How do I Help Students Respond to Bullying in the form of Repeated Threats?
The best way to respond to bullying of a physical nature (like repeated physical attacks or threats) is to ask the attacker, “Are you mad at me?” This brings the situation down from a physical to the verbal level.
Tell the student that if the person keeps on hitting you, they must have a […]
Dealing with Bullying in School: Should You Intervene?
Most incidents between kids occur out of sight of adults, and while it may anger or upset them, rarely is anyone actually physically injured. Thus, adults are put in the awkward position of dealing with bullying in school where they have to handle incidents they didn’t observe and in which probably no physical […]
Dealing with Bullying in School: Rumors
When kids bring a rumor to a child, they want to see the child defend against the rumor. If a child, who is the subject of the rumor, defends himself, then they have automatically lost because it is the weaker position. Therefore dealing with bullying in school involves not giving the ‘tormentors’ what […]
Dealing with Bullying in School: Language
Bullying is a common issue that we encounter while teaching. Thus, as teachers, we need to be aware of ideas and strategies for dealing with bullying in school. One effective approach that can be used is to teach students about expressing themselves correctly.
Anger is one of the most common responses to being bullied. […]
October is “National Bullying Prevention Month”
As teachers we encounter bullying situations, and how to handle these can seem tricky. One of the important strategies that we can use to support students who bully and are being bullied, is to teach them to practice “The Golden Rule.” While it’s easy to say, “treat others as you want to be […]
Dealing with Bullying in School Age Children – Handling a Fight
When you witness hitting in the classroom you have to do something. The first thing, however, is to determine whether the children are having a play fight or a real fight.
If it is a play fight, do not panic. There is no real aggression, and the chance of injury is low. Walk over […]
Causes of Bullying – the Carrot and the Stick
All living creatures are programmed to strive for power. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. It is the nature of life. Having power feels good; being powerless feels bad.
There are two general methods of obtaining this power – the carrot way and the stick way.
The carrot way is the positive way. It […]
Responding to Online Bullying
In recent years, kids have found another way to pick on each other: the Internet. It is natural to get upset when kids write or distribute terrible things about a child, either to them or about them. This is called “cyberbullying”.
Cyberbullying or online bullying is any harassment, threatening, or bullying that uses the […]
Dealing with Bullying in School Age Children: Verbal Attacks
The great majority of bullying in school age children is name-calling, and almost all physical aggression begins with insults.
A classic way of handling this is as below.
Child: Johnny called me a x@z#$%*!
Adult (sounding concerned): Do you believe it?
Child: No!
Adult: Good! I don’t either!
Handling the situation in this method defuses the hurt that […]
Teaching Children about Bullying
In recent years, the media has been referring to EVERYTHING from the most minor annoying actions such as eye-rolling to more aggressive and violent acts as “bullying.”
However, human behavioral experts generally make a distinction between bullying and criminal behavior. Acts like theft, assault and battery are crimes. They are not considered bullying. The […]
