An interesting approach to addressing this issue: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/schools-teach-empathy-as-a-way-to-combat-bullying/article2414450/
Some quotes: -------- Tougher penalties and tighter rules ask educators to single out and crack down on bullies. Instead, teachers and principals are finding creative ways to teach, rather than tell, students to treat their peers with respect and compassion.....Administrators at Preston, an aging redbrick building that serves two public housing complexes, raised $6,000 to hire a consultant to spend two days doing community-building exercises with students. In a more modest approach, students in Maple, Ont., won a regional drama festival last week for a play about bullying that they wrote and performed. “You can’t legislate getting kids to care,” said Phil Boyte, the consultant who led Preston’s workshop and who has visited more than a 100 schools across Canada. “I think it’s more a social issue than a legal issue. We can have every rule in the world, but what it’s really about is getting these kids to care.” With that goal in mind, Mr. Boyte played a game with students he called Cross the Line. He asked the group a series of questions and told them to cross to the other side of the gym if their answer was yes. He asked them if they were left-handed, if they’d lost a parent, if they’d ever done anything illegal or if they’d struggled with an eating disorder. Some questions were uncomfortable, but one-by-one the students drifted across the room, wordlessly telling their classmates that they’d been called fat, mocked for their clothes or felt afraid of being different. “It’s hard to hate someone whose story you know,” Mr. Boyte told them several times throughout the day. It was John Thompson, a vice-principal at Preston, who recruited Mr. Boyte to lead the workshops. Six thousands dollars is a lot of money for any school, but he felt the workshops were exactly what his students needed. --------- Looks like it could work, but it sounds like it might be time for some DARE-like program evaluation ($6,000 for this consultant). Didn't the Sherif studies in the '60s tell us that in order to break down borders between groups we have to get them working together on a common goal? I'd say it's time for some social psychologists to get involved in this anti-bullying training wave we're seeing. Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. [email protected] http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=17507 or send a blank email to leave-17507-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
