Ridding the Social Ill of Bullying

¶ … Anti-Bullying Campaign

One of the most critical facets of actually implementing this project and seeing it through to completion pertained to the cooperation I obtained from both the principal and the teachers at this particular learning institution. The principal gave his permission to allow the anti-bullying campaign be the focus of Thursday morning's assembly. As such, we were tasked with posting all of the signage during the preceding days in the week so that there would be visual reinforcements for the assembly, and so students would be already exposed to some of the anti-bullying rhetoric on Thursday.

I was pleased (and perhaps a little surprised) at the degree of cooperation I received from the other educators at this school. More than a few of them lauded me for taking a proactive stance to counteracting bullying and enforcing classroom management, which is one of the central concepts in P.R.A.I.S.E. that wanted to incorporate into this project (Ackerman, 2007). It appears that my efforts and this campaign were aligned with many of the values of these educators, who likely experienced the need for such a campaign at various points in their careers. Additionally, I was able to directly engage the students themselves in this process by getting the first and second grade instructors to actually have some of their students create posters that were adorned throughout the campus and inside of classrooms. This experience was integral in familiarizing students with this concept and helping the program to gain traction even before the assembly. Again, this aspect of the project certainly emphasized the proactive nature that is valuable to classroom management (Ackerman, 2007).

Nonetheless, I believe that the visual tools helped to assist the project mostly because of the way in which they framed the phenomenon of bullying. Most of these materials were angled so that they empowered students against bullying by making it seem heroic or righteous to counteract the efforts of bullies. Doing so certainly involved getting teacher support for this concept. Some of the teachers did not necessarily think that such an approach would be effective, and that it actually might possibly incite violence or create even greater situations of antagonism than would have otherwise existed. However, when I was able to demonstrate empirical evidence about the validity of this approach and its status as actually an evidence-based practice related to teaching, many of the teachers were able to understand its relevance to the campaign.

In particular, the concepts of empathy and social cost seemed to resonate with teachers (Peets et al., 2015, p. 916). Convincing the teachers of this fact proved extremely valuable to this project overall, because it enabled this framework (of standing up to bullies as something admirable and socially beneficial) to encompass an area of life that actually resonated with the students. Some of the instructors even remarked to me that there was a degree of enthusiasm evinced in a number of their students as they created some of the visual materials for the project. Still, I trace the degree of excitement and understanding about this approach to the anti-bullying campaign back to the rapport I was able to establish with the teachers for this issue, and the empirical evidence that supported this viewpoint and which was not disputed by these instructors.

Nonetheless, it was critical to note the other important aspect of this framework, which is directly related to the foregoing one. The campaign also emphasized the fact that bullying others was not something that is desirable, because it actually reflects an ongoing problem with the perpetrator of such an act. This tenet was actually critical to what I perceive as the success of this program. What was at the core of the program was an 180 degree shift of the conception of bullying. I was able to explicate this shift to the teachers and principal during training sessions that took place both before and after the assembly, in which the focus was helping students who do encounter instances of bullying. However, this shift is based on the perception that it is the bully who actually has the more pervasive, longstanding problem. Thus, the bully is the one deserving of help ultimately. Framed this way, the common perception that it is fun to be a bully, to get others to give you their lunch money or to do your homework for you, is intrinsically incorrect. Instead, the focus of the materials, the training sessions, and the assembly itself was the notion that those who bully themselves have deep rooted problems so that the students ultimately learn that bullying others is not something that is cool. Therefore, it is important to stand up to bullies because in doing so students are evincing desirable behavior that can build their social credibility (Peets et al., 2015, p. 913).

The most critical component of this project, of course, was in training the teachers and the appropriate staff to realize that bullying is indicative of an issue on the part of the bully, and not necessarily on the part of the victim. During my initial training session with these professionals, there were a couple who could not relate to this concept and who actually took the opposite point-of-view. Again, however, I was able to cite empirical evidence to buttress my stance and ultimately gain the support of these staff to enable the program to reach a degree of success. The resources I incorporated in this project pertaining to counseling and some of the psychological aspects of bullying helped these professionals to understand my point. Specifically, the aspect of the training that focused on the beliefs that actuate bullying were of immense importance in the training with the teachers. Those beliefs are both irrational and rational (Trip et al., 2015, p. 732-733). It is more readily discernable to comprehend the latter, yet oftentimes the impact of the former can considerably magnify them and lead to instances of bullying. With this thought in mind, the principal focus of the counseling portion of the training session was to help the faculty to identify those irrational beliefs that lead to bullying. One of the most difficult impediments in this regard is the fact that many of these irrational beliefs are linked to very personal facets of one's life. Thus, another capital aspect of the training for the faculty involved knowing both when and how to access third party intervention.

Specifically, I denoted a plan in which when attempting to counseling bullies, instructors initially speak with that bully alone and attempt to identify the rational and irrational beliefs that have contributed to his or her bullying. If that approach does not grant the sort of yields that can allow that instructor to make progress, then it is necessary to solicit third party intervention in the form of the bully's parents or guardians (Starbuck, 2013). One of the most important aspects of doing so is to grant the discussion with the bully's guardian in such a way that the teacher is perceived as being concerned for the welfare of the bully. The training sessions have emphasized that even in instances in which punitive measures are involved, teachers should not act as though the bullies are in trouble and that intervention with parents is seen as an additional punitive measure.