Hello all!
I recently just started a book called “I Swear” by Lane Davis. It’s a fictional young adult book that follows the lives of several teenagers that were involved in bullying another girl, which lead to her suicide. It takes several different views from the point of the bully, denial, grief, guilt, etc. So far it has been a great read. As educators, we will all deal with our students being bullied and being bullies themselves. How can we stop bullying? How can we best support our students in a welcoming environment where bullying does not occur?
This book has definitely made me do some thinking!
Sophie, that sounds like a very interesting book and one that teachers should definitely read to understand the different viewpoints of the whole situation. I feel like we often take the viewpoint of the victim. I’m not saying that what the bully is doing is at all okay, but maybe something deeper is going on with that person. What are the underlying factors that are causing the person to be a bully?
In the health class that we took, I planned my unit around the topic of bullying. Throughout the planning, I learned quite a bit. I feel as though teachers have a large part to play when it comes to students bullying. First, I think it is important to talk about bullying. Often times, people are uncomfortable with the topic or they look past it and think it’s not a big deal but rather a “part of life.” Nope. No it’s not. It needs to be discussed. Also, I think as teachers, we need to confront a bullying situation every single time we see it. The more times we confront it, the more likely it will stop. Along with confronting the bullies, I think we need to confront those that enable the situation. Like Jess said in a different post (I think it was Jess?), bullies learn to be bullies from somewhere. Parents and older siblings play a large part in enabling the situation. When we see this enabling or teaching of bullying, we need to be sure to speak up, to explain that it is intolerable. It is going to take a lot of effort on our part to help stop this torture, but with a little effort, I think we can all make an impact.