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The following posting appears in my latest book, “The Dropout Prevention Fieldbook”.  I am indebted to the Alberta Canada Resource Centre for Quality for doing the research and providing it on line.

Bullying

 A definition for children:

Bullying is when people are mean to someone or hurt them on purpose.  This also happens over and over again in a way that this person doesn’t like.  (Source:  Alberta Resource Centre for Quality Enhancement; 2005)

Did you know?

• Bullying occurs on average every seven minutes
• Each bullying episode lasts about 17 seconds
• One in seven boys (14%) between 4 and 11 years of age bully others, one in 20 (5%) are children who are bullied
• One in 11 girls (9%) between 4 and 11 years of age bully others, one in 14 (7%) are children who are bullied
• Among boys, bullying is usually physical and involves hitting
• Among girls, bullying is more subtle and includes gossiping, or exclusion from certain groups
• The majority of bullying happens on or close to school buildings
• Bullies often target children who are alone
• Bullying usually stops when it is reported and acted upon
• The emotional scars from bullying can last a lifetime
• 60% of kids who are identified as bullies by the age of 8 will have a criminal conviction by the age of 245
• Children who are bullied are usually too scared to ask for adult help.
• 85% of bullying takes place in the presence of others.

Source:  Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 2005)

Myths about Bullying

Myth #1:         Sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt me.

Reality:           Scars left by name-calling can last a lifetime.

Myth #2          Children have to learn to stand up for themselves.

Reality:           Children who get up the courage to complain about being bullied are saying they cannot cope with the situation on their own.  Treat their complaints as a call for help.  In addition, it is important to provide children with problem solving techniques and assertiveness training to deal with difficult situations.

Myth #3          Children should hit back ““ only harder.

Reality:           This could cause serious harm.  People who are bullies are often bigger and more powerful than their victims.  This also gives children the idea that violence is a legitimate way to solve problems.  Children learn how to bully by watching adults use their power for aggression.  Adults have the power to lead by positive example.

Myth #4          It builds character.

Reality:           Children who are bullied repeatedly have low self-esteem and do not trust others.

Myth #5          That is not bullying.  They are just teasing.

Reality:           Vicious taunting hurts and should be stopped.

Myths #6        There have always been bullies and there always will be.

Reality:           By working together as parents, teachers and students we have the power to build a better future for our children. It takes time to change a culture and we need to work together to change attitudes about bullying.

Myth #7          Kids will be kids.

Reality:           Bullying is a learned behavior.  That is why it is important we change attitudes toward violence.

Source: www.bullyfreealberta.ca

WHAT KIND OF BULLYING EXISTS?

There are 4 common types of bullying:

Verbal Bullying:        Name calling, sarcasm, teasing, spreading rumors, threatening, making references to ones culture, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, unwanted comments.

Social Bullying:        Mobbing, scapegoating, excluding others from a group, humiliating others, gestures or graffiti intended to put others down.

Physical bullying:     Hitting, poking, pinching, chasing, shoving, coercing, destroying, unwanted sexual touching.

Cyber Bullying          Using the Internet or text messaging to intimidate put down or spread rumors about someone.

Source: www.bullyfreealberta.ca

WHAT ARE THE WARNING SIGNS

(for parents and teachers) OF BULLYING?

• Withdrawal from family and school activities
• Shyness
• Stomachaches
• Headaches
• Not being able to sleep
• Sleeping to much
• Being exhausted
• Nightmares
• Social isolation
• Negative view of self
• Increasing difficulty with school achievement
• Giving excuses not to go to school

If bullying is not stopped, it also may hurt bystander, as they may feel that they may be the next victim.  Even if they feel badly for the person being bullied, they do not get involved in order to protect themselves or because they do not know what to do.

In the long run, children who learn they can get away with violence and aggression continue to do so as they experience a higher chance of getting involved in dating aggression, sexual harassment or criminal life.

Bullying effects learning because it causes stress and anxiety and makes it ore difficult for kids to concentrate and focus on learning.

Source: www.bullyfreealberta.ca   (Heart of the Matter, Alberta Education, 2005)

WHAT CAN SCHOOLS AND EDUCATORS DO ABOUT BULLYING?

They can teach students what to do:

• Be proud
• Speak to bully in a calm and assertive tone
• Tell the person who is bullying you to stop
• Walk away
• Ask a friend to help you
• Make sure you are part of a group
• Ask adults for help and keep asking until you get it.  Keep them informed.
• Avoid unsafe situations and identify a safe place you can go to if you are being bullied.
• Realize that it not worth getting hurt to save your possessions.

My latest blog has been posted on the Huffington Post.  It is entitled “What is the purpose of testing?”

Go to HUffingtonpost.com and look me up to see all of my blogs.

The release of “A Nation at Risk”, in 1983 declared, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” Since its release, various constituencies have requested, and in some cases, demanded improvements in our educational system. And yet, almost 30 years later, reports continue to criticize the declining American educational system. The question to be asked is, who or what is driving this demand for educational reform?

Is it the governors who are demanding that schools need to be more effective while they are making draconian budget cuts eliminating teachers, closing schools and eliminating subjects that children come to school to enjoy?

Is it the regard for parents who work a 5-day workweek while their children attend school for only 4 days?

Is it the schools that are being asked to be globally competitive when they are closed every other Friday?

Is it the children who need individual attention but are sitting in classes where there are 39 other children sitting?

Is it the U.S. Department of Education who institutes a “Race to the Top” giving incentives to schools/districts who take the lid off of charter schools when only one out of five charter schools are performing better than traditional schools?

Is it the local superintendents who are eliminating sports, clubs, music, art and extra curricula activities because of the costs of bus transportation?

Is it the business people who are demanding that schools produce thinking, problem-solving productive citizens while supporting rote, regurgitating multiple-guess tests?

Is it educational leaders who support removing tenure from experienced classroom-trained professionals and are filling classrooms with lower-paid, less-experienced (in some cases, non-licensed) educators?

Is it the business community who are more interested in selling technology and high stakes tests than in improving instruction and learning?

What is driving educational reform in America are the financial pressures caused by politicians, business people, bankers, and financial managers.

Besides, children can’t vote!

How well do your students know and understand the U.S. Constitution?

A new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center shows Americans don’t have a good grasp of the Constitution or its powers, highlighting the need for better civic education.

“These failings threaten the future of our democracy,” wrote retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. “If we don’t know what makes this country special and worth saving, how will we know how to safeguard its promise of freedom and opportunity.”

Some of the findings from the  survey:

• Just 38% of the poll’s respondents can name all three branches of the U.S. government (executive, legislative and judicial) One-third are unable to correctly name any of the branches.
• 15% correctly say John Roberts is chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but almost twice as many respondents (27%) correctly named Randy Jackson as a judge on TV’s American Idol.
• A majority of people (55%) incorrectly believe the Constitution was signed in 1776. That’s the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Constitution was signed Sept. 17, 1787.

As a former history teacher, I am appalled at the results of this survey.  But there is a price to be paid by the country by deemphasizing the importance of history.  As the report indicates, we need to have all stakeholders (politicians, businesspeople, parents and educators) stressing the importance of history.

According to Peter Drucker, “What gets measured gets done.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in its report, The Silent Epidemic” found that the main reason children drop out of school.  But politicians and the people behind the No Child Left Behind legislation have ignored this.  By insisting that high stakes tests focus on language arts and mathematics, schools are increasingly reducing time for art, music, social studies and science.   Preparation for increasingly high-stakes tests has reduced time for social studies and science. state and federal budget cuts are decimating already hobbled music, art, library and physical education budgets.

A 2007 Center on Education Policy study found that 44 percent of elementary schools had decreased instructional time spent on non-tested subjects since the 2002 implementation of No Child Left Behind, on average reducing time spent teaching the scorned subjects by 32 percent.

I believe in the theory of “unintended consequences”.  But I am not sure if this emphasis on high stakes testing of math and english is one of “unintended consequences”.  Some students come to school because of art, music, science, social studies and physical education.  By eliminating these subjects, students become increasingly bored, and cannot relieve the pressure of instruction.   It is as if these politicians have asked and answered the question, ‘how do we make school more boring and even less interesting’?

Jon Carmichael, age 13,, committed suicide in March 2010 as a result of being bullied and the lack of actions taken by his middle school officials.  At least that this the basis of Jon Timothy and Tami Carmichael of Cleburne, Texas lawsuit for $20 million against the Joshua Independent School District.  Their claim alleges that the school district ignored multiple acts of bullying including where their sun was thrown into a trash can, had his head flushed into a toilet and was stripped nude, tied up and again placed into a trash can.  The lawsuit claims that a tape of the last incident was posted on YouTube but was taken down when a staff member requested it but failed to report he incident to the school.

On September 1, 2011, New Jersey instituted the toughest bully laws in the nation.

My job here is not to debate the merits of the case – a court will decide that.  But in a time where there are fewer dollars available for education, schools need to be cognizant of bullying that may take place.  My latest book, Dropout Prevention Field Book, has a number of practical, easy to implement practices that schools can use to identify and prevent school bullying.

Plagiarism is going social, according to Turnitin.com, which found that one-third of plagiarized material in student papers can be traced to social networking, content sharing, or question-and-answer websites.

Turnitin.com offers software that checks student papers against a vast database of prior works and the internet at large, looking for matches that can indicate possible plagiarism. An analysis of the top sources of matched content flagged by the software reveals a significant shift in the last few years, the company says””from so-called “term paper mills” to social sites and homework help sites.

While social networking and content sharing sites accounted for the highest percentage of all matched content, one-quarter of all matched materials came from legitimate educational websites, the company said””many of which use “.org” or “.gov” domain names. These sites often include pages dedicated to helping students complete their homework or prepare for tests.

The results of the company’s analysis reveal a change in habits as students increasingly turn to online sources for help with class assignments. They also indicate a need for students to learn better research skills, including what makes a source legitimate and how to cite their sources properly.

This is not meant to be an endorsement of Turnitin.com

Source:  eClassroom News <[email protected]>