When I was in school, emotional abuse was the primary motivational tool used by my teachers. An especially popular tactic was to threaten futures if students didn't fall into in line.
Most students likely wouldn't acknowledge abuse. Why is that? Because we have normalized this behavior. If you are being abused the same way as all of your classmates and all representations elsewhere such as television, is it really abuse?
To further complicate this issue, our government fully supports this form of child abuse. There are various laws relating to child abuse, but emotional abuse in government-run institutions is not taken into consideration by these types of laws.
As I have been saying for years, I never recovered from the treatment that I received as a student. Systematically assaulting the mental health of American youth has serious repercussions. Look at the mental health crisis occurring in our schools. Look at the fear of independent thought that persists when students leave.
We have been strongly conditioned to view child abuse in the schools as the way things must be rather than child abuse. Most of us can't see the abuse when it's right in front of us. This includes teachers as well as students. It's easy to abuse a child if you don't realize that you are abusing them. Regardless of whether or not people recognize it, normalized government-sanctioned child abuse is still child abuse.
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