Definition

Main Entry: me·di·a·tion

Pronunciation: \ˌmē-dē-ˈā-shən\

Function: noun

Date: 14th century

: the act or process of mediating; especially:
intervention between conflicting parties to promote reconciliation, settlement, or compromise

When writing the last posting about the school’s refusal of the Human rights Commission’s offer to mediate, we were struck again by the school’s description of itself in it’s publicity as a ‘safe and natural learning haven”.  It occurs to us that in defence of that description, the school may refer back to a question that we asked when they first took the indefensible action of expelling three girls because their parents pointed out that they weren’t dealing with the bullying.

We asked, was bullying actually on the school’s agenda?  We found them vague and reluctant to address the subject in any robust fashion, i.e. in any way that would actually make a difference to the outrageous acts of assault that were tolerated.  

Because of this and because of the mobbing we received as parents who had insisted that the school should implement it’s anti-bullying policy, we also asked another question -  “is bullying on the curriculum at Steiner?”

The reason we put the question like this was because we could tell that there was an agenda about the subject, it just wasn’t the agenda that was in the behaviour policy.  Since complaining about the bullying was the only thing we did, and since the school will cheerfully tell anybody that there was “nothing wrong” with our children, we wanted to know, and still want to know, whether the acceptance of bullying is part of the Steiner “vibe”.

It occurs to us that it is entirely possible that the use of the word ‘natural’ next to the word ‘safe’ in the publicity is meant as a qualifying adjectival nuance, and is designed to limit the notion of safety to that which might be perceived as natural if you believe that children must be allowed to work out their karma by thumping each other, for example.

This is exactly what we meant by our question about bullying being on the curriculum.  It’s a subtle qualifier, but unless the publicity has been designed like that, it’s almost too obvious as a blatant untruth, false advertising, and a contract that’s impossible for them to meet.

Time will tell.