Introduction Bullying has been a part of schooling for as long as children have been congregating. To some it seems like a natural, though uncomfortable, part of life and school experience, while to others it can mean terrifying experiences which spoiled and characterized otherwise happy years in school. Dan Olweus, a pioneer in bully behavior research documented that 2.7 million children are affected as victims, and that 2.1 children act as bullies (Fried, 1997, as cited in Aluedse, 2006). With bullying cited as the reason for violent, gun-related crime in the past few years, school districts as well as national governments have put anti-bullying policies in place. Bullying is a complicated phenomenon, involving more than one child demanding lunch money from a smaller child. It is a worldwide epidemic hitting schools everywhere. Virtually everyone has seen or experienced bullying. With technological advances, bullying is even hitting the internet. Parents, teachers, students and governments agencies alike are attempting to put a stop to bullying practices. I chose to write about bullying because I experienced it first hand while working in Japan. As an English teacher at Tomobe Junior High School in Kasama, Japan, I witnessed how one twelve year old boy routinely abused not only his schoolmates, but physically assaulted teachers as well. At times when all students were seated, he walked around the classroom and picked on the other students; I saw how the classroom teacher glanced at him then turned his head so he would not bear witness and need to act. I saw how this boy verbally bullied his classmates by yelling and making comments in a hostile, insolent tone; I saw how he would often get physical and smack, shove, push an... ... middle of paper ... ..., K., & Coie, J. (1987). Social-information-processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children's peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1146-1158. Fried, S. (1997). Bullies and victims: Children abusing children. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 19, 127-133. Olweus, D. (1984). Aggressors and their victims: Bullying at school. In N. Fmde & H. Gault (Eds.), Disruptive behavior in schools. New York: Wiley. Smith, P., & Sharp, S. (1994). School bullying: Insights and perspectives. London: Routledge. Roland E., & Munthe E. (1997). The 1996 Norwegian program for preventing and managing bullying in schools. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 18, 233–247. Ross, D. M. (1996). Childhood bullying and teasing: What school personnel, other professionals, and parents can do. Virginia: American Counseling Association.
With so many cases in the media these days of children who have taken their own lives due to varying levels of bullying an alarming new term has been coined to define this phenomenon, bullycide (Bullycide, 2013). It is more important than ever to develop a deep understanding bullying in an effort to put an end to this epidemic that is taking over in our schools in America. Before we can really dive into the problem of bullying and discuss the different aspects of bullying such as what makes a child become a bully and how to relate to them, the signs of bullying, or the characteristics of a bully as well as their victims’ characteristics, as well as what we as educators can do to curb the problem, we must first fully understand the definition of bullying.
In the school environment, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is an example of one particularly targeted group which is consistently besieged by attacks from homophobic students, faculty and staff. There have been charities and other organizations founded to specifically help minority groups, who are regularly targeted. In 2004-2005, a prominent English activist and charity group in the U. K. called Stonewall, set up partnerships to discuss homophobic bullying in schools with Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays (FFLAG) and Lesbian & Gay Youth Scotland and then launched a campaign to tackle that same homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools, called Education for All. Since then, Stonewall has done surveys, held conferences, and lobbied legislators, as well as worked with teachers to gather the research from the surveys on homophobic bullying in schools. In 2010, Stonewall released the first film centered around the problem of homophobic bullying, made solely to help schools tackle the challenges they and the students face, called FIT ("History of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equality." www.stonewall.org.uk). Even though the U.S. is notorious for its school shootings and school violence, a survey given by the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) conducted between the 2005 and 2006 school year, which spanned forty countries, showed that the United States was directly in the middle of the ranking of the survey when it came to the most reported bullying in school age children. The U.S. ranked 20th for girls and 17th for boys, with Sweden as the country with the lowest amount of reported bullying and Lithuania as the country with the most reported bullying in schools (Craig, "Global Bullying ...
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services defines bullying as, “unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.” There is an epidemic of bullying in schools across the nation. Bullying in schools should be stopped completely. There is no excuse for bullying to occur.
Perry, Bruce D. "Being the Bully." Scholastic Scope, 10 Oct. 2000. eLibrary. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Being a teenager in today’s world can be tough. Adolescence is about friendships and fitting in. Bullying is a problem and can affect that. Students should reach out to those that don’t have friends and help them. Kids that don’t fit in also need to make an effort to do so. If bullying is stopped, which it can be if we tried hard enough, teens would feel much better about themselves. Will you make an effort to stop bullying and help those that don’t fit in?
No matter where you go, bullying is just around the corner. There’s no certain age for anyone to become a bully. Movies make it high school the biggest place for bullies to be created; but in the real world, that’s not the case. Bullying is a serious issue and can happen anywhere at any time to anyone.
Everybody goes to school for an education. Of course, one would like to assume that the schools are a safe place for kids. However, bullying remains a significant issue in schools that affects a large quantity of students. Bullying can take a serious toll on the victim’s physical and mental health. Yet, a significant amount of students continue to be bullied in school, even after seeking help from a teacher. A number of teachers are unsure of how to resolve issues cause by bullying. Some teachers propose different methods on a “trial and error” basis, while others punish the student responsible for the bullying. Researchers across America have studied bullying in schools extensively to find statistics about bullying and its victims,
A keyword search on the most popular New Zealand news website nzherald.co.nz reports 783 articles including the keywords “Bullying in Schools” dating as far back as 1999 (Alexia Internet Inc., n.d.; The New Zealand Herald, 2014) . In 2013 alone there were 82 articles written using the same keywords, which equates to atleast one being reported every week. In 2012 there were 135 matches or atleast 2 a week. It is safe to say this is a sizable national issue. Not all of these articles reported on national news topics but even some of those who didn't, explained the link the issue has to New Zealand's own problems (Huck, 2012). By looking at these articles we can see why it has been a hot topic for so long. Strong trends in these articles are stories of suicide, self-harm, depression and anxiety disorders. Although these are all very deeply complex topics, we cannot ignore the role bullying in schools plays on those suffering. Students who are bullied generally show higher levels of loneliness, low self-esteem, anxiety and depression, to name a few (Nansel, T.R., Overpeck., M., Pilla, R.S., Ruan, W.J., Kimons-Morton, B. & Scheidt, P., 2001). The impact of bullying can have lasting affects with studies showing frequent victimisation can predict anxiety disorders in adults. Furthermore, there can be negative effects for the bullies themselves who are more likely to struggle with antisocial personalities, substance abuse, depression and anxiety disorders later in life. Additionally, people who are both victims of bullying and bullies themselves have a higher risk of developing anxiety and antisocial personality disorders in their adult years (Sourander et al., 2007).
Coy, D. (2001). Bullying. Greensboro, NC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Counseling and Student Services. (ERIC Document Reproductive Service No. ED459405)
Bullying is an issue that has been around for decades and is something that can affect everyone, no matter what his or her age is. Even though bullying has changed over the years from being physical abuse and harassment that happens on the playgrounds of schoolyards to tormenting over the Internet. The same groups are still affected namely adolescents. Statistically about 30 percent of all teenagers in the United States are bullied in one-way or another (“Teenage Bullying”).
In recent times bullying has become a national issue, notwithstanding the fact that it has been in existence for many years. Traditionally, bullying has been seen as horseplay, but with the increase of harassment in schools and suicides; parents and schools are now forced to take action to prevent bullying in schools. Bullying is an unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance which has the potential to be repeated over time. Strategies to prevent bullying in schools are grouped into identifying the causes of bullying, creating policies and rules, building a safe environment and educating students and staff.
Bullying does not have a standard definition. Bullying can be anything from calling someone else names, beating them up just for the fun of it, to texting or messaging them on the internet or any mobile device. Any person can be the victim of bullying, not just children. Bullying causes many issues, physically, emotionally, and mentally, not only for the victim, but for their entire families as well. Bullies have many different reasons as to why they start bullying someone else. The actions done to the victim leaves them with only a few options on how to stop being bullied. How they handle it is always different.
Bullying is an issue that is a problem in society today. Bullying is any kind of unwanted behavior to an individual on repeated occasions which is a display of power over someone. Bullying is mainly common among students in school, and unfortunately, it happens in other places like at home between parents and children, and on rare occasions, among adults. When people began to identify bullying for what it is, it was only known as a physical aggression towards others, but over the course of time, bullying has moved from just physical bullying to verbal bullying, and power abuse in the workplace between co-workers in different ranks. In a book called Welfare Brat: A Memoir, Mary was bullied in school by boys on the streets, and unfortunately, she was verbally bullied by her mom. Bullying among children in the society is caused by different reasons, and affects its victims negatively.
Bullying is something that is not something new and is actually something that society continues to face. Over the years, bullying has been looked at as being so ordinary in schools that it is continuously overlooked as an emanate threat to students and has been lowered to a belief that bullying is a part of the developmental stage that most young children will experience then overcome (Allebeck, 2005, p. 129). Not everyone gets over the extreme hurt that can come as an effect from bullying, for both the bully and the victim. Because of this, we now see bullying affecting places such as the workplace, social events and even the home. The issue of bullying is not only experienced in schools, but the school environment is one of the best places
Bullying is a terrible and dangerous activity that occurs in numerous places, such as schools, workplaces, and even homes. According to a study conducted in 2010, “about one in seven students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade is either a bully or has been a victim of bullying” (“Bullying Statistics”). Bullying can be performed by a student, co-worker, or even a parent. There are many classifications of bullying, each with their own causes, such as a lack of parental guidance, low self esteem, and even the influence of one’s own peers, all of which could result in negative outcomes, like suicide or murder.