The world is really changing, gone are the days where as a female, being brilliant and intelligent in class or school in general was highly attractive. You were praised and acknowledged for all your educational qualifications and credentials. However, these days that doesn’t seem to be the case, it has now been deemed unattractive for girls to even put their hands up let alone answer questions when asked by their teachers as it keeps them from the prying eyes of bullies who think that they are “swotty”. It is even more difficult for females to be both brainy and feminine and those who were too keen in the classroom were often bullied. How truly sad is this? Honestly, as one who has been in the educational system for a number of years, hearing things like this annoys me. This sort of behaviour has got to stop and such bullies should be dealt with accordingly, if they are not in school to learn, then they should be found somewhere else to go. If bullies are allowed to get away with being a bully in school, they continue to be one later in life, both in the work place and with their partners. Even worse, with their children, who suffer the consequences through low self esteem or worse still end up thinking it is normal behaviour and hence become bullies themselves.

According to the members of the association of teachers and lecturers (ATL), it has also been noticed that girls mostly keep quiet in class and avoid the tough subjects because they do not want to be seen as too clever, and of course with social media on the daily rise, this sexist bullying is rife. The general secretary of the union also said that there’s a lot of gender stereotype especially in subjects such as maths and physics, which has made it even harder for girls to believe in their ability to succeed in such subjects that matter. This issue has been said to be of utmost importance to both teachers and lecturers alike, and will definitely be addressed at the next annual conference taking place in Liverpool.

The pressure on females is mounting from the likes of celebrities, to social media, the pressure to be thin, to look a certain way, to be a certain way, to be attractive, to be light-skinned, to be quiet is a lot to go through and process especially for such young females.

I really do hope this issue will be resolved as quickly as possible. I have a son but I can’t even imagine what it would have been like if I had a daughter and she was being silenced at school or even bullied by her peers who are probably dullards just because she was intelligent. I detest both bullying and women not being able to advance themselves at a crucial age. It also begs the question as to why these bullies are even in school, as the sole and main purpose is to get educated… right??? We send our children to school to strive for excellence and if they are unable to attain that or are being coerced to pretend to be unintelligent then what really is the point? And what exactly is the education system turning into?

Perhaps, its time for people to start thinking about home schooling (read my related blogs on this), any school that’s facing this sort of horrendous behaviour definitely needs HELP!!!!!

Let me know if any of this has happened to your daughters.