budding empathy would depend on there being, as Hurd put it, a "better part" in the nature of the bully (more likely in a child than in an adult), not to mention a considerable, sincere effort to walk a mile in the victim's moccasins, as the old saying goes. 

I don't expect Mulgrew the thug to do this in regard to the parents he is threatening. He will not take even a moment any time soon to consider how or why a parent might become "cold, twisted, [and] sick" come to question the Common Core curricululum. Nor do I expect this person to do the honorable thing. That is, Michael Mulgrew should apologize for threatening the parents of the children he is supposed to be helping -- and resign from his union post and his profession at once.

More parents should question the whole notion of government-run schools, which restrict our choices about who will educate our children (and how), not to mention entrenching the likes of Michael Mulgrew. Only massive government coercion could cause so many people to entrust their own children to such a person. Parents will stand up to this -- or see their own children suffer the consequences -- sooner or later.

-- CAV