58% of teachers have experienced physical aggression such as scratching, biting, and thrown objects in classrooms, indicating a serious issue regarding teacher safety.
Michelle Medintz spent at least $5,000 in 2022 alone, largely on books. She created a 'cozy corner' in her classroom with shelves filled with books, cushions on the floor, and stuffed animals. 'That doesn't make me a better teacher than my colleagues,' Medintz said.
While events such as "Mother's Day Crafts," "Daddy and Daughter Dances," and "Grandparents' Breakfasts" are often planned with good intentions, they can unintentionally leave some children feeling invisible and serve as another painful reminder that their lives have changed forever.
Being a target of negative experiences by one's peers has consistently been related to decreased self-worth, poor engagement in school, and worse grades among children and adolescents. One of the most consistent of these consequences is depressive symptoms. Put simply, kids' mental health is strongly impacted by being picked on by their classmates at school. Our recently published study examined data from over 100,000 Brazilian adolescents to disentangle how pernicious the effect of being victimized was on reports of symptoms of depression.
