Just drawing attention to a news article which came out of Ontario today, regarding the persistence of child abuse in the community of Cornwall (small industrial community, with a large francophone community). The link to the original article follows: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/12/15/cornwall-glaude.html
One of the depressing facts that was brought to light was the institutional inertia which often prevents individuals from pressing for answers. Nobody wants the embarrassment and shame of having a coworker charged with any form of child abuse. Yet often there was too little investigation, and as a result, many cases did not come to light quickly enough. The article touches on a few themes which have come up in a few of my classes recently, such as:
1. No community is hermetically sealed off from the bad things in the world. It is always astounding to hear responses such as 'we didn't think that sort of thing could happen here'.
2. Institutions, even public ones, seem to try to placate this sentiment. Administrators and coworkers seem reticent to follow their instincts when serious issues come to light, and often try to minimize the public impact, rather than attend to the victim's needs.
3. How does a school keep up communication? This seems to be the crucial issue; many institutions seem to get clogged by the 'business as usual' mindset. What happens at your school? Do you feel trained to handle such a situation?
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ReplyDeletesorry for all the deleted posts. I was having a hard time getting across what I wanted to say. Each time I read my posts they didn't seem right. once again sorry.
ReplyDeleteThis article makes me feel very hollow. We as a society try to have safety nets but when people don't report things quickly and properly problems persist especially when they are problems that make people uncomfortable. These types of situations are sad and remind us if something like this were to happen where we are working we need to make sure it becomes public knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI do not feel that I have the training or knowledge to deal with a situation like this which is why this situation needs to be become publicly know so experts can be brought in to help.
Chris talks about wanting to disrupt our idea of learning, situations like this burst bubbles that people have that things like this wont happen near them. This can be a sharp recall back to the problems that face society.