Bullying prevention strategies and interventions

¶ … Bully Pulpit as published by Rachel Geise, actually takes a duality-type side to the argument. Perhaps this is out of necessity given the closeness to Geise of one of the "bullies" but the job is done nonetheless. The article takes at the culpability of what makes a bully, why they bully and how to properly address the people or things that allow or even encouraging bullying to start or even continue. While bullying is a complex issue, it can and should be dealt with because there are people literally killing themselves as the result of being bullied.

Per the parameters of the assignment, there are two points of analysis that will be extrapolated and drawn from the article being assessed for this report. First, children are quite often not chosen to be kind and unselfish. However, Rachel notes that the solutions to bullying do not take into account that children are given extremely bad lessons as far as bullying goes and/or they are not given much guidance at all. Indeed, many Canadians cited in the article feel that "meanness" and bullying should be an arresting offense but Geise asks the obvious question of whether/how adults are held to the same standard and of course they are not. Another point made by Geise in this report is where bullies learn such deplorable behavior and that would obviously be from the adults in the education system or elsewhere. Whether it be corporal punishment, the overall treatment of LGBT children and so forth, a lot of the bullying examples and displays come from the adults that are supposed to be fostering and caring for the children that they are charged with inculcating and protecting.

The author of this report would offer two points of response. First, locking up children for repeating learned before, a lot of that time it coming being learned adults or even parents, is not a good idea. However, it needs to be shut down and "unlearned" as quickly as possible. Not only should there be a "what" in terms of what should not be done but also a why and the point made that a child does not want to be treated that way and thus they should not treat others that way. Second, parents need to get wise to the fact that they cannot portend and show certain behaviors because it is a matter of time before the child starts parroting and mimicking what they see. It would actually be better that people with improper social behavior not have or be around children in the first place but saying that out loud can lead to catcalls relating to bigotry, classism or even eugenics. The solution is for parents to give good examples and make corrective action if/when a child steps out of line. Parents are the first and best example of what a child will end up doing themselves but they also need to be taught how to deal with the behavior on the receiving end rather than being allowed to treat others the same way.