Bullying is a very salient topic in schools and communities today.
Especially as social media gives us unprecedented access to each others' lives, we are becoming more and more aware of the disastrous impact of bullying on children and adolescents.
Indeed, the majority of children and even adults experience bullying at some point in their day-to-day lives.
Bullying is not limited to physical violence: pushing, shoving, and punching.
Bullying also includes spreading rumours, ostracizing individuals, mean-spirited teasing, and now even online forms of bullying.
Types of Bullying Today, we recognize four basic types of bullying: verbal, social, physical, and cyber bullying.
Examples of verbal bullying include name-calling, teasing, spreading rumours, and threatening as well as racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Social bullying includes mobbing, excluding individuals from the group, and humiliating.
Physical bullying can include hitting, pinching, chasing, pushing, unwanted sexual advances, and stealing or destroying property.
Finally, cyber bullying involves the use of the internet or smart phones to intimidate, insult, or spread rumours.
Addressing Bullying In response to our growing awareness of bullying and its negative effects, anti bullying programs are becoming increasingly common.
But developing an effective program can be a challenge.
In order to be effective, these programs must take a comprehensive approach that relies on the involvement of the school and community.
Moreover, anti bullying programs must address the culture of bullying while encouraging students to critically deconstruct and evaluate their own behaviour and its impact on others.
Effective Anti Bullying Programs There are some elements of effective anti bullying programs that can be easily replicated.
First and foremost, programs must focus on developing a positive and supportive school environment.
This environment is dictated by the people within it and their interactions.
Students, teachers, and visitors to the school should be met with respect but they should also be given the opportunity to take responsibility for the climate in their own school and community.
Moreover, these programs should focus not solely on making rules against bullying but on developing norms that reject bullying.
Finally, the school, its staff, and its administrators should always demonstrate respect for diversity across race, religion, sexual orientation or any characteristic that makes one 'different.
' Still, developing a program is not the end of ensuring that said program is actually effective.
Regular efforts need to be made to evaluate a school's anti bullying program to ensure the desired results are being achieved.
Students, staff, and parents should be part of the evaluation through surveys and group discussions.
But most importantly, anti bullying education must target all segments of the school and local community.
These programs should also include professional development and education opportunities for staff and administrators while also addressing the role and impact of students and parents in the bullying paradigm.
There are many examples of anti bullying programs throughout North America, each with varying degrees of success.
Ideally, the principles of anti bullying programs must be disseminated and critically evaluated to allow the program to evolve with the needs of the school, students, and community.
Especially as social media gives us unprecedented access to each others' lives, we are becoming more and more aware of the disastrous impact of bullying on children and adolescents.
Indeed, the majority of children and even adults experience bullying at some point in their day-to-day lives.
Bullying is not limited to physical violence: pushing, shoving, and punching.
Bullying also includes spreading rumours, ostracizing individuals, mean-spirited teasing, and now even online forms of bullying.
Types of Bullying Today, we recognize four basic types of bullying: verbal, social, physical, and cyber bullying.
Examples of verbal bullying include name-calling, teasing, spreading rumours, and threatening as well as racism, sexism, and homophobia.
Social bullying includes mobbing, excluding individuals from the group, and humiliating.
Physical bullying can include hitting, pinching, chasing, pushing, unwanted sexual advances, and stealing or destroying property.
Finally, cyber bullying involves the use of the internet or smart phones to intimidate, insult, or spread rumours.
Addressing Bullying In response to our growing awareness of bullying and its negative effects, anti bullying programs are becoming increasingly common.
But developing an effective program can be a challenge.
In order to be effective, these programs must take a comprehensive approach that relies on the involvement of the school and community.
Moreover, anti bullying programs must address the culture of bullying while encouraging students to critically deconstruct and evaluate their own behaviour and its impact on others.
Effective Anti Bullying Programs There are some elements of effective anti bullying programs that can be easily replicated.
First and foremost, programs must focus on developing a positive and supportive school environment.
This environment is dictated by the people within it and their interactions.
Students, teachers, and visitors to the school should be met with respect but they should also be given the opportunity to take responsibility for the climate in their own school and community.
Moreover, these programs should focus not solely on making rules against bullying but on developing norms that reject bullying.
Finally, the school, its staff, and its administrators should always demonstrate respect for diversity across race, religion, sexual orientation or any characteristic that makes one 'different.
' Still, developing a program is not the end of ensuring that said program is actually effective.
Regular efforts need to be made to evaluate a school's anti bullying program to ensure the desired results are being achieved.
Students, staff, and parents should be part of the evaluation through surveys and group discussions.
But most importantly, anti bullying education must target all segments of the school and local community.
These programs should also include professional development and education opportunities for staff and administrators while also addressing the role and impact of students and parents in the bullying paradigm.
There are many examples of anti bullying programs throughout North America, each with varying degrees of success.
Ideally, the principles of anti bullying programs must be disseminated and critically evaluated to allow the program to evolve with the needs of the school, students, and community.