Why is it Important to Teach Children how they should Respond to Bullying?

“Give a man a fish; you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; you feed him for a lifetime.” This saying stresses that the best way to help a person is to teach him to help himself. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln wisely said, “You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

If people are capable of fishing, we are not helping them if we always give them fish. In fact, we are preventing them from becoming independent and responsible. We are also depriving them of the sense of fulfillment that comes from developing their skills and taking care of themselves.

When we see our children being treated badly by others, we feel sorry for them and want to help. We respond to bullying by trying to protect them from each other and solving their problems for them. And we often find ourselves doing it over and over again with the same children. But we are not really helping them; we are hurting them. We are preventing them from learning to solve their problems on their own.

Today we believe that “we have to defend victims from bullies because they are not able to defend themselves.” But this does not help our children.

Learn More… Take this course: Bullying: The Golden Rule Solution

Discuss Here: How can we respond to bullying in a manner that will help our children?