Bullying in one class often develops into a disease of the whole school. Psychologists call bullying a school epidemic. How can the teacher avoid its spread and save the student or himself? This was discussed at the presentation of the anti-bullying project for teachers, students, and parents “Everyone is important” at the Tolerance Center on February 12. Bullying can cause psychological trauma making it difficult for students to study. In this case, students, need professional help, they also may want to buy term paper online or get help from MBA Essay Writer.
The concept of “bullying” appeared in the XX century, but it has acquired a well-known meaning relatively recently, after the publication of the book by the Norwegian psychologist Dan Olveus “Bullying at school”. Otherwise, nothing new. Bullying at school has been around for centuries. The main thing is to remember that it can be handled.
What types of bullying exist?
Verbal is the simplest and most common option. It is expressed in threats, insults, and malicious ridicule;
Physical – physical actions against the victim. It can be pushing, beatings, or attempts at harassment;
Socio-psychological – the purpose of this type is to exclude the object from the usual circle of communication. Gossip, rumors, boycott, and ignoring can be the reason why a child or an adult can be turned away;
Economic – this type is rare in Eastern Europe, but it is popular among American and Asian teenagers. Represents extortion or direct steal of money, damage to personal property;
Cyberbullying is the “youngest” form of harassment, which is carried out on the Internet through social media and involves the spread of rumors and false information, sometimes hacking personal pages. It is one of the most dangerous types because of the source of the threat, from which it is difficult to isolate.
The reasons for bullying can be very different: the microclimate in the family and in the classroom itself, the aggressor’s personality, encouraging aggressive behavior in society and broadcasting this position through the media, lack of parental love and attention. The result is always the same – too many people suffer the victim, the observers, and the aggressor himself. Psychologists all over the world note that school bullying is comparable to family violence in terms of the severity of the consequences.
At the presentation of the project
Feelings of impunity and omnipotence experienced by the aggressor later lead to the development of even more destructive qualities and deviant behavior. Observers worry that they could not help the victim. Especially sensitive children retain a sense of guilt and shame for this for the rest of their lives. The most severe psychological trauma is inflicted on the victim of bullying – they still remember painful experiences after many years, and psychosomatic disorders can develop. Some admit that in childhood they did not even notice the bullying and realized what was happening later when they graduated from school.
It is possible and necessary to fight bullying at school. Solving a problem is always harder than preventing its occurrence. To work on the problem of bullying, the team of the Tolerance Center of the Jewish Museum created the project “Everyone is important”.
The beginning is made
The director of Tolerance, one of the creators of the project, knows about bullying firsthand. She still remembers and cannot forgive herself for not being able to do anything at the moment when the bullying started in her class. Talking about ways to combat bullying and prevent this phenomenon, presenting a project that helps improve the situation, helping others make difficult choices is her main motivation.
The program “Everyone is important” is based on psychological and pedagogical technologies developed at the Tolerance Center, which the creators are ready to share with caring people, especially teachers.
The developers of the program are confident that timely joint actions can help prevent trouble in time, so the center pays great attention to educating teachers.
Before the presentation of the “Everyone is important” program, teachers were asked how large-scale they consider the problem of bullying at school. Most teachers noted that about 60% of all classes have similar situations, however, answering more specific questions, they admitted that they hear about bullying from students and colleagues much more often than they would like. According to the creator of the program, this indicates that you always want to hide the sad truth or soften it a little.
During the same survey, many teachers noted that bullying of a teacher by a child or parents has become common lately. Therefore, the program “Everyone is important” consists of several equivalent blocks and is designed for children, teachers, and parents. The last version is still in development, but it will start working soon.
Answering the question about the obstacles to the successful prevention of bullying at school, teachers said that they lack knowledge and technology. The program “Everyone is important” can solve this problem.
Regular classes are held abroad with children, starting from kindergarten, aimed at developing communication skills, forming values of nonviolence. All personnel of educational organizations undergoes special training, thanks to which they can correctly respond to the episode of bullying they have seen or prevent it.
Of course, there is no ideal system. The project “Everyone is important” combines foreign practices and modern realities. The program is preventive and, first of all, educates intolerance to the very phenomenon of harassment and violence. The option for students is designed for eight classes and requires training in a full-fledged classroom. They are divided into two age categories: grades 5-7 and grades 8-11, and are designed for 1.5 hours.
Most bullying situations are based precisely on the difference between children and their peers. The rest should understand that this is normal. At the last lesson, the children of the whole class should prepare their anti-bullying project, a code of conduct, for junior classes or just other guys to consolidate the result.
One of the techniques is immersion in a simulated situation. During the lesson, students watch a short film illustrating one of the possible forms of bullying. After that, they will have to determine the role of each participant in the conflict and answer six questions. With their help, it is possible to reveal the motives of the actions of a person who finds himself involved in the harassment. And then the guys have to conclude that or who can resolve the conflict situation shown in the film.
The whole program was created to show children that they can change this.
On February 18, training for teachers started, they are designed for six weeks. In addition to gaining knowledge and skills to solve problems in the classroom related to bullying, teachers will learn how to conduct classes independently during their lessons. After graduation, they will receive a complete set of methodological recommendations and files necessary for classes.
In addition, the team of the project “Everyone is important” independently goes to schools and conducts classes with children and teachers.
