According to psychologist and educator Viktor Križ, the suicide of nine in Parchovany, the conflicts between students at the school in Vajnory, and the knife attack at the school in Vrútki three years ago did not bring social self-reflection or the necessary change in the education system. “We are still not willing to admit that the school should have a character other than educational. At the same time, Comenius repeatedly reminded us of this already in the 17th century,” he says.
As in previous decades, reading, writing and arithmetic remain the most important priorities in schools today. “The mental health of today’s children is the result of the upbringing of the generation that grew up thirty years ago. So if someone claims that it worked then, I ask how it is possible that we say that today’s children fail in conflict resolution,” says the expert.
Plastering classrooms with stickers with numbers for crisis lines is not a long-term or systemic solution to bullying, according to Viktor Križ. “Basically, the child learns that when he has a problem, he should call somewhere, write somewhere, go to a psychologist outside of school. But that is not a natural support system. We need to strengthen and build support where the child functions on a daily basis,” he emphasizes, adding that attention should be focused mainly on relationships with parents, teachers and classmates.
In the interview with Viktor Križ, we also discuss:
that we are getting used to tragedies and bullying in schools as a society instead of mobilizing us to change; why not only every school, but also every kindergarten should have its own psychologist; whether, as a member of the intervention team, he succeeded in improving relations at the school in Vajnory; what is the role of the school psychologist in the school; why schools still tend to keep bullying a secret.
What was the first thing that came to your mind when you heard about the tragedy in Parchovany?
Over the past three years, similar things have happened frequently. The jump from the roof was one of a series of tragedies in schools. It started with Vrútka three years ago. Since then, many difficult things have happened, including war and a pandemic. I think and I also feel in myself that we are starting to take these bad things as a part of life. It is a society-wide phenomenon. We are starting to adapt to tragedies, just as they adapted to school shootings in America. Such events are beginning to become a daily part of our reality.
There was an attack on Zámocká, followed by a burnt down choir hall, axes in the backs, and shootings in Prague. I am afraid that there is no systemic social order in response to these events. As if in our society we still haven’t activated the willingness of schools, the ministry or the government to start systematically investing in the quality of human development in schools.
As a psychologist, tragedies in schools personally activate me a lot. I want to support students and schools more, act more preventively, notice risks more and react more sensitively to them. At the same time, I feel the need to proactively go deeper into their problems when talking to children and not leave anything to chance.
Are there so many tragedies and bad news that they can no longer mentally put us on our guard? Are we numb to suffering?
When many stressful events and suffering occur, we become numb. I also see it in bullying in schools and its solution. In the last few weeks alone, I have caught many conflicts directly at work, for example, a conflict between seventh-graders and third-graders or the problems of a colleague’s son, whose children repeatedly throw his schoolbag into a corner at school.
The fact that there have been a lot of conflicts and bullying in schools recently, on the one hand, causes a certain numbness in parents, and on the other hand, at the same time, extreme hypersensitivity to any event that concerns them. There is a tendency to react disproportionately to any threat, even a relatively small one, and immediately go into a kind of panic.
For example, I caught a case when a fourth grader in elementary school brought a knife to class. Twenty years ago, the teacher would have taken it from him and taught him that a knife does not belong in school. Currently, however, a knife in the classroom
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