Does "Bully Education" Really Work?by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 14 Oct 2008 10:29 AM
Earlier this week, we were driving by a local school. There, right next to the playground was a huge sign declaring the area to be a "No Bully Zone." I'm not sure why the sign was there. Was it to discourage any bullying behavior, or was it a symbol of an accomplishment by the school stating that they had eliminated the problem? My guess is that it is the former, since bulling may in fact be on the increase and technology, such as texting, blogs and websites may make it easier than ever to intimidate and bully without being caught. They call it Cyber Bullying." Some schools are actually using technology to an advantage, with websites where a student or even a parent can report a bulling incident anonymously. Because it can be scary for a child to report when he is being bullied, this may be an effective strategy, but there is only a small amount of school districts that are doing this. So what about all of the anti-bully programs in the schools? I think they can be effective at bringing the problem to light, but the truth is that these programs often become a requirement, a token effort or a quick fix. Once the talk or program is completed in many cases, the schools go no further to ensure that the programs were effective. The bullies may laugh at the talk, and the victims get a small window of assurance until the next time they are bullied. Very few programs that I have come across address those students who are neither victim nor bully. What should they do if they know of bullying but aren't victims themselves? I believe that Bully education can only work if there is a commitment not only from the school but also from the parents. Not only do bullies need to be taught to channel themselves in different ways (some kids caught in bully behavior say that they didn't realize they were being bullies), but the victims need to be taught effective strategies to prevent and deal with being bullied. Some parents need to lose the attitude that kids need to learn how to defend themselves on their own. Furthermore, the adults need to take affective action when bullying does occur. This will strengthen the message that bulling is not tolerated and the adults care enough to rectify the issue. What do you think? Click here for more articles by Mary Ann Romans. Anniversary of the Amish School Shooting Is It Cost Effective to Bring a School Lunch? School Lunches Getting More Expensive Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevanteducation tags User Comments TomCGreer (24) 11 Nov 2008 08:55 PMAs an elementary educator, I am amazed at all the hype "bullying" curriculum is getting these days, I guess every year has to have a new buzz word. While I agree that we all should be open to learn more about how to deal with students who tend to misbehave, I think the focus should be more on what is really happening in these kids lives that causes them to act out and work on that deeper issue. To me, bullying is more of an outward response to something much more serious going on in the inside......... Andilei (70) 17 Nov 2008 08:35 AMI agree with Tom. Most of the time, when a child is bullying another child, there are some issues he or she is dealing with. This could be issues at home that the parents need to confront or it could be other things such as peer pressure. I think we should look more at the child doing the bullying than actually what they are doing. Community Tags bully, bulling, school violence, Victim Discuss this article
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