Too many people feel that Bullying is somebody else's fault, somebody else's responsibility. As TEACHERS, it is your job to create an CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT, that neither allows Bullying, nor encourages Bullying. Encouraging a Bully? You may be shaking your head at that... ridiculous idea. What teacher, in their right mind, would encourage Bullying? Well...answer me this...
Have you set up a classroom that teaches a child that doing the 'right' thing is the only acceptable standard for classroom behavior?
Have you empowered that child, to use their new moral awareness to take action when something horrible happens in their hallways, locker rooms, buses, and after school activities?
There is more to teaching, then developing academic ability. Some even say that you can't develop a brain...until you develop a heart.
So Teachers, real good, almost magical...Teachers, should enforce, encourage, and embody decent humane behavior. If you are interested in making a difference in some child's life, then do the hard, thing, and give them the emotional, social, and psychological tools it takes to be strong, and compassionate. For more information please...watch and learn.
And what does that/can that look like? Here is an entire school based on the concept.
OTHERS OUT THERE FEEL JUST LIKE YOU! Listen to what this Father says, "The Group that we need to reach first and foremost...is the 'Bystanders' the group that just stood there and laughed..."
We need to listen and take action when some thing is "Wrong"!
But Bullying Happens All the TIME! It is not unique, and if it is happening to you, you can guarantee that it is happening to other people just like you! You need to tell someone! You need to do something! You need to ask for help...even if it is not YOU that is getting directly Bullied!
Motivational Inspiration, Please do Your Self A BIG FAVOR AND WATCH!
In fact, before I get seriously critical, there are three massively important things I want to admit too. First, when one has kids, they can’t help but get emotional about bullying. My son is five, and very emotional. He is creepy-smart but wears his heart on his sleeve. He has the potential to be a target for a bully…he’s small, thin, speaks his mind, and takes everything seriously….maybe too seriously. Thinking about the effects of bullying, especially “cyber-bullying” makes me angry, and scared.
The second thing that pops in my head when I think about bullying, are the kids at my service learning site. Being in middle school, they all seem so small. As I watch them in the mornings, I first thought, oh look at the cute innocent kids…but as I looked a little deeper, I noticed, some definite social pressure cracks. When they walked the halls, the “cool” kids winked and nodded, and laughed, while the “ not-so-cool-kids”, sat in their seats, digging out old worn binders, without any paper in them. There are perhaps some cliques, even in the halls of Shuksan Middle School, and perhaps those cliques are unhealthier then I first thought.
Lastly, and this is a huge connection for me…because even though we didn't have computers, or social media, we sure had cliques, and nobody was more ruthlessly “cool” than me. I was a bully! I've never hit anybody in my life, but what I was too afraid to do physically; I more than made up for emotionally. I was ingenious. I could literally whip a kid with words, and be socially accepted, without as much as a second thought. My little teen aged pseudo-moral mind, never even contemplated that the words I said were making larger wounds than any slap, poke, or pinch. The wounds were psychological, and they were devastating. I was so bad, that when I came home from the Army, the first thing I did when I ran into anybody from my high school days…was apologize. Most of the time, the now twenty something versions of the kids I used to destroy, would usually just smile and wonder what I was even talking about, like those day were not only best forgotten, but perhaps already left behind with those things we like to imagine never happened.
So yes, I do connect deeply with this topic.
So, on that note, I have decided to use the same platform I used back then: words! Only this time, I will fight on the side of the good, the right, and the fair.
Please read my Anti-Bullying Blog, and help me make it better. If you have any resources at all, or just want to talk about something feel free to comment.
And remember above all else! No matter what happens, you are still alive...and Kicking!!!
More Songs To Make you Realize...you are somebody special, and worth fighting for...
