Ed Weekly Blog #5, 2-5-11

Response to article entitiled "Researchers Look for Ways to Curb 'Mean Girls' and Gossip" from issue number 19, volume 30.

I found this article to very interesting. Not only that this issue is finally being talked about, but that there is a program to help eleviate the problem. This article by Sarah D. Sparks talks about bullying in school and how gossiping, starting rumors and isolating other students is one of the most severe types of bullying. It states that the school shootings that have occured have most likely been a product of such emotional abuse by other students. Middle school and High school are the towe environments where this type of bullying is seen the most. I can remember this bullying all the way back to grade school. I was often the new kid because my family moved a lot, and although I wasn't picked on often, I could always identify the long standing 'clicks' of friends and then those students who were ostricized, made fun of and given mean looks, sneers and comments. I think that 20 years ago, this was looked at as a right of passage and that everyone went through it. Truth is that is something the popular kids and their most likely popular parents said. isolating a student and making fun of them was a normal process and aside from being disrespectful very few people addressed as a bullying situation. Interestingly, this type of bullying still occurs in the adult workplace. Many times in an office situation for instance, co-workers form clicks and often engage in gossip about other workers, as well as participate in isolating them from co-worker functions.
I am impressed that there is a program now to deal with this and to me it sounds like it would absolutely work. The intervention is one in which students who see another being ridiculed are taught to refuse to be a bystander and even offer support to that individual. The results of this program have shown a huge decline in this type of bullying.
I believe this intervention, needs to be a regular part of the curriculum done every year at the pre-school, elementary and middle school level. I know first hand this bullying behavior can start very early. My four year old's Head Start teacher pulled me to the side two months ago and explained that he and two other students were pushing another student around and excluding him from playing with them. Being in education, I was very surprised by this. One that my son was a part of it and two that it happens as early as pre-school. I delivered my own intervention of course in the form of discussion and punishment. My son and I continue to talk about what happened and the responsibility of being a classmate includes never bullying, offering support to the person being bullied if he sees it and talking about problems or concerns at school not just acting on them. I believe this is the perfect age to address this issue because like my son and the others in the group they are unsure 'why' they did what they did. They just know that they were laughing together as they participated and didnt see the hurt they were causing.