I’m sure we can all think of a student who was/is bullied in school or on the school bus. It’s a sad situation and it seems to be getting worse. I have read a few articles about recent bullying and I’m starting to think it’s becoming more noticeable in younger grades and we aren’t doing enough about it.
I have seen two personal examples of recent bullying of a sixth grade and ninth grade boy. In both situations the bullying has been ongoing. In one situation spitting was the main form of bulling and it ended in punches and stolen money. The sixth grade situation was the typical vocal blows but it involved large amounts of swearing. It just amazes me that kids are swearing at such a young age and are using it bully situations. In an article from the New York Times a girl was raped by a group of men. It was done at the end of a dance in the school courtyard. The school has now increases security. Another article I read was from a local Mississippi newspaper. It discusses the rise of female bullies. Girls take bulling to a new level. They get very personal and emotional. This has become so popular that they have even made a movie called, Mean Girls.
So now that we know there is a huge problem what do we do as educators? Well I wish I had that easy answer but I don’t know if anyone does. I do have a suggestion for myself and any other educator. I think we need to start early, really early! I have seen kindergarten and first grade students (mainly girls) start “popular” groups or leave the same students out. As a teacher I know that some students don’t mesh well together and to be honest I try to avoid confrontation and I do not push students to work with students they don’t care for. I’m starting to think that I need to stop that and teach student’s tolerance and acceptance of different people. I want my students to learn that we don’t have to be best friends with everyone but we need to show mutual respect for everyone I think the younger we can start teaching this the better off we will be. As a teacher I also hope to promote an open door policy where student can always come to me if someone is bothering them. This is something I need to take seriously. I also want to be a fly on the wall as much as possible so I can know my students and try to prevent harmful bully situations.
I do not work with any type of older students and my bully problems can usually be handled easily but is there anything new happening out there to decrease bully situations? I was crushed when I heard of the two situations. I never would have guessed that students could be that mean. I feel that something has to be done or else we are going to have some scary situations to deal with.
Why restructure? Does it really do anything?
15 years ago
I agree that we need to start teaching our students to be respectful of others at a younger age. It is sad how things that I experienced when I was in junior high, my children have experienced in elementary school. I feel that teachers should be better trained on how to help those who need help and educate those who are bullies on different ways.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to compete with everything that kids see on TV, in magazines, or in video games. They see different types of bullying and manipulation. Tonight my daughter and I were watching ICarly and she and her boyfriend manipuated her brother by pretending not like each other (episode called the Bad Boy). We talked about how that was wrong. She said she got it, but she sees this on a daily basis. My husband and I monitor what our children watch, but you can see bullies even in cartoons or in books that they read.
How can we as a society fix this? That is a questions that I feel no one knows the answer to.
I think that for the most part most districts have been trying to address bullying for years now and I would like to believe that we are at least making a small amount of progress. However, I have noticed that bullying seems to be on the rise at my school and, just as you noted, amongst girls. The girls seem to come up with ways to hurt others emotionally in ways that stick. They gang up on each other and make things personal...it really is quite disturbing to see! I think it is easy for some to be apathetic to bullying and pass it off as something that kids do or think that they need to let the kids fend for themselves, but the emotional scars are too great for us to ignore. We need to keep up with the new ways kids are bullying each other because trust me, they are becoming more discreet.
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I constantly get "I don't like him" or "I can't work with her" in my classroom. My solution you can either learn to work together or get a zero. I have a zero tolerance policy for bullying in my classroom. Many parents are angry with my ways of making their student feel embarrassed for what they say. My rule is that if you say something mean you must stand in a chair say three nice things and an apology in front of the whole class. If anyone refuses we call their parent right then and there to ask for help in coming up with three nice things. Parents do not like getting interrupted at work, but just as they do not like getting interrupted I do not want my class interrupted. Since this rule was put in place I have only had three students test it. One had to call their parent who was less than happy about the words they chose to use towards another classmate. The only way we can stop bullying is by making them understand how embarrassing it is for the other person.
ReplyDeleteGreat article.
I am having a huge bully problem in my classroom this year. I have several girls and a few boys who love to push people around. Thankfully they use only their words and not any other part of their body. We have done a readers theater play to model what bullying looks like and ways to handle it. We also have CLIMB Theater come every year and their skit usually has to do with bullying.
ReplyDeleteI have had a couple of girls almost screaming at each other because one was trying to tell the other what to do. I also had a situation in my room where one girl was saying she wasn't allowed to play with someone because another girl in my room told her she couldn't. I was so amazed. Bullying is happening at such a young age and only escalates as they grow. I sat this student down and told her specifically what to say the next time it happens. I also told her what was going to happen and even though the other girl may threaten to not be her friend, it was going to be alright.
I think education is the key when it comes to bullying. I also don't think we can start too early. I think if students know how to handle bullying and stand up for themselves or even know how to get help, problems can be avoided.
At the high school we have recently stepped up out attempts to stop bullying. This is a very difficult issue at the high school level, because we have students for one hour a day. It is difficult to get students to trust you when they have a problem unless you have them for multiple classes. Also, it is very difficult to have adults at all possible locations at all times. We keep hearing there is a bullying problem at school, but we seldom if ever see instances. Our efforts have been aimed at awareness by the students of ways they can help us stop bullying. Unfortunately, we have to depend on student assistance which is hard to enlist, since going to adults with those kinds of problems is uncool. I wish I had better answers for you, but I agree that if we can curb it at a younger age will hopefully reduce the instances we see at an older age.
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