Stopping Cattyness

January 14, 2010 | Posted in: Class Updates

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cat⋅ty

–adjective, -ti⋅er, -ti⋅est.

1.	catlike; feline.

2.	slyly malicious; spiteful: a catty gossip.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.

We had a much needed discussion this morning about the dangers of cattyness.  Fourth grade is a big transitional year, and in addition to kids’ learning more advanced academic skills, their social relationships tend to evolve from focusing on shared playing and shared interests to deeper personal friendships and connections.  Unfortunately, there is a “dark side” to this social growth: cattyness.  In class, we clearly defined catty behavior as being mean, just for the sake of being mean and hurtful.  This was an important distinction from being unintentionally hurtful (something that we all do, on occasion) or from lashing out in our own anger (which is unkind, but not without cause).  Cattyness is overt.  Cattyness is intentional.  Cattyness has the specific goal of hurting another person.  It took me while to explain to the kids (in ways that made sence to them) what cattyness is, until it occured to me to connect cattyness to the behavior shown in the movie Mean Girls.  Then they got the point.

Cattyness can take many forms.  It can be as simple as passing a note about another person or saying something unkind to another individual, or as elaborate as a coordinated effort to exclude or harass someone.  It can take the form of bullying – which carries legal implications under Connecticut state law.  As a school, we take bullying very, very serously.

I want you know what my policy is on cattyness.  There is zero tolorance for catty behavior (among ANY gender).  Students who show that they’re intentionally engaging in catty behavior will go straight to the office and I will schedule a face-to-face meeting where student, parent(s), and I can sit down and discuss the problem.  There will be no tolorance for intentional, hurtful behavior in my class.  The good note is that I don’t think there’s a single student in our class who fits the profile of a “mean girl” (or for that matter, the profile of a “mean boy”).  Nobody has shown themselves to be “going down that road,” and I reminded the students that there’s no reason why they CAN’T choose to avoid becoming that sort of a person.  Put simply, I truly expect no problems in this area, and I fully expect the kids’ to live up to my expectations.

If you have any questions about this, or if you think your child may be having a significant problem with another student (in my class or even in another class), I’m always happy to speak with you and help however I can.