It was so interesting talking to the Denmark educators. We shared ALL, held nothing back.They learned how our school handled Alexs death, that NO permanent memorials were allowed, that memorials are NEVER allowed with any type of student death (WHETHER ACCIDENT, ILLNESS OR SUICIDE), that a graduation chair was not allowed(too difficult, too sad, too hard for the students who were getting over it), Alexs name deliberately left off his scholarships initially...and the list went on. This flabbergasted them. They could not believe an expert would suggest that a school try to erase a students existence because they story was hard, painful and there was some culpability there. They tutt- tutted at the abusers lack of response, remorse and the parents total lack of empathy and downright crazy, cruelty at times. All of this seemed so long ago but in telling the story, it reignites those emotions. They noted a much more open society where students and teachers DISCUSS the hard issues, read books about hard issues. Teachers have much more leeway to teach there without interference from the state, parents and school boards. We could learn so very very much from their model. It was amazing being around a large group of educators and administrators who get it! They are writing a textbook on bullying that will be used in their country in 2015-2016. EDUCATION is the key to so so many things. Healing....
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:14:12 +0000
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